Hardin “Finn” Barry was born March 26, 1891 in Susanville. In 1912, after he graduated from Santa Clara College, and he went to play Major League Baseball with the Philadelphia Athletics for one season. In the spring of 1913, he and his college friend Robert Murphy purchased a ranch in the Tule District of the Honey Lake Valley It was a disaster. In 1920 Finn abandoned the ranch and moved to Reno to study law. In 1921, he was admitted to the Nevada Bar and in December opened a law office in the Knoch Building in Susanville which he maintained the rest of his life.
In 1915, he married Edith Cetera Elledge, whose family had a long association with the agricultural community of the Honey Lake Valley. For whatever reason to compel him, he decided once again to get involved with ranching. In 1940, he purchased the Colony Ranch near Standish, from his wife’s uncle Booth Elledge. However, it did not take Finn long to figure he could not be a lawyer and rancher at the same time. In 1947, he wrote to Fred McCallister about hiring him to run Colony Ranch in which he wrote, “I also have in mind renting the ranch to you at some future date, provided we can come to a satisfactory agreement. At present I am trying to run the ranch and my law office and probably doing a poor job of each.”
One of Finn’s favorite past times was fishing, and in due time became a member of a local group of anglers who called themselves the Amalgamated Fishermen. It evolved into social group as well, one devoted to fishing. Shortly after the purchase of the Colony Ranch, Finn established a large corn patch. During harvest time, Finn, with his group of fishing buddies, along with their wives and other friends would annually hold a “corn-feed” on the lawn adjacent to the ranch house.
However, the good times would not last forever, On December 2, 1968, Edith wrote, “We sold the ranch to Mr. Al Charpontier. I hated to give it up, but we are not able to run it.” This was due in part, that in March, Finn had suffered a slight stroke, though he recovered, it did slow him down. On a visit to his daughter, Norma, in Carson City, he passed away there on November 5, 1969.
My Father ran Hardin Berry’s ranch in Standish where A-3 runs into Hwy 395 up until Hardin Berry sold it. The new owners did not keep my Father on the payroll.