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organizations: president of the Nebraska Association of Building & Loan Associations, 1926; president of the Nebraska Association of Local Insurance Agents, 1917-18; vice president of the Nebraska Association of Real Estate Boards, 1931; member of the advisory board of the Red Cross and the Salvation Army at Kearney; secretary of the Kearney Rotary Club, 1919-26; president of the Kearney School Board, 1925-26; and a member of the Board of Visitors of the United States Naval Academy, appointed by President Coolidge, 1926.
Mr. Barney is a member of the Nebraskana Society, the Fort Kearney Memorial Association, the Naval Athletic Association, Greater Nebraska Association, the Kearney Chamber of Commerce, and the Nebraska Realtors Association. He is an Elk and Mason, and a member of the Methodist Church. He is interested in football, golfing, fishing, and hunting, and holds membership in the Kearney Country Club and the Army and Navy Club of Washington. His hobby is preparing young men for admission to the United States Naval Academy. During the World War he was chief of the canteen service, acted as president of the Kearney Red Cross, and just before the close of the war was commissioned captain in the United States Army.
On June 4, 1909, he married Leta J. Haskell, at Annapolis, Maryland. Mrs. Barney, who is a homemaker and teacher of music, was born at Augusta, Maine, July 16, 1886. She is the niece of Judge Gaslin, a pioneer judge of early Nebraska and is a Daughter of the American Revolution through both sides of the family. They have four children: Walter, born March 29, 1910; Juliette, born April 2, 1912; Haskell, born July 16, 1913; and Amelita, born July 16, 1918. Haskell Barney was recently appointed to service in the Naval Academy by Senator Howell. Walter is an employee of the Standard Oil Co., in Omaha; Juliette is a student at the University of Nebraska, and is a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma. Residence: Kearney. (Photograph in Album).
Ralph Morrison Barney
Ralph Morrison Barney, who was born at Kearney, Nebraska, March 29, 1888, is a leading business man of that community. His father, Walter Warren Barney, who was born in Illinois and died at Kearney, February 22, 1915, was an abstractor and real estate dealer; he was active in state title matters and at the time of his death was serving as president of the State Title Association. Anna (Thornton) Barney, his wife, was of English ancestry.
Mr. Barney was graduated from the Kearney High School in 1906. He has been active in abstract work since 1906 when he was in business with his father, and owns one of the most accurate set of abstract records and books in the state. He is now owner of the abstract firm at Kearney, W. W. Barney & Son, and holds stock in various local companies. He has written several articles published in title papers on matters relative to real estate titles.
A Republican, Mr. Barney served as councilman of Kearney during 1915-16, and is active in all local political affairs. He has been a member of the Rotary Club for the past 10 years, has been an active member of the Chamber of Commerce for over 20 years and is affiliated with St. Lukes Episcopal Church of Kearney. He is a member of the Nebraska State Title Association, the American Title Association, and the Kearney Country Club. His fraternal organizations include the Knights Templar and Scottish Rite bodies of the Masons, and the Shrine. For a number of years he served as secretary-treasurer of the Nebraska State Title Association of which he was president for two terms.
His sports include
golfing, fishing, and hunting in his summer home in the Rocky Mountains. On
April 19, 1914, he was married to Bethine West at Indianapolis, Indiana. Mrs.
Barney, who is descended from Caesar Rodney, a signer of the Declaration of
Independence was born at St. Paul, Nebraska, February 17, 1889. The have four
children: Ralph Warren, born February 12, 1915; Emma Jane, born March 5, 1918;
Betty, born March 6, 1919; and William George, born October 31, 1923. Residence:
Kearney.
Henry F. Barnhart
Henry F. Barnhart, lawyer, was born in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, September 12, 1857, son of D. S. and Mary A. (Rearich) Barnhart. The father was born in Dawson County, Pennsylvania, and died in 1922. His mother was a native of Baden, Germany, who died in 1872.
Mr. Barnhart obtained his early education in the public schools of Pennsylvania, and the University of Pennsylvania. He attended the University of Iowa fro in which he was graduated in 1884 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws, and for several months was engaged in practice at Kingsley, Iowa.
