BARBER, AMOS (1814–1885). Amos Barber, first settler of Mont Bellview (now Mont Belvieu), Texas, the son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Barrow) Barber, was born on November 26, 1814, probably in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. The family moved to Texas between 1829 and 1831 and settled five miles north of the site of present Mont Belvieu on the banks of the Old River. Amos Barber was a rancher and cattleman who started out as early as 1841 with sixty-five head of cattle and increased his holdings moderately. He had eight slaves working his lands by the time the Civil War ended. Like most of his contemporaries, he suffered severe financial reverses from the war and never recovered the prosperity he had enjoyed. Barber was married to Susan Ann (Hodges) Fitzgerald, an eighteen-year-old widow, in 1848 on the Old River. They had ten children and also raised Susan's two Fitzgerald children. In 1849 Barber built the first home on "the hill" a double-pen, dog-trot log house. The homesite was purchased by the Mont Belvieu Church of Christ in 1974. Amos and Susan Barber donated four acres of land to the Methodist congregation in 1878. Although Amos never joined the church, his wife was a lifelong Methodist. Barber was also instrumental in establishing a public school at Barbers Hill in 1877. He died on October 1, 1885, at his home and is buried in the Barber Family Cemetery, Mont Belvieu.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Jewel Horace Harry, A History of Chambers County (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1940; rpt., Dallas: Taylor, 1981).
