By Nancy Miller Chenier
In 2016, Paul Barber was recognized and commemorated when a short segment of Clarence Street at Beausoleil Drive was renamed Barber Street. At the time, the City of Ottawa noted that he was born into slavery, and is believed to be one of the first black settlers in Ottawa.
As a young boy in Kentucky, Barber had learned to care for and then train, ride and race horses. Soon after his arrival in Lowertown in the 1880s, he put his abilities as a horseman into practice. In addition to being a jockey and a harness- horse racer, he trained horses for members of the Ottawa Horseman’s Club and other patrons. In 1905, he was hired as a horse trainer for the Ottawa Police.
In 1892 Paul married Elizabeth Brown, a white woman twenty years younger who had come to Ottawa from near Renfrew. This marriage, possibly the first interracial marriage in Ottawa, produced four sons and one daughter.
The Barber family grew up in Lowertown, living in the area near the renamed street. They attended St Brigid’s Church and the children went to local schools, and in turn several raised their families here. Every year, grandson Tom Barber honours the legacy of this Lowertown family during February’s Black History Month.