A. W. Barrett
American businessman
Andrew Washington Barrett (March 8, 1845 – August 17, 1905) was a prominent Los Angeles businessman, adjutant general of the California National Guard, director of the Sawtelle Veterans Home, member of the governing body of the city of Los Angeles and a California state public official.
Early life and career
Barrett was born on March 8, 1845, in Stockholm, New York, to Joseph Beeman Barrett and Mehitable or Mahitable Noyes. The family moved to McGregor, Iowa, in 1857.
Civil War
Barrett served in the Union Army in the Civil War. He joined the Iowa Infantry in 1861 at the age of 16 in Company D, 3rd Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and reenlisted when that 3-year term expired. The depleted 3rd Iowa was then transferred into the 2nd Iowa. (This merged regiment is sometimes referred to as the "2nd and 3rd Veteran Infantry Consolidated")
Postwar
After the Civil War, Barrett returned to Iowa, and in 1868 he went to Galveston, Texas, where he "engaged in the cattle business, in which he was very successful," and then to Crawfordsville, Indiana, where he was a large-scale railroad contractor. In 1878, Barrett joined the silver rush in Leadville, Colorado, and he "acquired large holdings of mining properties."
Los Angeles
In 1882 he came to Los Angeles (as Andrew Washington Barrett).
Railway
From 1882 to 1887, Barrett was superintendent of Moses Sherman and Clark's Los Angeles Consolidated Electric Railway Company. In Barrett's obituary, the Los Angeles Times said of him:
For five years he was superintendent of the Los Angeles railway system, and it was under his management that the Westlake lines, the Second-street line, the Central-avenue and Maple-avenue lines were constructed.
“A. W. Barrett” enters the record as american businessman. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Barrett, American and businessman can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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