He came to Nebraska in 1895, and practiced law at Creighton, then removing to Pierce County, Nebraska, where he served four terms as county attorney. In 1906 he came to Norfolk, where he has since resided. He was appointed referee in bankruptcy in 1916 by Judge Woodrow, and held this office ten years. In 1924 he was Democratic candidate for district judge, but was defeated. In addition to his legal practice Mr. Barnhart is the owner of a truck farm of 12 acres where he maintain's his home. He is a member of the Madison County Bar Association, the Nebraska State Bar Association, the Elks, and the Modern Woodmen of America.
He is married to Mattie Stewart, daughter of pioneer settlers in Nebraska, and they have two children, Walter H., who married Woodie V. Lamb; and Mary, who married Charles Abbott of Stanton, Nebraska. Mr. and Mrs. Abbott have one son, Harry. Residence: Norfolk.
John Westhafer Barnhart
For the past 54 years John W. Barnhart has been engaged in the publishing business in Nebraska, and has held various editorial positions on newspapers, some of which he founded. He was born at Mount Joy, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, November 8, 1856, the son of Israel and Lydia (Bear) Barnhart. His father, who was a contractor and builder, was born at West Manchester, York County, Pennsylvania, September 13, 1827, and died at Mount Joy, June 22, 1904. His German ancestors came to this country before the Revolution.
His mother, who was active in church affairs throughout her life, was born at Mountville, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, February 11, 1826. Her ancestors were English and German, and were in America before the Revolution. She died at Mount Joy, August 20, 1895.
Mr. Barnhart received his early education in the public schools of Mount Joy, and was graduated from the high school there in 1874. He was a student at Cedar Hill Seminary, 1874-75.
He was editor of the Sterling News 1877-78, and during 1879-81, together with C. W. Pool, former Secretary of State, established the Tecumseh Journal; in 1881 purchased a half interest of General Victor Vifquain in the Daily State Democrat at Lincoln; in 1883 Albert Watkins purchased the Vifquain interest and for a year thereafter the publication continued under the firm name of Watkins & Barnhart. In 1894 he established the Elk Creek Echo and continued until 1887, when he removed the plant to Auburn, and founded Nemaha County Heraldof which he was editor until 1905, in that year be moved to Omaha, and has since been engaged in the job printing business. He is now president of the Barnhart Press, formerly the Waters-Barnhart Printing Company.
Mr. Barnhart is a
Democrat. He was assistant chief clerk of the Nebraska legislature, 1898-99;
was a member
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of the Congressional Committee from Nemaha County, 1890-92, both times Bryan was elected to congress. He served on the state election commission at Camp Grant, Illinois, during the World War.
On November 20, 1882,
he was married at Tecumseh, Nebraska to Claribel Chittendon Foster. Mrs. Barnhart,
who was born at Greencastle, Indiana, February 2, 1858, is the great great
granddaughter of Governor Chittendon of Vermont. The following children were
born to them: Dr. Edgar G., born March 11, 1884, who married Gussie Durkes;
Katherine E., born November 15, 1886, who married Rev. S. J. Hedelund; Charles
B., born January 1, 1889, who is secretary-treasurer of the Barnhart Press;
Chandler F., born November 20, 1893, who married Lorene Hulse, and who is salesman
for the Barnhart Press; and Marguerite, born January 2, 1896, who died March
28, 1916. Edgar G., is a physician and surgeon on the stuff at Lord Lister
Hospital. Mr. Barnhart is chairman of the fellowship division of the Chamber
of Commerce; is a member of the Ad Club, and the Ben Franklin Club. He is a
member of the knights of Pythias and the Pythias Veterans.. He is affiliated
with All Saints Episcopal Church, and is a member of the Men's Club of that
church. He is a member of the Omaha Field Club. His favorite sports are golfing
and bawling. Residence: Omaha.
Cass Grove Barns
Born on an eighty acre farm in northern Indiana, October 1, 1848, much the youngest of seven children, Cass Grove Barns is the son of Cyrus and Eliza (Elliott) Barns. His father. born in Onondaga County, New York, April 11, 18_8, died in La Porte County, Indiana, May 23, 1883. His mother, born in Onondaga County, May 28, 1809, died in La Porte County, on February 8, 1887.
Tradition assigns his nationality to England, with a mixture of Scotch-Irish ancestry, which was continued in America by intermarriage. An ancestor, Thomas Barns, of Hartford, Connecticut, came to America about 1680, where he joined a party going west to the Connecticut Valley. He participated in the first great Indiana wars, and was given a six acre tract of land in the city of Hartford, and a farm in the country. After peace was proclaimed he was married and his benign neighbors executed his wife for alleged witchcraft. He married again and from that union the entire line descends directly to Cass Grove Barns, he being the seventh generation. Members of the family participated in the Revolution, and the War of 1812. On the maternal side Mr. Barns' lineage is traced to participants in the two wars also, an uncle having lost his life in filibustering expeditions in attempting to take Canada from England.
