Barkleys endured hardships to plant roots in Yuma

The Barkley family is a well-known and successful agricultural family in Yuma that came from humble beginnings.

In 1910, when Hugh Barkley came to farm on land owned by his uncle, Fin Barkley, in the Yuma Valley, the area was filled with mesquite scrub, arrowweed, puncture vines, creosote bush, sand hills and boggy areas created by the Colorado River's nearly annual spring floods.

Another of Fin's nephews, Leslie “Les” Patton Barkley, joined Hugh in about 1918. Before coming to Yuma, Les had served in the U.S. Merchant Marine and was a Golden Gloves boxer for a short time.

“He did indeed enjoy the occasional sociable fistfight, something that was more acceptable in the early years of the 20th century than nowadays,” said Mary Barkley, Les' granddaughter.

The two men lived in a tent house that sat on a wooden foundation and was covered in canvas.

“There was no electricity, no phone service (and) hardly any roads,” Mary said. “They started to work in the heat of August, and they were young men from cool northern California. The determination to make a better life still amazes me now. They must have endured such pain and exhaustion and apprehension of what the future would hold.”

In about 1920, Les was baling hay in one of his fields when he first encountered the love of his life. A school bus had stopped nearby and a “lovely and graceful young teacher stepped down from the bus,” Mary said.

The woman, Floy Q Taylor, was the only teacher at Sunnyside School, where children from the first through eighth grades were taught in one room.

“Les was struck by a bolt of love,” Mary said. “He put all of his determination to work on finding her forthwith and winning her hand. They did marry and lived a long and happy time together.”

Les and Floy had two children, James “Jimmy” Finley Barkley, born in 1925, and Mary Martha Barkley, born in 1928. They lived in a farmhouse near Gadsden.

Living on a homestead in those days was difficult, Mary said. The families in the Yuma Valley lived without electricity or access to a phone line until the end of the 1930s. No electricity also meant no radio access.

Once telephone lines were installed, each line was shared by several homes.

“You had to be careful about what you said, because it was likely a nosy neighbor was eavesdropping on your conversation!” Mary said.

Living in the country meant the children had to walk two or three miles to get to the nearest neighbor's house. Due to the long distances, they needed to travel, kids would begin to drive when they were old enough to clutch and shift, even if they were too young to legally drive.

“In fact, one of the neighbor children, Marion Griffin, had his own car, a Packard, when he was 9,” Mary said.

Eventually, Hugh returned to northern California. Les stayed and became a successful farmer and cattle rancher. During the Great Depression, he started buying foreclosed and tax delinquent properties.

He lived by the motto “Save your money and jingle your rocks, and you'll always have tobaccy in your ol' tobaccy box.”

“He'd saved during his youth, and was able to purchase a good amount of land as it became available,” Mary said.

Les grew alfalfa, wheat, maize and cotton crops, and also raised cattle and sheep.

Leslie had a bunkhouse built behind the small farmhouse where he lived to house itinerant cowboys who worked with the herds.

Both James and Mary Martha became excellent horse riders and helped their father work the farm. James trained many horses on the property himself, which he sold to a cavalry officer at the onset of World War II.

After graduating from Yuma Union High School, James joined the Navy. He then attended Rice University and graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering. He was commissioned as a first lieutenant just as the war ended.

After he was honorably discharged, James returned to Yuma and struck up a romance with Louise Lott, who had grown up on a neighboring farm. They married in 1948 and had three children: Mary, James Jr. and Robert.

James went to work for his father Les, earned his pilot's license and set out to learn all he could about scientific farming, Mary said. He became an expert in the use of chemical and organic fertilizers and pesticides.

“This new kind of farming became the basis for agriculture across the U.S. and made it possible to help end soil depletion that had always plagued farmers,” Mary said. “He was one of many pioneers in agriculture whose dedication we all owe much.”

He also used his mechanical engineering skills to invent many useful machines in his shop. “His work in mechanical cultivators, machines that could weed and thin cotton, helped to mechanize cotton farming and reduce the toil of workers in the fields,” Mary said.

As the years passed, farming became more specialized and mechanized, and James grew his business. He bought other farms and expanded into California and Mexico. In 1971 he formed Barkley Seed and Grain, which now operates as part of Barkley Ag Enterprises.

In August 1979, James was flying a P-51 Mustang to California, where he had a farming operation, when he crashed. After an extensive search, his plane and body were discovered in the foothills south of Palm Springs.

His widow, Louise, took over the operations of the business with the help of those who had worked for her husband. James' son, Robert Barkley, now oversees the company.

“Our forefathers' excruciating labor and optimism for what the future could hold was a bequest to all the generations that followed them in the growth of agriculture as well as the growth of Yuma,” Mary said.

“The best tribute to that labor and hope is a continuing of the family culture of hard work, confidence for the future, devotion to our community and the people in it. It will be interesting to see how Barkley Company and the Barkley family evolve with each new generation in Yuma and if they last here until the next 100 years has gone by.”

Chris McDaniel can be reached at cmcdaniel@yumasun.com or 539-6849.