THEYOUTH

Not much is known about Carl Barks' early years before he left the family home as a young man in 1918. This is not surprising, as he was not exactly born into a famous family, and cameras were not a household item at the time. The following chronology is partly based upon the memories and recollections from Barks himself. It is intended to serve only as a mere informative contribution to his long lifespan.

William Barks was born in 1858 and his ancestors were Dutch immigrants a few generations back. Arminta Johnson was born in 1860 and she had Scottish ancestors. They both grew up in Missouri where they attended the same school in their teen years. Later William's step family (he was an orphan) moved, but the two managed to keep in touch by mail. Arminta stayed home until 1898 when her parents died. Then she moved to marry William. A year later they had a son, Clyde, and almost two years later Carl was born.
William had formerly worked as a blacksmith in California but now the small family settled at a wheat ranch northwest of Merrill, Oregon, 5 kilometers north of the California border. When Carl was born the spread had expanded from 25 hectares to about 100 hectares due to his father's hard work of clearing sagebrush around the spread.

These two photos are from Carl's childhood home. Many years later he commented on the photos in letters to a family member. The following is a transcript of his own explanatory text:

Interior of the parlor or 'sitting room' of the Barks home in Oregon about 1906 or 1907. Note the spittoon beside the stove. Four of the four men in the picture chewed tobacco. Also note phonograph at right. Crank telephone at right edge of picture, and fancy Sears Roebuck hanging kerosene lamp.

The people are from left Clyde Barks, his father William, mother Arminta, and brother Carl. The mustachioed man directly behind the stove is Pinkney Barks, a cousin of William Barks. The young man is Miles Roberts, a nephew of William Barks. The big guy with the fancy suspenders is Paul Richt, an Indian wars veteran who homesteaded a rock pile nearby. His wife, Jenny, on far right had known Arminta Barks in Missouri when both were young spinsters.

This photo was a time exposure of several seconds. Everyone has to 'freeze'.

The Barks ranch house about 1906 (or 1907). A telephone line can be seen coming from the left. There was no electricity until the 1920's. Water was pumped from a deep well about 30 feet from the house and carried into the kitchen in buckets. Heat was from the kitchen wood range and from a tall heating stove in the 'parlor'. No heat in the four upstairs bedrooms. At left can be seen the Barks' prize possession, a phonograph. That item established them as people of means and fashionable tastes, and very up to date.

William Barks, the proud owner as evidenced by his cocked derby, is at the left. His wife Arminta by his side. Their son Clyde and Carl are next in line. The woman and man in the center were the Richts, neighbors who had known Arminta Barks earlier in Missouri. The next man to the right is Miles Roberts, a nephew of William Barks. Then Clyde Bradley, a neighbor who came to Oregon with William Barks in the 1880's. The man standing at the end of the porch was Charles Lewis, the hired man, and last with gun and coyote skin was Pinkney Barks, a cousin of William Barks, who homesteaded a patch of rocks near the home ranch.

The young poplar trees seen around have long since grown to massive size almost obscuring the house from view at this angle.

Carl was born in the homestead on Wednesday, March 27th, 1901. The farmhouse was a simple two-room shack with a stove and a table in one room, and a bed in the other. However, in 1903 the family house was enlarged and had 4 bedrooms. Right from the beginning Carl suffered from measles (Rubeola) which caused him to be almost deaf. This, combined with a lonely childhood on the farm made Carl somewhat secluded - a feeling that would stay with him for the rest of his life.
The parents and the children had to toil for their living. Carl was helping with the daily chores as best he could, and he later remembered working with the farm's horses as his favourite jobs. The youngster liked to sit peacefully on the riding type plough and work with the horses while he dreamt of being a good cartoonist. Carl had seen his first cartoon - Little Nemo - in The San Francisco Examiner and he was hooked immediately. He spent much of his spare time doodling on any nearby surface on the farm using charcoal from the stove.
And young Carl was lost to his surroundings. An example of his dedication: He was once sent out to excercise a herd of the farm's horses and he stopped at a shelter where he stayed from time to time and was soon lost in his doodling. In the meantime the horses grew tired of waiting and found their own way back to the stable.

