Antrim Earl Barnes Sr. (1874 - 1952)

Born 22 Aug 1874 in Whitley County or Fort Wayne, Indiana

Ancestors

Husband of Zella Z (Mossman) Barnes — married 27 Oct 1897 in Whitley County, Indiana

Husband of Lucinda (Marshall) Barnes — married 8 Nov 1906 in Billings, Montana

Husband of Cora Francis (Vieweg) Barnes — married 31 Oct 1931 in Anaconda, Montana

Descendants

Died 19 Dec 1952 at age 78 in Three Forks, Montana

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Charles Barnes [send private message]

Biography

Antrim Earl Barnes was born August 22, 1874[1,2,10] in Fort Wayne, Indiana,[1,2] the only son of Augustus Shelkett and Justinah (who also used the names Alvina and Justina) Barnes. Based on the 1880 census of Fall Creek, Indiana, he may have been raised by his grandmother in his early years. His mother remarried, James Graves, in late 1877,[13] and apparently at some point he moved to live with her in Coesse, Indiana. There he went to school, graduating from high school in 1891.[1,2]

His brothers and sisters from his mom’s second marriage included Lyda, Arthur, Anna, Cora, and Orpha, and were from 4 to 15 years younger than Antrim.[14,15] After high school he went to work to help support his family.[3] He left home and lived in McCook, Nebraska for 3 ½ years,[2] first working as a machinist’s apprentice.[1] This being the age of railroad expansion in the West, he had no trouble soon obtaining a job as fireman on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad and was later was promoted to engineer.[1,2] He operated the first electric train that traveled through Nebraska.[6]

Over the next several decades, Antrim engineered several trains in different parts of the country. He may have gone from Nebraska to Sheridan, Wyoming[2] but before the turn of the century returned to Indiana and worked for two years as an engineer for the Wabash Railroad in the town of Peru.[2,16] During this time he came back to his home town of Coesse to marry Zella Z. Mossman, who was from a pioneer family of Coesse, on October 27, 1897.[13] His first son (and only by this marriage), Charles K., was born May 6, 1899. In 1900 he returned to Sheridan Wyoming and drove engines of the Burlington Railroad. Based on information in the 1900 census, his wife Zella and infant son Charles remained in Indiana and lived with Zella’s family in Whitley County.

After two years in Wyoming, Antrim returned to Indiana, this time to study at Purdue University in Lafayette. He took a 3-year course,[2] but was unable to complete his degree due to the lack of finances.[3] The rest of his life , nearly half a century, was spent in Montana.[10] In 1904, while assisting placing a railroad car on the track, one of his feet was seriously injured which required hospitalization in Montana and then later he was sent to the Northern Pacific hospital in Brainerd, Minnesota.[18]

In Montana, he first lived in Livingston and worked as an engineer on the Northern Pacific Railroad.[1,2] In Livingston, he met a talented artist and art teacher, Lucinda Marshall, and they were married November 8, 1906 in Billings in the home of the bride’s sister.[1,8,11] There were at least a dozen present at the wedding, including Rose and Jack McCall and Frank Marshall.[8] The local paper carrying the wedding announcement referred to Antrim as one of the most popular men in the Montana division of the Northern Pacific,[11] and his son much later recalled that his father was a top engineer in his early years in Montana.[7] Within about a year the couple had moved to Lewistown Montana and Antrim engineered trains for the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pudget Sound Railroad.[1] A daughter, Lucy, was born in Lewistown in 1907 and a son, Antrim Earl Jr, in 1909. Many years later his son Antrim recalled that his father operated what was known as the Jawbone Railroad, which started in Lewistown.[7]

His daughter Lucy writes[1] that in the spring of 1911, Antrim, Lucinda, Lucy and Antrim Jr. moved from Lewistown to Three Forks, along with Winnifred Haggerty, hired to take care of the kids, Lucinda’s parents George W and Sarah Marshall, and Lucinda’s china kiln.[1,7] Before the year was out, Winnifred married Lucinda’s brother George.[9] George Sr. lived with the Barnes’ until his death in 1917.[7] Besides caring for George Marshall Sr., the Barnes’ had a close relationship with others members of the Marshall family. Before the first World War, Frank Marshall was a cattle dealer in Three Forks and lived with the Barnes.[1, also see 1920 census of Three Forks, MT] The other Marshall brothers, Walter and George, lived nearby and often stopped by the Barnes house, which was on the corner of 2nd and Hickory. Lucy[1] remembers that in the early days of living in Three Forks, a swamp started just south of Hickory Street.[1,17] It was a grand place to wade, catch tadpoles and pick wild iris, but bad for mosquitos.[1] There were few trees in town and no lawns.1 Many people kept chickens, a few had cows and sold milk.[1]

