Capital Black History: Newsie & WWI Veteran Paul J. Barber (Part 2)

February 06, 2025

Capital Black History: Newsie & WWI Veteran Paul J. Barber (Part 2)

Bank St. looking south at Sparks St., Ottawa (ca. 1910). Paul J. Barber sold newspapers on NW corner of intersection for 50 years.

When I wrote a de facto biography on Lowertown's Paul J. Barber last year, I hadn't yet found any pictures of the man himself. With the help of local historian and musician Paul Weber's Youtube video on Barber's son Gerry Barber (a legendary local bouncer), I was finally able to track down a few pictures, along with some more news clippings detailing Paul J.'s myriad exploits.

Paul J. Barber was a mixed-race son of Paul Barber Sr., a horse trainer and former slave who immigrated to Ottawa from Kentucky.

Paul Jr. was a newsie for the better part of 50 years on the north-west corner of Bank & Sparks Streets, the intersection then-known as "The Busy Corner". He also served in WWI as a driver in the Canadian Army Service Corps (C.A.S.C.).

Paul J. Barber [Ottawa Citizen – June 14, 1947]

(Correction: Paul J. was not born on Somerset St., but rather on Ann St., which has long since been renamed Gladstone Ave.)

Bank St., viewing south from Wellington St., overlooking Bank-Sparks intersection, ca. 1910-15. [Colourized by Ashley Newall]

Newsboy selling newspapers, King & Yonge Streets (Toronto), Jan. 1926. [Via Toronto Archives]

C.A.S.C. WWI recruitment poster (excerpted), 1914-18.

Paul James Barber [Ottawa Citizen – Aug. 10, 1948]

Ottawa Citizen – Aug. 4, 1926

Ottawa Citizen – Jan. 17, 1938

Clarence St., viewing north-west from Cobourg St., with St. Brigid's Church - where Paul congregated - in top left corner.

(*Update: Upon further scrutiny, it appears the car-catcher was more likely Barber's same-named son, Paul Barber III.) [Ottawa Citizen – Jan. 12, 1949]