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Hiram Barnes

It is the pride of the people of this country that when the great war between the states closed, all the vast army of citizen soldiery quietly laid down their arms and returned to their homes and the arts of peace. It was predicted by the European nations not only that the country would be divided, but that after the war an enormous army would be kept up and a military dictatorship would be established on the fragments; but, instead, they saw the great armies melt away, saw a reunited country in which liberty was a fact as well as a name, and saw the boys in blue return to their wives, homes and their occupations. Hiram Barnes, of Maynard, Harlan township, Fayette county, was one of those patriotic citizens. He was born in Erie county, Pennsylvania, September 11, 1839, but he was educated in Boone county, Illinois, in the early district schools. He is the son of Calvin and Elizabeth (Van Atten) Barnes, the father born in Utica, New York, of English parentage. Calvin Barnes was a contractor and builder, and he and his wife were married in the state of New York and moved to Painesville, Erie county, Pennsylvania, some time afterwards, where Mr. Barnes worked at his trade. About 1847 the family moved to Chicago and remained there some time, probably two years, then moved to Belvedere, Boone county, Illinois, remained there a short time, and on account of the chills attacking the family they moved back to Chicago where Mr. Barnes went to work in a furnace plant, making molds. While there the family was taken sick with the cholera, during the first epidemic of that disease in Chicago. Mr. Barnes and son, Hiram, of this review, recovered, while death claimed Mrs. Barnes. Three other children of the family escaped the disease. In the course of a month or so, Mr. Barnes and his four children returned to Belvedere, Illinois, where he lived until about 1880. During that time he married twice, losing both wives by death. In 1880 he moved to Mosinee, Wisconsin, and made his home with his oldest daughter, Mrs. Michael Clark, where his death occurred about 1882. His family consisted of seven children, four of whom are living: Mrs. Rachel Clark, of Mosinee, Wisconsin; Mrs. Mary Pingree, of Oakland, California; Hiram, of this review; Orien, of Maynard, Iowa.

When seventeen years of age Hiram Barnes began working at the carpenter’s trade under his father’s direction and completed his apprenticeship under the elder Barnes’s instructions, and with the exception of one summer on a farm he worked with his father until August, 1862, when he proved his patriotism by enlisting in Company K, Ninety-fifth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and was assigned to the Army of the Tennessee under General Grant, until Grant took charge of the Army of the Potomac, when General Blair took charge of the former army (the Seventeenth Army Corps), and with the last named commander Mr. Barnes remained until mustered out in Washington City at the close of the war, he having made a splendid record, on detached service for the most part. During the latter part of the siege of Vicksburg he served in the commissary department, and after leaving that he was an orderly (dispatch bearer), a very responsible position, to Col. J. H. Mills, of the First Kansas Volunteers Infantry, with headquarters in the Seventeenth Army Corps, and he remained in that capacity until the close of the war. During a raid at Providence, Louisiana, he lost the sight of his right eye, having been struck by a gun cap or sliver. At the close of the war he received a recommendation in regard to his honesty and reliability, etc., signed by Maj. Gen. J. T. Sherman and Adjt.-Gen. J. B. Blair, of the Seventeenth Army Corps headquarters.

Upon his return from the war, Mr. Barnes entered land in Boone county, Illinois, and took up farming. In 1868 he moved to Fayette county, Iowa, and rented a farm in Harlan township, and worked other land on the shares until 1884, when he bought a farm of one hundred and twenty acres in section 27, Harlan township, where he lived until 1901, when he moved to Maynard, renting his farm to his son, Lawrence. In 1904 he returned to the farm and remained on it two years, and in 1906 moved again to Maynard, where he lives at present in honorable retirement, enjoying the fruits of his former years of labor.

Politically, Mr. Barnes is a Republican, but has never held office. He is a member of Reynolds Post, No. 47, Grand Army of the Republic, at Maynard, having been chaplain of the post for the past five years. He belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church, having been steward in the local congregation for the past eight years, and treasurer for about the same length of time.

On June 30, 1870, Mr. Barnes was married, at Independence, Iowa, to Mattie Rich, who was born in Boone county, Illinois, September 8, 1853, the daughter of George and Maria (Brown) Rich, natives of Ohio. They moved to Fayette county, Iowa, locating in Harlan township about 1855 or 1856. Mrs. Barnes was the fifth child in a family of six children. Her death occurred on February 2, 1899, leaving four children, namely: Lillian M., who was born February 5, 1872, married Frank Goldsbury, and lives in Maynard; Lawrence C., born July 6, 1877, lives in Center township, and is manager of the German creamery; Will H., born June 29, 1883, lives on the home farm (see his sketch); Carroll O., born October 22, 1885, lives with his father.

On October 1, 1902, Hiram Barnes married Mrs. Mary R. A. (Robbins) Robbins, who was born in Fabius, Onondaga county, New York, January 16, 1841; she is the daughter of Henry D. and Mary (Humphrey) Robbins, the father a native of New York and the mother of Canton, Connecticut. His death occurred in New York; Mrs. Robbins came to Iowa where she died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Barnes, in West Union

~transcribed by Doris A. Smith for Fayette County IAGenWeb.