Eugene C. Barker

was born in Walker County near Riverside. He worked as a blacksmith after his father’s death while trying to get his education in the evenings after work. Barker attended the University of Texas in 1895 where he earned his Bachelor of Arts. After receiving his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, he returned to serve in the University of Texas history department. He became Chairman of the History Department. Barker published the first biography of Stephen F. Austin, “The Life of Stephen F. Austin” in 1925, as well as co-authoring several textbooks of Texas history. Barker collected and edited The Austin Papers, a collection of Stephen F. Austin’s correspondence. He served as editor of Southwestern Historical Quarterly and director of the Texas State Historical Association. It has been said that Eugene Barker did “more than any other historian to show the influence that Texas exerted in shaping the destiny of the United States.”