USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > The pictorial history of Fort Wayne, Indiana : a review of two centuries of occupation of the region about the head of the Maumee River, Vol. II > Part 4
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Edward A. Barnes, the general superintendent of the Fort Wayne works of the General Electric Company, has been a resident of this city for more than a quarter of a century and has been continuously identified with the electrical business during the entire period of his independent career. He is skilled in both the technical and practical knowledge of applied electricity and in his chosen profession has won distinctive suc- cess, as attested by the responsible position of which he is now the in- cumbent. In his personal career and ancestral history are points of more than passing interest, and in view of the present tragic period of "wars and rumors of war" he can not but feel a measure of satisfaction and pride in reverting to the long and able service given by his father as an officer in the British army. Edward A. Barnes can claim the distinction of Oriental birth, though he is a scion of the staunchest of British ancestry in both the agnatie and distaff lines. He was born at Dhurmsala, India, in June, 1865, and is a son of Major Edward Barnes and Georgiana (Carnegy) Barnes, the former a native of Wales and the latter of Scotland. Major Barnes gave distinguished service as an officer in the English army and was assigned to duty in different colonial dependencies of England from time to time, so that his travels were of wide scope. He was in government service with the army in India at the time of the birth of his son Edward A., of this review, and was in active service in South Africa at the time of his death, his widow having passed the closing years of her life in Fort Wayne, where she remained in the home of her son Edward A. until her death, in 1901. The only other surviving child is Colonel Arthur A. Barnes, who was commander of a Wiltshire regiment in England and who is now with his command in the great European war. Edward A. Barnes was a child of four years when he was taken from India to England, where he received excellent educational advan- tages and where he gained his preliminary technical training as an elec- trician. In 1885, when twenty years of age, he came to the United States and established his residence in New York city. There he continued his association with the electrical business until 1889, when he came to
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Indiana and established his permanent home in Fort Wayne. Here he took a position with the Fort Wayne General Electric Company, and with this concern he has continued his effective services during the inter- vening years. The local works of the General Electric Company have owed much to Mr. Barnes for the effective development of the important business of which he is now the general superintendent, and thus he has been a factor in advancing the industrial and commercial prestige of Fort Wayne, where he is known and valued as a loyal citizen, progressive business man and as a captain of industry. In his estimate of the land of his adoption there is naught of equivocation and he is thoroughly in harmony with American sentiment and institutions. His political alleg- iance is given to the Republican party. He is a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal church, and he holds membership in the Fort Wayne Commercial Club, the Rotary Club, the General Electric Quarter Century Club, and the Country Club, as well as of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the American Institute of Metals. On October 16, 1895, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Barnes to Miss Katherine Steinbrunner, who was born and reared in Fort Wayne and who is a daughter of Robert and Ignatia (Lais) Steinbrunner, both natives of Germany. Mr. and Mrs. Barnes have two children-Georgiana Ignatia Carneay and Katherine Allison Stuart.
