The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-09-04
CALIFoRNIA's OLDEST VOTER.
He is a Gillian by Birth and Cannot
Speak English.

Martin Barra is the oldest voter in Cal
ifornia, and possibly the oldest on the
Pacific coast, for he has attained the rare
age of lO4 years He resides at present
on the old Martin Murphy homestead,
two and one-half miles from Mountain
View, Canta Clara county, occupying a
small cabin located in beautiful grove
of oak trees. This he has occupied for
the last sixteen years, earning his living
by wood chopping, in which occupation
he has two partners, the younger one of
whom has passed the threcscore and ten
years allotted to man.
Barra was born in the town of Quito
Chile. During his early manhood he was
engaged i'll merchandising in his own
country He came to California as a
passenger in trading vessel in 1871,
landing in San Francisco, then the little
inconsequential village of Terba Buena
This record entities Barra to the distinc-
ton of being one of the earliest, if not
the earliest, of the living or dead Califor-
mia pioneers. He did not remain long at
Yerba Buena, moving to San Bruno
where he was employed for the following
five years on farm. Since then he has
been engaged continuously as n farm
laborer and wood-chopper in San Clara
and adjoining counties. Adjacent to the
little cabin which he has occupied for the
past sixteen years is II garden patch of
three or four acres, which Barra and his
partners cultivate TO corn, beans, Chile
peppers, and melons.
Barra became Il citizen of the United
States by virtue of the Mexican transfer
of California to the United States, and
although he does not understand the
English language so as to be able to carry
on conversation without the aid of an
interpreter, he enjoys the right of
suffrage rs fully as any other citizen, and
was last registered as Il voter before
Walter \. Clark, of Mountain View, on
the Both of July, 1896. notwithstanding
abe burden of over n century rests on
Barra, he is still stout and rugged,
although little under the weather when
interviewed n few days ago, having caught
a slight cold, which temporarily confined
him to his cabin while his venerable
partners were out in the adjacent woods
chopping down a gnarled monarch of the
oak forest His eyesight is good-much
better than that of many man of half
his age-and his teeth are fine, both
sound and even.
Barra has been married twice, and is
now for the second time Il widower. He
was first married in Chile, before his en-
igration thence to California, and he has
a son rs the issue of that marriage, who
is now IS years old and residing some
where in this State. His second mar
riagc occurred at Redwood City, thirty
years ago, and from that union there is
one daughter-now aged Ga Mrs.
Henry Cruel, who is Il resident of Span.
ishtown, San Mateo county.
Barra retains n vivid recollection of the
stirring events of 40. He was never in
fected, however, by the gold mining
fever, but was content to pursue the even
tenor of the life of n farm-hand and com
mon laborer in the coast countries He
does not indulge in intoxicants, and is
not tea or coffee drinker Up to about
| ten years ago he was Il habitual chewei
of tobacco. He then quit for good. He
| is still an inveterate cigarette smoker
consuming from twenty to forty pei
| day. But the cigarettes he smokes are
made by himself with ordinary smoking
tobacco and brown paper wrappers.--Sa
Francisco Chronicle.