Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 26.djvu/271

Rh inventor of many mechanical devices now in use in Kentucky.

Samuel Kimbrough Barlow took no active part in the War of 1812, but faithfully paid his war taxes and that of many other Quakers, who in some mysterious way, never let Mr. Barlow lose a cent, but left money, corn or tobacco in Mr. Barlow's store and never referred to war taxes or their payments of the same.

Samuel Kimbrough Barlow was born January 24, 1792, in Nicholas county, Kentucky. He made good use of his liberal education and supplemented it by constant reading in esoteric subjects as well as in travel and politics. He stumped the state for Henry Clay, and being disgusted that his efforts did not elect Clay to the presidency, he moved to Indiana to try his fortune in a free state, as he was bitterly opposed to slavery. His father offered him a stout, healthy slave boy as a parting gift, but Samuel refused to own a slave or receive money made by their labor. His father's will provided for this son's inheritance in real estate instead of human property.

In Indiana, he married Susannah Lee, a daughter of Captain William Lee of the True Blue Company of Revolutionary soldiers of South Carolina. A homemade battery exploded and Captain Lee lost a leg and was disabled for the rest of the war. The Oregon City Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution was named for Susannah Lee Barlow, who was a "Real Daughter" of a Revolutionary War officer. She and her sister, Mrs. Sarah Matlock Thompson, are buried in a dedicated cemetery at Barlow, Oregon.

In 1836, Samuel K. Barlow was proprietor of Bridgeport, a town ten miles west of Indianapolis, situated in a dense forest of white oak. Prospects for his three sons and two daughters were not pleasing under those circumstances, so the Barlows sold their 60 acres of land at ten dollars an acre and moved.to Illinois, where they hoped to secure a farm naturally cleared. Before leaving