George Franklin Barber

George Franklin Barber was an American architect best known for his residential designs, which he marketed worldwide through a series of mailorder catalogs. One of the most successful domestic architects of the late Victorian period in the United States, Barbers plans were used for houses in all 50 U.S. states, and in nations as far away as Japan and the Philippines. Over four dozen Barber houses are individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and several dozen more are listed as part of historic districts.

Barber was born in DeKalb, Illinois, in 1854, the son of Lyman and Cornelia Spring Barber. While still a young child, he moved to Marmaton, Kansas, where he lived on the farm of his sister, Olive, and her husband, William Barrett. By the 1870s, he owned an adjacent farm, where he raised plants which he advertised as ornamental nursery stock. During this period, he learned architecture through mailorder books, namely George Pallisers American Cottage Homes and technical books published by A.J. Bicknell and Company. In 1884, Barber patented a nailholding attachment for hammers.

Source: Wikipedia