My Genealogy Hound

CALVIN W. BARNES, one of the leading and most successful business men of the prosperous village of Ripley, is a son of Calvin W., Sr., and Anna (Frazee) Barnes, and was born in Oneida county, New York, June 23, 1823. The Barnes family is of English descent and grandfather James Barnes was born at Austin, and died in Oneida county, N. Y., where he had been a farmer for several years. He was an old-line whig, married Anna Marcy and reared a family of fourteen children. The Frazee family is of English extraction and Eliphalet Frazee (maternal grandfather) was a native of Blenheim, Albany county, but became one of the early settlers of the town of Verona, Oneida county. He was a farmer, a whig and a baptist, and married a Miss Soule, of Blenheim, by whom he had twelve children. Calvin W. Barnes, Sr., was born in the town of Floyd, Oneida county, about 1795, served in the war of 1812, and was engaged principally in farming until his death. In early life he was a contractor and builder, a life-long whig and a member and deacon of the Baptist church. He married Anna Frazee and they were the parents of eleven children; eight grew to manhood and womanhood.

After receiving a good common school education, Calvin W. Barnes left the farm to become a manager for a lumbering company which had large lumber interests at the village of Oneida. He remained seven years and then resigned his position and established a foundry at Durham, N. Y., which he operated for six years. In 1865, he removed to the oil regions of Pennsylvania and has owned and operated oil territory ever since. After one year’s residence in Pennsylvania, he returned to New York and settled at Ripley, this county, where he established his present cider-mill and vinegar manufactory. In addition to the management of his factory and oil interests he owns a vineyard of thirty acres near the village and also deals in real estate, at the present time owning thirty-two village lots.

He married Alzuria Toby, who was a daughter of Franklin Toby, of Oneida county, and died in 1864, leaving one child that died in infancy. Mr. Barnes then united in marriage with Jane Y. Siggins, of Forest county, Pennsylvania. By his second marriage he has had three children: Alice, the wife of C. B. Clark, now engaged in the lumber, business at Hendricks, West Virginia, has one child, Donna Virginia; Albert, who died in infancy; and Bertha, at home.

Calvin W. Barnes is a republican in politics but no aspirant for office, although he has been frequently solicited to become a candidate. He is a member of the Ripley Baptist church, of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Equitable Aid Union.