Reared on a farm, Cass Grove Barns attended district school when possible and taught in country schools several terms He later became a medical student with an active physician, a custom which antedates the interneship of the present day. After graduation he practiced in the thickly populated neighborhood where he grew up, later removing to the county seat where there were fifteen or twenty old doctors. He served as township physician 1879-80, and was appointed county physician, having charge of the county hospital, the poor house, jail and out door poor, which gave him a job in addition to his regular practice.
Having bought wild land in Boone County, Nebraska, he succumbed to the western fever and moved to Albion, in April, 1881. For five years the family lived on their faring where Dr. Barns supervised the farming and cattle feeding and practiced medicine in Albion. In 1886, he moved into town where he engaged in the drug business with another doctor. After a few years business interests interfered with his medical practice and he ceased answering sick calls. However, he has never been clear of practice, and is still a registered physician.
Dr. Barns has served on the United States Pension Board, has been medical examiner for the Modern Woodmen of America, chief surgeon for the Nebraska National Guard, and in 1922 freshened up a bit at Tulane University. To his credit are several years as a member of the school boards of Albion, and rural districts, as well as several terms as president of the Albion Board of Education.
He was drafted to take charge of the Boone county fair, donating his services, and for a period of six years, during the depression and loss of crops of the nineties, was secretary of that organization. The fair was dying under a heavy debt, and as its secretary he was given complete control. In 1898 he left the organization entirely, out of debt.
Dr. Barns is a Democrat, and from 1894-98, was postmaster of Albion. In 1897 he had a newspaper to edit, a farm to operate, a fair to manage, postoffice work to do, and in addition was obliged to assume management of the Albion Flouring Mill doing commercial work with a branch store in Omaha, another in Chattanooga, smaller ones here and there. He directed also a traveling salesman. After a year he sold the Albion Argus, left the fair, and being an offensive partisan, was let out of the postoffice by McKinley. Thereafter for a period of twenty-two years he operated the milling business, which earned him a lot of money at first. At one time he owned and operated a small mill at Petersburg, Nebraska, but traded it for land in Kimball County.
In 1908, he purchased a large department store in Albion, operating it two years. In 1911, he again bought the Argus, selling it in 1917, because of the dearth of labor due to the war. From 1890 to 1904, Dr. Barnes did much Sunday School work and otherwise supported and assisted the Methodist Church.
When his daughters were students at the University he bought the historic D Street home of William Jennings Bryan, where his family lived two or three years, while he remained in Albion. His wife desiring to return to Albion he built a new home there where the family remained until 1928. At that time he purchased the Madison Star-Mail, moving to Madison, where he built another home. He sold the paper in April, 1981. Being idle during the past summer he has devoted much of his time to assembling a 75,000 word fiction story of pre-Civil War times.
The World War period injured the milling business greatly. Dr. Barns was assigned to about all the local war projects that did not pay--he was appointed to organize the County Council of Defensane, securing an admirable organization with county officers and precinct chairmen. To this was added a staff of many auxiliary workers. Among them he organized 18 home guard companies, got their officers commissioned and many companies drilled. No Nebraska Red Cross was functioning and he was chosen to organize it in the county. He became temporary county chairman and secured an excellent permanent one. He circulated food pledge cards, and then grow wheat one year, distributed two carloads of seed and the next year sent away for 65 single orders of seed Dr. Barns carried on war construction alone, denying some and forwarding requests for others. He was called upon to support the sale of bonds, and held meetings for food saving.
Dr. Barns was appointed chairman for Taft's League to Enforce Peace, and then to find jobs for returning ex service men. He announced that he desired to get over seas where things would he peaceful and quiet, and his application for work in the Red Cross, Salvation Army and Young Men's Christian Association went as far as preparing his passport. He was given many recommendations, which apparently were cancelled by other statements that he was worth more at home.
In addition to the foregoing he was government appeal agent between county and district draft boards. He helped recruit a company of infantry which was camped at the fair grounds and inducted into service. He was responsible for the support, which amounted to consider
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