Abraham G. Barnett is one of the most venerable of the native sons of Fort Wayne now residing in the city, and he has witnessed the develop- ment of the judicial center of Allen county from the status of a mere village to its present proud position as one of the important industrial and commercial centers and attractive cities of the Hoosier state. He is a representative of a family whose name has been identified with the history of Allen county during the long years that have intervened since the war of 1812, and his father was captain of a company that served at the old fort for some time during the progress of the second conflict with Great Britain. Mr. Barnett was born at Fort Wayne November 10, 1832, and is a son of James and Nancy (Welsh) Barnett, whose marriage was here solemnized in the year 1824. James Barnett came to Fort Wayne in 1812, and after having served as captain of a company that was here stationed during a portion of the war of 1812-15 he continued his residence in Fort Wayne after the war had terminated. In the pioneer days he developed a successful business in the hauling of merchandise and other commodities from Dayton, Ohio, to Fort Wayne, and finally he made judicious investments in land in this part of the state. He became one of the successful and influential citizens of Northern Indiana, did much to further civic and industrial development and progress in Allen county, and it was principally through his financial assistance and generosity that the late Samuel Hanna, another of the sterling pioneers of Allen county, was enabled to engage in the mercantile business and thus to lay the foundation of what became one of the large fortunes here accumulated. James Barnett was born in 1785 and died in 1851. His wife was born in 1801 and died in 1857. Of their seven children, four attained to maturity, and of the number only two are now living-Abraham G., of this review, and Mrs. Susan B. Shoaff, who likewise resides in Fort Wayne. Abraham G. Barnett profited by the advantages afforded in the pioneer schools of Fort Wayne and at the age of about seventeen years he here began clerk- ing in the drug store of Watson Wall. In 1852, when twenty years old, he was one of the adventurous spirits who made the long and perilous
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journey across the plains to California, and four months were demanded in making the trip from St. Joseph, Missouri, the outfitting point, to Placerville, California, a place then known by the significant name of .Hangtown. Mr. Barnett was actively associated with gold mining in the pioneer placer camps of California, and his activities included also service as mail carrier and work as a blacksmith. In 1855 he returned to Fort Wayne, where he engaged in the grocery business, besides becom- ing a successful exponent of agricultural enterprise in his native county. Finally he was appointed United States assessor for the district compris- ing Allen county, and of this position he continued the incumbent three years. His next occupation was in connection with the operation of a local paper mill, and after severing this alliance he established in Fort Wayne a transfer line. In this field of enterprise he built up a large and prosperous business and to the same he continued to give his general supervision for more than a quarter of a century. Since that time he has lived virtually retired in his attractive home at 2432 South Webster street, and he is one of the well known and highly honored pioneer citizens of Fort Wayne. At the time of the Civil war Mr. Barnett made two attempts to enlist, but on each occasion he was refused the privilege, owing to minor physical ailments. March 3, 1863, he was appointed major in the regular army, but never served. He is the oldest Blue Lodge Mason in Fort Wayne and has taken the York Rite degrees of Masonry and affiliated also with the Scottish Rite. He has always been liberal and public-spirited as a citizen, has maintained lively interest in all things touching the welfare and advancement of his native city and gives his political allegiance to the Republican party. As a young man Mr. Bar- nett wedded Miss Sarah Elizabeth Angell, who was born at Little Falls, New York, and the maximum loss and bereavement in his life came when his gracious and devoted wife was summoned to eternal rest, in 1906. Of the four children who survive the loved mother, Katherine is the wife of W. Bruce Beamer, of Fort Wayne; Susan M. remains with her vener- able father; Byron H. is individually mentioned on other pages; and James W. is the name of the youngest.
Eyron H. Barnett was formerly one of the successful exponents of amusement enterprise in his native city of Fort Wayne, where he was for a time associated in the ownership and operation of the Palace theater, a modern home that provides the best grade of entertainments. The business was effectively conducted by the Fort Wayne Lyric Theater Company, of which Mr. Barnett was secretary and treasurer. Byron H. Barnett was born in Fort Wayne, February 14, 1867, and is a son of Abraham G. Barnett, who conducted in this city a successful transfer business and who is a citizen held in unqualified esteem. Byron H. Barnett acquired his youthful education in the Fort Wayne schools and as a young man served an apprenticeship to the machinist's trade, in the Fort Wayne shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. As a railroad man he was for five years employed on the Santa Fe in California, and at the expiration of this period he became associated with his father in the transfer business in Fort Wayne. Finally he here bcame associated with Frank E. Stouder in the ownership of the Lyric theater, and four years later, after having conducted the house most successfully, they disposed of the same and built the handsomely equipped Palace theater, which they conducted under the corporate title previously mentioned and with a substantial and representative supporting patronage. In
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politics Mr. Barnett is found arrayed as a loyal supporter of the principles and cause of the Republican party, he and his wife are communicants of the Protestant Episcopal church, he is affiliated with the local organiza- tion of the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, and in the Masonic fraternity he holds membership in York Rite bodies, including the Fort Wayne Commandery of Knights Templars, besides which he is affiliated also with the adjunct organization, the Ancient Arabic Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. In the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Masonry he has received the thirty-second degree. In 1900 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Barnett to Miss Catherine Auger, daughter of Louis B. Auger, a pioneer florist and well known citizen of Fort Wayne. Mr. and Mrs. Barnett have one son, Abraham Houston, who was born January 27, 1903, and whose educational advantages include those of the Howe Mili- tary Academy, at Howe, Indiana.
