Barns, John W. (1841-1908)

BARNS

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 10/30/2017 at 21:06:52

BARNS, JOHN W., Indianola, sheriff of Warren county; was born in Madison county, Indiana, in 1841; he came to Clayton county, Iowa, in 1851, and moved to this county in 1857; he was raised a farmer and owns a farm of 300 acres; he enlisted in the 34th Iowa Infantry, during the late war, and served three years and was in fourteen general engagements; he has held various township offices previous to his election to his present position in 1877; he married Miss Cynthia Bundy in August, 1866; she was born in Quincy, Illinois; they have four children: Lora, Walter, Clyde and Charles R.
Source: History of Warren County, Iowa, containing a History of the County, Its Cities, Towns, & etc., Union Historical Co.; Des Moines, IA, 1879, p.585

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.622
JOHN WESLEY BARNS
John Wesley Barns, who since the spring of 1904 has lived retired in Indianola, was formerly closely associated with general agricultural pursuits in Jackson Township, where he still owns four hundred acres of land. He now handles stock and his business in this direction is proving profitable. His birth occurred in Madison County, Indiana December 12, 1841.
His father, Thomas G. Barns, was born in Brown County, Indiana, and the blood of Irish ancestry flowed in his veins. In early life he learned the trades of carpentering and cabinetmaking, which he followed for a time but later gave his attention to general agricultural pursuits. In 1851 he became a resident of Iowa, settling in Clayton County, where he purchased a farm. There he remained until 1856, when he started for Kansas but stopped on the way at Summerset to visit his brother, William Barns, who was the owner of a mill there. While paying the visit he examined the country and purchased a farm three miles northeast of Indianola. Abandoning his plan of becoming a resident of Kansas, he settled upon his property and there made his home until the Civil War. At that time he removed to Indianola and purchased a farm in Jefferson Township. While residing in town he bought stock and was quite successful in all his undertakings. After the war he engaged in the grocery business with his son, John W., and continued a resident of Indianola until his death, which occurred in 1874, when he had reached the age of sixty-two years. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and in his fraternal relations was a Mason. When age conferred upon him the right of franchise he proudly cast his first ballot for the candidate of the Whig Party and later upon it dissolution he joined the ranks of the Republican party. He held several township offices and in community affairs was deeply interested to the extent of giving his aid and support to many measures for the public good. He wedded Miss Ruth Blue, who was born in Marion County, Ohio and died in 1873, at the age of sixty-one years. She was of German lineage and was a member of the Baptist Church. Their family numbered three sons and three daughters, as follows: Mary Jane, the deceased wife of Henry Scott, a resident of Otter Township, Warren County; Caroline T., who first wedded John M. Loring, a merchant, who died in Wichita, Kansas, and after his death became the wife of a Mr. Gregory; Katherine, who became the wife of a Mr. Woods and following his death married George Tibs, who is also deceased; John W., whose name introduces this review; James M., who served in the Civil War as a member of Company C, Thirty-fourth Iowa Infantry, which was later consolidated with Company D, having enlisted in August 1862, was mustered out in August 1865, but who is now deceased; and Sylvester, who served in the same military company with his brother and is now a resident of Texas.
No event of special importance occurred to vary the routine of farm life for John Wesley Barns in his boyhood and youth. He worked in the fields through the summer months and in the winter seasons attended the public schools, acquiring thereby a fair English education. His life has been devoted to general farming interests with the exception of the time when he was in the grocery business with his father in Indianola. As the years passed he brought his farm under a high state of cultivation and improvement and in his undertakings won that success which always comes as a reward for intelligently directed and unfaltering labor. In the spring of 1904, he retired from the farm and removed to Indianola, where he now makes his home. Here he handles stock, for he cannot entirely disassociate himself from business affairs, as indolence and idleness are utterly foreign to his nature. He also gives general supervision to his farm which is a valuable property of four hundred acres in Jackson Township.
Pleasantly situated in his home life, Mr. Barns was married in August 1867 to Miss Cynthia A. Bundy, who was born in Farmington, Iowa July 13, 1844. Her father, John W. Bundy, was born in North Carolina, February 29, 1816, and was a representative of an old English family, his grandfather having come to this country from England in 1765 and settled in South Carolina, where his father was born the following year. The latter was a member of the colonial troops during the last two years of the Revolutionary War. When John W. Bundy was thirteen years of age the family removed to Wayne County, Indiana, and he continued to reside there and in Henry County, that state, until 1833, when they went to Quincy, Illinois. In 1844 he came to Iowa and first located in Van Buren County, where he made his home until 1852, and from that time until coming to Warren County.