Vandiver Corn Planter Co   ~  Quincy Illinois

Manufacturer of the Barlow Rotary Corn Planter
Joseph C. Barlow, Supervisor

QUINCY AND ADAMS COUNTY, HISTORY AND REPRESENTATIVE MEN
by David Wilcox - Lewis Publishing 1919 Vol. 2 pp. 835-836

In the invention and use of appliances and devices for saving time and labor in the agricultural industry, America has led the world for many years. Hence, in part, has come the wonderful prosperity that has made the United States the granary of the world, her inventions making it possible to far outdistance other lands where primitive methods of agriculture have been retained. One of the exceedingly valuable inventions is the corn-planter, which piece of machinery is indispensable in the great corn belt of the country, and which, with a few improvements, is constructed practically on the same lines as those manu- factured in Adams County, Illinois, seventy years ago, by Joseph C. BARLOW. He was the father of Joseph BARLOW, one of Quincy's representative business men of today, who is manager of the Quincy Foundry & Novelty Company.

In the invention and use of appliances and devices for saving time and labor in the agricultural industry, America has led the world for many years. Hence, in part, has come the wonderful prosperity that has made the United States the granary of the world, her inventions making it possible to far outdistance other lands where primitive methods of agriculture have been retained. One of the exceedingly valuable inventions is the corn-planter, which piece of machinery is indispensable in the great corn belt of the country, and which, with a few improvements, is constructed practically on the same lines as those manu- factured in Adams County, Illinois, seventy years ago, by Joseph C. BARLOW. He was the father of Joseph BARLOW, one of Quincy's representative business men of today, who is manager of the Quincy Foundry & Novelty Company.

In 1848 Joseph C. BARLOW came to Adams Co Illinois. He had been reared on a farm but the possession of mechanical ability led him finally into a manufacturing business and he produced some of the first corn-planters used in this section, and in the study of his product he found where a better planter could be made and set about its invention. In time he was successful in securing a patent for this invention, which became known as the Barlow Corn Planter, and Mr. BARLOW established his manufacturing plant for the same on Front and Cedar Streets, Quincy. For many years he continued in the active conduct of his business there, his corn planter meeting with a wide sale and continuing in favor long after later patented machines came upon the market, because of its practical qualities and reasonable cost.  Mr. BARLOW died in 1895. His widow survived many years afterward, passing away at Quincy in 1905.

Joseph BARLOW was educated in the public schools of Quincy. With an inherited taste for mechanics he then entered his father's foundry and from the age of nineteen years to thirty he was connected with the business of the Barlow Corn Planter Company. In 1898 he came to the Quincy Foundry and Novelty Company, and has continued as manager here ever since.

Mr. BARLOW was married October 25, 1893, to Miss Georgie H. BERRY, who was born in Illinois. They have had two children neither of whom survived infancy. 

Mr. BARLOW belongs to the Rotary Club and politically is a republican but has never been particularly active in political life and has never sought public office.

It is a matter of some pride to him that on the paternal side he can claim relationship with so great a man as Stephen A Douglas, who was his father's first cousin.

Joseph Choteau Barlow

Joseph C. BARLOW was born in Bethany, Genesee Co New York, in 1836, & came to Quincy in 1848.


After engaging in business in Quincy for some years he lived in St. Louis eight years, returning to Quincy in 1865. While in St. Louis, during the war, he was cashier for the general quartermaster of the West for three years. On returning to Quincy, Mr. BARLOW engaged in the manufacture of corn-planters, and has since followed this business, until the name "BARLOW" is known among the farmers all over the country.

Mr. BARLOW lives in a fine house on North Sixth Street. His wife was Miss Eveline STREETER, a sister of Mrs. Gov. WOOD and Mrs. Samuel HOLMES, and they were married in 1858.  Mr. Barlow's mother, before marriage, bore the name of Honor DOUGLAS, and was an aunt of the great Stephen A. DOUGLAS.

Illinois Index

New York Index