Charles Eldridge Barnett, M. D .- One of the functions of this publi- cation is to accord recognition to those who touch closely the communal life of Fort Wayne and Allen county, and under these conditions it is pleasing to give consideration to Dr. Barnett as one of the leading surgeons of the county and state. He is engaged in the practice of surgery in Fort Wayne and his success shows the expediency of concen- tration of effort in the one department of his profession. Dr. Barnett was born at Wapakoneta, the judicial center of Auglaize county, Ohio, September 30, 1866, and is a son of Rev. William C. and Frances Mead (Sullivan) Barnett, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Virginia. The father, a man of fine intellectuality and exalted charac- ter, gave many years of effective service as a clergyman of the Lutheran church. For many years he was one of the directors of Wittenberg Col- lege, and he continued in the active work of the ministry until his death, which occurred in 1898, in the state of Tennessee, his loved wife having died in 1880, at which time the family home was in Kentucky ; and of their six children three are living. Dr. Charles Eldridge Barnett was a child of two years when his parents removed from Ohio to Boone county, Ken- tucky, where he was reared to the age of fifteen yars and where he attended the public schools. Thereafter he was engaged in teaching for a time and finally he entered Edgewood College at Edgewood, Tennesee, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1888, with the degree of Bachelor of Science. In preparation for his chosen profession he came to Indiana and entered the Fort Wayne College of Medicine, in which well ordered institution he was graduated in 1890, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. In 1893 he took an effective post-graduate course in the Chicago Polyclinic, and a few years later he did excellent post- graduate work in the medical department of the University of the South, at Suawanee, Tennessee. The Doctor has made Fort Wayne the scene of his professional activities since 1896 and he has been not only a leader in surgery but has also been influential in the educational work of his profession. He served as a member of the faculty of his alma mater, the Fort Wayne College of Medicine, in which he held the chair of surgical anatomy and genito-urinary surgery until the institution, together with all other medical colleges in the state, was merged into the medical depart- ment of the University of Indiana, in which he was made adjunct pro- fessor of genito-urinary surgery. The professional novitiate of Dr. Bar- nett was served at Archer, Nebraska. He is actively identified with the American Medical Association; the Mississippi Valley Medical Associa-
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tion, of which he was vice-president in 1911, as well as chairman of its surgical section ; the Indiana State Medical Society ; and the Allen County Medical Society, of which he was president during the year 1910-1911. He took a lively interest in the alumni association of Fort Wayne College of Medicine and served at one time as president of the same. The Doctor is a member of the Indiana state committee for the national association of physicians formed for the furtherance of medical preparedness under conditions of war; and of the Council of National Defense under the jurisdiction of the War Department; is a member of the medical officers reserve corps of the United States Army; and is an influential member of the American Society of Urological Surgeons. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. In 1898 he gave definite evidence of his loyalty and patriotism by tendering his service and going forth as assis- tant surgeon of the One Hundred and Fifty-Seventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry, with the rank of captain. Incidental to the Spanish-American war he continued in active and effective service with this command until the regiment was mustered out, at the close of activities. Dr. Barnett has been a voluminous and an authoritative writer on professional sub- jects pertaining to the diagnoses and treatment of genito-urinary dis-
eases, especially from the surgical standpoint. After returning from one of his numerous trips to Europe for post-graduate work he gave to the world some new and valuable surgical knowledge by publishing, in 1910, an article entitled, "The Visicule Seminales," which was copied by the leading foreign surgical journals. In 1913 he published an article entitled "Polycistic Kidney," and, as a matter of purely technical judg- ment on his part, he looks upon these two publications as constituting his most valuable contributions to the literature of his profession. He is one of the Abstract Editors of the Literature of the world under the subject of Genito-Urinary Surgery, also on the advisory board and Colaborator of the Urologic and Cutaneous Review. He is one of the Abstract Editors of Genito-Urinary Surgery in International Abstract of Surgery (Surgery Gynecology and Obstetrics with International Abstract of Surgery). In connection with his study and individual research he continues to make frequent contributions to our leading surgical publica- tions, with his ideals of personal stewardship in thus giving to his con- freres the benefits of his fortuitous knowledge. Dr. Barnett has taken post-graduate work in all of the leading surgical centers of Europe, especially Vienna, Austria, and he has traveled in nearly all parts of the civilized world, with a constant view to expanding his knowledge of surgical science and practice. In politics he gives unswerving allegiance to the Democratic party, and in the Masonic fraternity he has completed the circle of both the York and Scottish Rites and belongs to the Mystic Shrine.
