Biography[edit]
He was born in Hebron, Massachusetts (it became part of Maine in 1820). He married Irene Bearce in 1832. The couple had two adopted children.
Barrows practiced medicine in Phillips, Maine, Harrison, Maine[1] and Otisfield, Maine.[2]
The Portland Press Herald in 2020 published a photo of the house Barrows lived in. The photo was taken in 1894, after his death in 1852.[1]
Barrows' diaries are in the collection of the Maine Historical Society.[1]
Scribner's Mills[edit]
In the 1840s, Barrows and his brother invested in the building of the Barrows-Scribner's Mills sawmill and Scribner Homestead at Carsley's Rips on the Crooked River in Bolsters Mills in Harrison.[3]
The mill complex, a small collection of wood-frame buildings (now partially rebuilt after suffering extensive weather-related damage), was established in the late 1840s by Barrows. The exact construction date of the house is not known, but it appears to have been between 1849 and 1851, when Barrows sold the property, with house, to Elijah Scribner. Barrows' diary mentions the mill enterprise in 1846 and 1847.[3]
In 1984, the Scribner descendants sold the mill to Scribner's Mill Preservation, Inc. and it is being restored and run as an 1847 sawmill museum.[4]
In 1976, the mill had been listed in the National Register of Historic Places, but was removed in 1986 after portions of the structure had collapsed or were dismantled.[5]