Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens
Lawrence County Pennsylvania 1897
[p. 78] an engineer in the employ of the P. & W. R. R., residing at Mahonintown, was born in Fredericksburg, Wayne County, Ohio, Jan. 21, 1858, and is a son of Henry Clinton and Matilda A. (Hutchinson) Barnes. Henry C. Barnes was born in Fredericksburg, Ohio, in 1832, and at this writing is leading a retired life on the outskirts of Fredericksburg, where he owns a large and well-improved farm, over which he still has the supervision. Besides taking a prominent place among his fellow-townsmen as a successful and progressive agriculturist, he has for many years dealt in all kinds of farm machinery as a special agent. During the latter part of the War, he served in the army as a recruit under the hundred days' call. He is a member of the G. A. R. Post of Fredericksburg. In his political views he is a Republican. In religious matters he affiliates with the Congregational Church, although reared as a Presbyterian. He was a son of Peter and Margaret (Guthrie) Barnes, the latter a daughter of Joseph Guthrie, who attained the age of ninety years. Peter Barnes, who was a farmer by occupation, was a native of Westmoreland Co., Pa., and died in Fredericksburg, at the age of seventy-seven. He was a son of Henry Barnes, who it is thought was of Scotch- Irish descent. Our subject's mother was born in Fredericksburg, Ohio, and was a daughter of Jimpsey Hutchinson, who was a carpenter by trade, but supported himself in the latter years of his life by farming. He died at the age of seventy-eight, after a life singularly free from illness; the sickness that preceded his death was the only sickness he ever had; at his death every tooth was in his head, sound and perfect. He moved from his birth-place in Pennsylvania to Wayne Co., Ohio, about 1811 or 1812, and was one of the first settlers of that county. He was descended from a sturdy and robust line of Scotch-Irish ancestry.
Our subject attended the district schools of Fredericksburg until he was nineteen years of age, when he went to Jacksonville, Fla., where he was engaged in the hardware business until 1880. Returning to Ohio in that year, he interested himself in the lumber business in Fredericksburg, where he remained in business until 1888, when he disposed of the stock and trade, and came to Mahoningtown to accept a position as fireman on the P. & W. R. R. After two years in that position, in which time he made the best of his opportunities and rendered himself capable of running an engine himself, he took his place at the throttle in 1890, and has since that time acceptably and creditably fulfilled the work expected of him, serving as engineer on different divisions of the road. The locomotive engineers are among the best citizens of the country, for their vocation demands staid, sober habits, a high order of intelligence, combined with a readiness to solve knotty problems, and a wonderful adherence to duty, which often leads them to risk or even sacrifice their own lives that the lives of those placed in their charge may be safe.
Mr. Barnes was united in marriage in Fredericksburg, Ohio, Nov. 1, 1883, to Miss Rosetta Miller, who was born in Waverly, Ohio, a daughter of Robert and Mary Miller. Mrs. Miller died Aug. 28, 1897, age 70. Mrs. Barnes has borne her husband an interesting family of six children: Frank; Robert M.; Beatrice; Dora M.; Belle, deceased; and Sylvia. Our subject and wife attend religious services in the M. E. Church. Mr. Barnes has been a lifelong Republican, and always stands ready to aid his party, when it is in his power. He is a member of Amazon Lodge, No. 336, Knights of Pythias, of Mahoningtown; and Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, Mahoningtown Division.
Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens Lawrence County Pennsylvania
Biographical Publishing Company, Buffalo, N.Y., 1897
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Updated: 21 Apr 2001