[4] Joseph operated a general store in Riverside, Texas, at the Houston and Great Northern Railroad station on the Trinity River.

[5] Barker was about 14 years old when his father died, and he started working at the Missouri Pacific shops after he moved with the family to Palestine, Texas.

He started matriculating at the University of Texas in 1895, though he continued his employment with the Missouri Pacific in Austin as a mail clerk.

[5] In 1899, Barker began his career at the University of Texas as a history tutor before ascending the professional ladder as an instructor and then as an adjunct professor.

He courted a wealthy Confederate Civil War veteran, Major George W. Littlefield, who joined the Board of Regents in 1911.

Littlefield remained sympathetic to the southern cause and Barker convinced him that funding for the acquisition of old documents would assist in balancing the narrative.

[10] Barker also assisted professors Bugbee and Garrison in the acquisition of important Texas history documents for the university's archival collection.

[11] Another find for the archives came from J. Evetts Haley, who received a commission from Barker to travel throughout Texas in search of old documents and other artifacts.

Haley's most important discovery was later known as the James Harper Starr Collection, which included the only known extant part from the diary of William B.

In addition to scholarly works, such as his biography of Stephen F. Austin in 1926 and his co-editorship of Sam Houston's papers with Amelia W. Williams between 1837 and 1843, Barker also collaborated on several history textbooks.

[16] Several notable historians studied under Barker, including Nettie Lee Benson, Carlos Castañeda, Harry Ransom, and Walter Prescott Webb.

[11] In 1946, the university's Board of Regents resolved to house the Eugene C. Barker Texas History Center in the building known as "Cass Gilbert's Old Library".

[11] Barker was successful in soliciting $125,000 from George W. Littlefield to establish an archive of southern Civil War history, a collection which remains an important resource for modern historians.