George Bradley Barrows was born in Fryeburg, Maine on December 22, 1822, the grandson of a Revolutionary War veteran who was also the founder of Hebron Academy.
Barrows himself was a graduate of Fryeburg Academy and Dartmouth College in the class of 1842.
A young Whig who joined the Republican Party shortly after its inception, he was an alternate delegate to the National Convention in 1856 which nominated John C. Fremont.
He served two terms in the Maine House in 1859 and 1862 and was chosen President of the Senate in 1864, the third man from Fryeburg to occupy that chair.
His early association with the leaders of the Republican Party made him an influential man in State political circles throughout his life.
Always interested in agricultural matters, Barrows was one of the originators of the West Oxford Agricultural Society and for many years a member of the Maine State Board of Agriculture, as well as being agricultural editor of the Portland Daily Press.
A leading Congregationalist and a trustee of Fryeburg Academy, Barrows died in 1904 after a lengthy illness.