JOHN T. BARNES, of the firm of Hall, Barnes & Co., merchants, was born in Clarke County, Ohio, November 29, 1828, and is the eldest of the five children of David and Elizabeth (Gedd) Barnes, natives of Ohio, and of Scotch-Irish extraction. The family moved to Carroll County, Ind., in the fall of 1834, and there Mr. Barnes was reared to farming until fifteen years old, when he was left an orphan. In 1850, he married Miss Sarah J., daughter of Michael and Elizabeth (Foust) Shaver, of East Tennessee, and born in l831. To this union there were ten children born, and of these there are five living-Henry M., George T., Matthew 11., Ada M. and Charles L. Soon after his marriage, Mr. Barnes took up his residence on a forty-acre farm he had purchased in this township in 1849, but two years later exchanged for a 120-acre farm, going in debt $2,100, which was all paid off in 1860. He then engaged.in merchandising at Idaville until 1864, when he moved upon a farm two miles north of town, which he bad obtained in exchange for his 160-acre farm. The following year, he traded this farm for a stock of goods, and engaged again as a merchant in Idaville until 1868, when he exchanged his goods for a 300-acre farm. In August,, 1862. he engaged in his present business. He was elected County Commissioner in the fall of 1878 is a Republican and an Odd Fellow, and he erected the first dwelling in Idaville.

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