THOMAS BARNES was born in Hamilton County, Ohio, August 22, 1799, and is one of the nine children born to Thomas and Jane (McClain) Barnes, natives of New York and Pennsylvania. He was reared a farmer, in Greene County, Ohio, and in February, 1820, married Miss Phebe Gadd, of Virginia, who bore him nine children- two now living-Elizabeth and Eleanor. Mr. Barnes came to this township in 1843, from Carroll County, Ind., where he had been living since 1834. He bought 143 acres of wild land, which he has converted into one of the best farms in the township. In 1845, Mrs. Barnes died at the aye of forty-two. September 3, 1846, Mr. Barnes married Mary Harnmil, a native of Tennessee, who bore him six children, three of whom are yet living-John A., Mary A. and Margaret k. The second Mrs. Barnes died in January, 1855, and the following October, Mr. Barnes married- Mrs. Prudence (Eldridge) Beard, of Shelby County, Ohio, who became the mother of five children, four -still living-Nancy A., Levi E., Rachel Bell and Effie. Mrs. Prudence Barnes is, the (laughter of Elijah and Elizabeth (Gibson) Eldridge, and has a daughter-Sarah E.-by her first husband. Mr. Barnes served as Justice of the Peace in Carroll County, and has been Township Trustee in Jackson Township nine years. His son, J. Albert, in the fall of 1864, at the age of seventeen, enlisted in Comp4ny H, One Hundred and Forty-second Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and served until the close of the war. Mr. and Mrs. Barnes are members of the United Presbyterian Church, of which he has been an Elder forty years.

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