Alben W. Barkley - Early Life

Early Life

Willie Alben Barkley, the eldest of eight children born to John Wilson and Electra Eliza (Smith) Barkley, was born November 24, 1877. His grandmother, midwife Amanda Barkley, delivered Barkley in the log house she lived in with her husband, Alben, in Wheel, Kentucky. His parents were tenant farmers who grew tobacco, and his father was an elder in the local Presbyterian church. Both parents were religious, opposed to playing cards and alcohol. Occasionally, Barkley's parents would leave him in the care of his grandparents for extended periods. During these times, his grandmother related stories of her relatives and childhood playmates, future U.S. Vice President Adlai Stevenson and James A. McKenzie, a future U.S. Representative from Kentucky.

Barkley worked on the farm with his parents and attended school in the community of Lowes between the fall harvest and spring planting. Unhappy with his birth name, he adopted the "William Alben" as soon as he was old enough to express his opinion in the matter. In late 1891, the difficult economic times that preceded the Panic of 1893 convinced Barkley's father to sell his farm and move to Clinton in Hickman County, where relatives told him of opportunities to grow wheat on tenant farms. Barkley enrolled at a small seminary school operated by James M. Shelton. Although never finishing high school, in 1892 he entered Marvin College, a formerMethodist school in Clinton that accepted adolescents. The college's president offered Barkley a scholarship that covered all of his academic expenses in exchange for his work as a janitor at the school. He allowed Barkley to miss the first and last month of the academic year to help on the family farm. While at Marvin, Barkley was active in the debating society. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1897, and his experiences at Marvin persuaded him to convert to Methodism, the denomination with which he identified for the rest of his life.

After graduation, Barkley went to Emory College (now Emory University) in Oxford, Georgia, the alma mater of several administrators and faculty members at Marvin. During the 1897–1898 academic year, he was active in the debating society and the Delta Tau Delta fraternity, but he could not afford to continue his education and returned to Clinton after the spring semester. He took a job teaching at Marvin College but did not make enough money to afford his basic living expenses. He resigned in December 1898 to move with his parents to Paducah, Kentucky, where his father found employment at a cordage mill.

In Paducah, Barkley worked as a law clerk in the office of U.S. Representative Charles K. Wheeler. He hoped that being associated with a man of Wheeler's prestige would aid him in his future endeavors, but Wheeler's congressional duties frequently kept him away from the office. Wheeler was a staunch supporter of William Jennings Bryan and the Free Silver wing of the Democratic Party, while Barkley identified with the Gold Democrats. Finally, Wheeler only offered free access to his extensive law library as payment for Barkley's services. After two months in Wheeler's office, Barkley accepted an offer to serve in a similar capacity for two local lawyers, William S. Bishop and former U.S. Representative John Kerr Hendrick, who paid him $15 per month. He read law while completing his clerking duties and was admitted to the bar in 1901. He practiced in Paducah where a friend of Hendrick's appointed him reporter of the circuit court. He continued studying law in the summer of 1902 at the University of Virginia School of Law.

Barkley joined the Broadway Methodist Episcopal Church, where he was a lay preacher, and several fraternal organizations, including Woodmen of the World, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Improved Order of Red Men. On June 23, 1903, he married Dorothy Brower. They had three children—David Murrell Barkley (b. 1906), Marion Frances Barkley (b. 1909), and Laura Louis Barkley (b. 1911). Laura Louise would later marry Douglas MacArthur II, a U.S. diplomat and nephew of famed General Douglas MacArthur.