Woody Barnes: A Julian Pioneer's Story
By Bobbi Zane

Woody Barnes collects lilac blooms in spring.

Woody Barnes, grand marshal of this year's Independence Day parade, is quick to tell anyone who will listen that his roots in Julian go back to the very beginning, when settlers were trying to eke out a living from hillside gold mines.

He rarely shares the details that defined life in Julian in the 1890s or how by chance, smarts and circumstances he came to become a prominent figure in local agriculture, running a fruit business, and becoming the icon for the commercial lilac and peony operations that continue to thrive here.

Woody's story parallels that of Julian itself. The gold seekers - armed with pans and picks - hearing tales of gold discoveries in Southern California, left dry claims in the north and headed south to get in on the boom. Among these were Woody's grandfather and uncle, Martin and Ray Jacobs, brothers residing in San Francisco when word of the area's gold rush spread there.

"My mother was a Jacobs," he says. She was the daughter of Martin Jacobs and Mary Agnes McConville, who was a teacher at the Oberlin School in Julian. Martin worked at the Helvetia mine, where five of the couple's six children were born. But he also worked in other mines and ultimately rose to become superintendent of the Stonewall mine. Martin, who ran a butcher shop from 1915 to 1920, had the first icemaker in Julian.

Eventually, the family moved into what is now the Julian Hotel. The family purchased the Hotel Robinson from Margaret Tull, following Albert Tull's death in 1915. The Jacobs family ran the hotel for 53 years. Woody's uncle Ray maintained a real estate and insurance office in the hotel most of the time. According to hotel records, the business prospered during the 1920s, attracting many prominent guests.

In 1928, plans were drawn and financial support was secured to enlarge the hotel considerably, but the project fell victim to the Great Depression.

Meanwhile, Woody says his dad's family had been farming in Pacific Beach, raising lemons. His grandfather Edward Young Barnes leased an apple orchard in Pine Hills, eventually buying the place in 1916.

"In those days, farmers didn't do just one thing," Woody says. "They had chickens, turkeys and sold eggs" in addition to pears and apples.

The cut flower business emerged in the late 1920s, starting with some lilacs. Woody says he's not sure where the lilacs came from, but does recall that there were some at the Julian Hotel and his parents, Franklin Barnes and Alice Genevieve Jacobs, received some plants as gifts when they were wed there in 1924.

The lilacs did well in Julian's climate and the Barnes family began raising more and more of them. "We supplied the flowers to florist shops in San Diego," Woody recalls. Initially, there were apple blossoms, daffodils and peonies along with the lilacs, all packed in lettuce crates. The Barnes supplied the flowers for the spectacular displays mounted each spring by Martson's Department Store in San Diego.

In the mid-1940s, Woody's aunt and grandmother purchased Manzanita Ranch. It would become the first major of many roadside fruit stands that to this day draw visitors to Julian. The family sold apples, apple cider, preserves and flowers here until the property was sold in 2000.

Woody continues to live on the family ranch in Pine Hills and is active in Julian civic life, currently serving on the Julian Community Planning Group. He's also a member of the Rangeland Trust and serves as an auctioneer for the International Lilac Society. n