James M. Barrett, long connected with the traction systems of northern Indiana in executive positions, has enjoyed for many years an enviable place among the members of the bar of Indiana. For an extended period Mr. Barrett served as the counsel for the several com- panies that developed into the present Fort Wayne & Northern Indiana Traction Company, and latterly, until 1917, he served as president of this important corporation, which not only owns and operates the Fort Wayne city traction system and a seven-mile extension to Robison Park but also owns and operates two important interurban lines, extending to the south and southwest of Fort Wayne. As an authority on corporation law Mr.
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Barrett has gained a high reputation, although his services in other lines have proved to be most efficacious. As the author of the so-called Barrett law, while a member of the Indiana legislature, his name is favorably known throughout the state. James Madison Barrett was born on a farm in LaSalle county, Illinois, February 7, 1852, and is a son of Benjamin and Elizabeth Barrett, both natives of Ireland, where the father was born in the year 1809, a son of William Barrett. James M. Barrett was the eighth in order of birth in a family of eleven children, of whom nine attained to years of maturity. Benjamin Barrett and his wife came from the Emerald Isle to America in 1834. They established their home in Belmont county, Ohio, where the father continued to be engaged in farming until 1848, when removal was made to LaSalle county, Illinois. There the death of Benjamin Barrett occurred in 1876, his widow surviv- ing him by nearly a score of years and having been eighty years of age at the time of her death, in January, 1894. After attending the common schools of his native county, James M. Barrett was given the opportunity of attending the Mendota College, at Mendota, Illinois, and after leaving this institution he entered the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1875. He had pursued a literary course in the university, thus following a natural inclination to acquaint himself with the broad scope of this branch of work undertaken so thoroughly by the Ann Arbor institution. Mr. Bar- rett's university course was followed by a brief course of study in the law offices of the firm of McCagg, Culver & Butler, prominent Chicago attorneys, and thereafter he spent a period of study at Princeton, Illinois. He was attracted to Fort Wayne in the early weeks of 1876 and reached the city on Washington's birthday anniversary of that year. Shortly after his arrival he was admitted to the bar of Allen county. Mr. Barrett found it advisable to devote his studies largely to the intricacies of corporation law, and his determined action along this line has brought him a designation as a man of keen perception, yet one with a knowledge and appreciation of the rights of men that have won for him the victory in many a hard-fought legal battle. For a considerable period Mr. Barrett was associated in practice with Samuel L. Morris and R. C. Bell, and after the death of the latter the firm of Barrett & Morris continued until the recent addition of Edward G. Hoffman to the personnel of the firm. An extensive suite in the Shoaff building marks the location of this important legal union. For several years before his selection as president of the Fort Wayne & Northern Indiana Traction Company Mr. Barrett served as the counsel for the company. His knowledge of this branch of commercial activity has made his service and advice of incalculable value to other traction systems in which he holds a financial interest. Mr. Barrett is interested in a number of manufacturing industries, including the Packard Company, makers of the famed Packard pianos and player- pianos, and he is a member of the directorate of this concern. In 1896 Mr. Barrett was appointed a member of the board of trustees of Purdue University, at Lafayette, Indiana, by Governor Claude Matthews. He served on the board with former President Benjamin Harrison, who was selected the same year. In 1886 he became the Democratic candidate for state senator, to represent the Fort Wayne district, and his popularity was demonstrated by the splendid majority that was awarded him at the polls. During his first term in the senate he was prominently identified with the creation of many constructive laws. Among the important acts
