William J. Barnes, BiographyPorter County biographical sketches . . . .
Transcribed biography of William J. Barnes
WILLIAM J. BARNES was born in Somerset County, Penn., September 10, 1829. He was the third child of a family of thirteen born to Asahel and Amy (Watts) Barnes; twelve of this family are yet living, our subject and a sister residing in this county. The parents of our subject moved from Pennsylvania to Canada when he was very young, and there resided till 1860, when the family scattered. His mother died in 1863, his father being alive in Michigan, and in his eighty-second year. Our subject began at fourteen years of age to work by the month, and so continued until eighteen years old, when he learned the carpenter trade. In 1851 and 1852, he traveled through the West, trading with the Indians, and working one season on the Mississippi River. He came to Porter County on December 29, 1854, settling in Prattville, where he worked as a carpenter five years, and then settled on his present farm of 133 acres. He was married November 25, 1855, to Margaret J. Babcock, who was born in Porter County November 7, 1836; she is a daughter of Clark Babcock, an early settler. To this union five children were born - Amy A., wife of William Stoner, of Washington Township; Carrie J., wife of Lucian Crumpacker, of Butler County, Neb.; Martha S., Ira C. and Dale E. Mr. Barnes is a member of the Grand Temperance Council of Indiana, and one of the Porter County committee of workers for temperance reform. Politically, he is a Republican.
Source: Goodspeed, Weston A., and Charles Blanchard. 1882. Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana: Historical and Biographical, Illustrated. Chicago, Illinois: F. A. Battey & Company. 771 p.
Page(s) in Source: 328
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Biography transcribed by Steven R. Shook