Carl attended a typical one-classroom school in a small wooden building. It had only one teacher who taught 12 students - small children and teenagers alike. The classroom also contained a small library with novels by Charles Dickens and poems by Henry Longfellow. Carl rode his horse to school every day. He liked the more serious subjects such as arithmetic, history, and geography. He did not like English grammar which he would later regret when he had to catch up on in his adulthood.
Most of the time Carl was rather bored and he spent the days doodling in textbooks and notebooks, but one day he discovered a classmate drawing caricatures of the foremost politicians of that era such as Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt. This inspired the young man to start - laboriously and determined - copying frames and pages from the comic book giants of that time such as Winsor McCay in order to learn their technique of brush strokes and shadow effects, while dreaming of inventing his own characters.

In 1908 the railroad came to Oregon and father William immediately saw its potential as a means to support his family. After renting out the homestead they moved over to nearby Midland which had become a railroad junction where cattle trains arrived to pass on to different destinations. William build a number of corrals and feed lots where the cattle from the neighbouring areas could come and stretch out and eat.
He and his two sons soon became busy taking care of the numerous herds. They fed them and hauled fresh straws into the cattle wagons. At times there were so many wagons that this work would take them all day. Carl liked the job insofar that he met a lot of colourful cowboys who opened his mind to the world outside. He would later remember their wild stories and their inventive nicknames when he started his comic book career.

But father William had a somewhat restless nature. Despite a good and steady income in the cattle business he wanted to try something else and after renting out the business, the family moved to Santa Rosa in California where he bought a plum orchard. The young Carl was immediately taken with city life; he had his first ride in an automobile, and he and his brother had their first friends their own age.
But soon a terrible draught swept the West and suddenly they had no income - not only because the plums failed to grow but the wheat farm back in Merrill was also stricken by the absence of rain. Disillusioned, William suffered a nervous breakdown, and as soon as the lease on the homestead ran out, the family returned. Penniless.

1916 was a very turbulent year for the teenager; mother Arminta died 56 years of age and Carl stopped going to school after finishing 8 classes. He would have liked to have continued his education at a high school but three things prevented it. The school was too far away, and his hearing was deteriorating to a degree that he would not be able to follow the lessons. Furthermore, he was forced to work full-time on the family ranch.
But Carl found time to pursue his dream of becoming a cartoonist. He ordered an art course from the esteemed Landon School Mail Order Course but after finishing the first four parts he stopped because yet another thing happened. The USA entered World War One. But he later stated that the mail order course had given him such a necessary and fundamental understanding of the art of drawing that he based his entire way of expression thereafter upon it.
The war meant that all the neighbouring farmhands got drafted into the military, and Carl - who was not quite old enough to join - soon found himself in great demand as a farmhand for the neighbours. Consequently, the young man earned the high wage of 5 dollars per day as day-labourer during the rest of the war.

By 1918, Carl had a life savings of 100 dollars and he used it to settle in San Francisco where he hoped to earn a living as an artist. As a matter of fact he sold his first work (and the only one during the time in San Francisco) which was a drawing of a special chevron to be worn at the uniform sleeve of the entlisted and now discharged soldiers. They were allowed to keep their uniform, and the chevron meant that they were no longer active and consequently not obliged to salute the officers. The chevron was in fact one of the most seen at the time.

Father William continued his work on the homestead, and Carl returned several times over the next five years to lend him a helping hand. William died in 1940.
Brother Clyde also stayed for a few years until he finally moved to Tulelake, California, to become the owner of Hotel Clyde for the rest of his life. He died in 1983.

1915 Through all of his school years Carl used to ride his horse back and fro.	No photos of the schoolhouse have survived ... so maybe this panel is as good a guess as any ...	1910 Carl began doodling in his school books out of sheer boredom.

1911 Arminta, visitor Jenny Richt, Carl, Clyde	1916 Top part of the ad for a drawing course that caught Carl's attention.	1916 Skating with his friends on a nearby lake.