During these years in Three Forks, Antrim drove big Milwaukee electric locomotives between Three Forks and Deer Lodge, going over the Continental Divide.[3] Around 1920, the First National Bank in Three Forks was having trouble due to farm debts going bad, and Antrim and others of the Railroad purchased most of the stock of the bank. When the railroad men took over the bank, they made Antrim the bank president [4], as he had been active in the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, a powerful union of the day,[1] and had represented the railroad men at various conferences between the union and managment.[3] Antrim thus spent half his time working as an engineer and half as a bank president.[3] When the railroad men took over the bank, it’s capital totaled about $25,000, and Antrim reported that in less than a year the capital had grown to over $250,000.[3]

In 1923 Antrim took a leave of absence from his job to study in the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers’ cooperative bank in Cleveland Ohio. Taking the family, he spent several years (1923-25) serving as the vice president of the Euclid Avenue bank in Cleveland before returning to Three Forks.[5] The Euclid Avenue bank prided itself as being one of the most impressive, artistic and imposing skyscrapers of Cleveland if not the country, having 17 stories, massive bronze chandeliers, Vermont marble, tapestries, molded figures in bas-relief on tellers counters and other expensive decorations.[5]

Upon returning to Three Forks, Antrim sold real estate and insurance in addition to running trains and the bank.[1] Antrim and his wife were active in community affairs, Antrim serving as an elder in the Presbyterian Church[2] in Three Forks and also on the school board.[1] A sketch of his life written in 1921 reported that he and his wife “had gathered about them a pleasant circle of friends to whom they dispense the delightful western hospitality at their home on many occasions.”[2] However, by the end of the decade of the 1920s the closeness of the family had disappeared. Antrim Jr. and Lucy were away from home studying. Lucinda’s parents had passed away and some of the Marshalls had moved away. By 1930, Antrim was divorced and living alone in Three Forks (based on the 1930 census).

Sometime later Antrim entered into marriage for the third time, with the superintendent of the Three Forks hospital, Cora Vieweg. He retired from the Milwaukee railroad on December 31, 1941,[10] perhaps to have more time to fish the Madison, which he enjoyed.[1,12] His son, who later operated a tackle shop and guide service, would often tell his fishing clients that his father was a fly fisherman while his mother used worms. According to his son he also loved to hunt.[1] Toward the end of his life he had a lingering illness. He died at noon on a Friday, December 19, 1953.[10] He had been ill the previous two years of his life with a heart condition and bedridden the last year.[6] He had belonged to the Livingston Lodge of Ancient and Free Accepted Masons, the Livingston Consistory, the Algeria Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine of Helena, Scottish Rite of Livingston and was chief of the Painted Rock Division No 744 of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers.[2,10] His funeral was held in Bozeman, where he also is buried at the Sunset Hill Cemetery.[10] Besides his home in Three Forks, he owned a ranch of 328 acres 3 ½ miles south of Roundup, Montana and 640 acres of irrigated land northwest of Three Forks.[2]

Sources

1. “Antrim Earl Barnes, Lucinda M Barnes,” Lucy Barnes Lemmon, September 1981.

2. “Antrim E. Barnes,” Montana, Its Story and Biography,” Tom Stout, ed., Vol 2, The American Historical Society, Chicago and New York, 1921.

3. “Drives Big Milwaukee Engine Half the Week and Runs a Bank the Other Half,” Newspaper article, ~1922.

4. Ref 2, written in 1921, says he was vice-president of the bank, in contrast to his own words quoted in Ref. 3.

5. “The Euclid Avenue Bank,” The Locomotive Engineers Journal, August, 1925.

6. Obituary of AE Barnes printed in The Commercial Mail (Columbia City, Indiana), Dec. 20, 1950, p. 2.

7. Notes by Rachel Barnes from reminiscences of AE Pat Barnes about his father.

8. Marriage Certificate and ceremony register, A. E. Barnes and Lucinda Marshall, November 8, 1905.

9. Pedigree of George Washington Marshall and Sarah Romrell compiled by Sam Eagle, mid-1970’s.

10. Obituary of AE Barnes printed in the Great Falls Tribune, Dec. 24, 1952, p. 4 (and other Montana newspapers).

11. Announcement of the marriage of AE Barnes and Lucinda Marshall, Montana (Livingston?) newspaper, November, 1905.

12. Notes of AE Pat Barnes, ~1990.

13. Whitley County Marriages, 1838-1910, http://kinexxions/com/marriages1/grooms/99.htm and http://kinexxions/com/marriages1/brides/bm.htm.

14. 1900 Census of Whitley County, Indiana, http://www.kneller.com/WhitleyIN/census/1900/Union/156A_156B.html.

15. Coesse (Indiana) Lutheran Cemetery records, http://home.whitleynet.org/genealogy/cem_ut.htm.

16. His biography (Ref 1) says that he joined the Wabash in 1908 but left Peru in 1900. Perhaps the cited date of 1908 should be 1898, as it’s well documented that he was in Montana by 1905.

17. The house was on the NE corner, 622 2nd Ave East; Antrim built their home shortly after arriving in Three Forks.

18. Anaconda Standard, May 12, 1904, Vol XV, issue 245, p. 11.