Business & brands / Politics
Kirkland C. Barker
1819–1875 · tobacco manufacturer, mayor of Detroit
Founder of Detroit's KC Barker & Company (American Eagle Tobacco), mayor in 1864–1865, sportsman and friend of George Armstrong Custer.
- Born
Schuyler, New York- Died
Grosse Ile, Michigan
aged 55- Birth name
- Kirkland Charles Barker
- Detroit years
- 1840s–1875
- Field
- Business & brands, Politics
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Kirkland C. Barker left school at fourteen, clerked in upstate New York and worked his way up in a Cleveland warehouse before becoming a traveling salesman for a tobacco firm while living in Detroit. After a failed partnership with stores in Detroit and New York and a factory in Jersey City, he started again on his own with KC Barker & Company, later the American Eagle Tobacco Company, which prospered as Detroit grew into a major center of chewing tobacco and cigar making. He served as an alderman in 1863 and as mayor in 1864–1865, the last year of the Civil War. An avid outdoorsman, he was president of the Detroit Audubon Club and the Horse Association of America, commodore of the Great Lakes Yacht Club and a close friend of General Custer. In later years he lived on Grosse Ile in the ornate 'Wedding Cake House' on East River Road, and in 1875 he drowned near his home after an apoplectic attack while boating.
Highlights
- Mayor of Detroit, 1864–1865
- Founder of KC Barker & Company (American Eagle Tobacco Company)
- Commodore of the Great Lakes Yacht Club
- Friend and hunting companion of George Armstrong Custer