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was that which insured for Fort Wayne the choice of his home city as the seat of the Indiana School for Feeble Minded Youth. During the im- portant session of 1889 Mr. Barrett was the acknowledged leader of his party in the senate, serving as chairman of the judiciary committee and as a member of many other committees whose functions were of marked importance to the success of momentous measures of that session. Senator Barrett was the author of a number of important bills, and proved to be an able and discriminating legislator. Faithful to the interests of the people, he was uniformly recognized as an impartial representative of his district and of the state. Mr. Barrett has achieved a reputation not only as a ready, forceful and eloquent speaker but he has also shown himself to be possessed of great strength of character and thus has ever held an inviolable place in the hearts of the people of his community. Mr. Barrett is a thirty-second degree Mason and a member of the Benevo- lent & Protective Order of Elks. He finds delight in his affiliation with the Fort Wayne Country Club, and his active interest in civic affairs is suggested by his membership in the Fort Wayne Commercial Club. The recognition of his personal worth is indicated in his membership in the American Academy of Social Science, the American Geographical Society, the American Municipal League, the American Bar Association and the Indiana Bar Association. On the 28th of June, 1877, Mr. Barrett was united in marriage with Miss Marian A. Bond, daughter of Charles D. and Lavinia (Ewing) Bond, of Fort Wayne. Mr. Bond was a former president of the Fort Wayne National Bank, which is now known as the Old National Bank, and his wife was a daughter of Judge Charles W. Ewing, the first attorney to locate in Fort Wayne and one of the earliest judges of the circuit court of Allen county. To James M. Barrett and his wife have been born four children : Florence Ewing, wife of George T. Ladd, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Charles W., master mechanic of the Pennsylvania Railroad shops at Sunbury, Pennsylvania; Walter A., me- chanical engineer with the Bass Foundry & Machine Company, Fort Wayne; and James Madison, Jr., now (1917) a student in the University of Michigan, in the literary department of which institution he was graduated in 1916 and in the law department of which he is a member of the class of 1918. James M. Barrett has always been a liberal con- tributor to every movement for the advancement of Fort Wayne and the state of Indiana, and he is truly counted as one of Indiana's most valuable citizens.
Louis L. Bart, one of the prominent real estate men of Fort Wayne, Indiana, was born in Mallet Creek, Ohio, a village in Medina county, that state, October 28, 1875. He is of German extraction, his father, Leonard Bart, having been born in Germany, March 31, 1832. He learned the shoemaker trade and conducted a shoe store in Washington, D. C., after his arrival in this country. He espoused the cause of the north in the War of the Rebellion, serving at the battle of Bull Run and others. Later he married Helen Miller, a native of Newark, Licking county, Ohio, and taking his bride to Mallet Creek, established himself in the shoe trade. He conducted a shoe store for thirty-two years, retired, and is still living in the town of his adoption. To him and his wife were born six children, five of whom are living. Louis L. Bart, the subject of this sketch, was educated in the common schools at Mallet Creek, Ohio, and in the high school at York, Ohio, from which institution he was graduated with the class of 1891. Immediately upon
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receiving his diploma he interested himself in the profession of teleg- raphy and followed it for twenty-two years. For fifteen years he was associated with the Nickel Plate Railroad at Fort Wayne, thirteen of which he was train dispatcher. He forsook this calling, however, to take up that of the real estate business, establishing himself in business in 1913. He has met with success in this new pursuit and is now the vice-president of the Wildwood Sales Company. But this one of ce does not require all his time and he is also a director in the Morris Plan Bank, vice-president of the Fort Wayne Real Estate Exchange, and is on the executive committee of the Railroaders' Realty Company. Mr. Bart has always given the Republican party his political support, although he has never entered the lists as a candidate for office. He is a Knight Templar, a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, and also a member of the Shrine. He is a member of the Commercial Club, serving that organization on the membership committee. On June 29, 1904, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Bart to Miss Josephine Shue- maker, and this marriage has been blessed with one son, Robert Rosen- thal Drayer Bart.
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