Barber Heritage

Frederick T. Barber

1894-1943

Before there was Barber Manufacturing, there was a young man named Fredrick T. Barber working for the Trenton Spring Company in Trenton, New Jersey. Trenton trusted him enough to send him west to open a new office in Chicago, and he did.

But Fred had bigger plans. In 1894, he went back to Trenton Spring Company with a different kind of request: a $500 loan to start his own spring manufacturing business. They said yes. Fred chose to build it in Anderson, Indiana, drawn by the natural gas boom that was bringing industry and opportunity to the area. That decision, and that loan, became Barber Manufacturing.

Fred built the company on a simple philosophy: “Provide each customer with a superior product and unparalleled customer service.” That philosophy is still how we run the company today, five generations later. Barber Manufacturing has remained family-owned since the day Fred started it, and that ownership has always meant something beyond the name on the door. It’s meant treating our employees, many of them second and third generation craftsmen themselves, as part of the family business, not just a workforce. It’s meant making decisions the way a family does: for the long term, not the next quarter.

Since 1894, the furniture industry has consolidated around a handful of giant manufacturers. Barber chose to stay independent, and stay close to our craft, our people, and the customers we build for. Every spring and formed wire product we make is custom designed to a customer’s exact specifications, built by people who take pride in getting it right.

Five generations of the Barber family have led this company. All five have believed the same thing Fred did: quality and relationships aren’t old fashioned ideas. They’re the reason we’re still here.