Kentucky: A History of the State, Battle, Perrin, & Kniffin, 4th ed., 
1887, Madison Co.

MILTON BARLOW was born at Flemingsburg, Fleming Co., Ky., February 6,
1818.  The family to which he belongs is of French origin, having left 
France with the Huguenots, after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, 
and settled first in England, coming thence to America at an early 
period. His grandfather, William Henry Harris Barlow, resided at 
Lynchburg, Va., and immigrated to Kentucky from that State with the 
earliest settlers. He located near Millersburg, in Nicholas County, 
where he took up a large tract of land, and erected a block-house. He 
was surrounded by hostile savages, and his his primitive dwelling was 
often used as a citadel of defense against their attacks. He married 
Elizabeth Kimbrough, daughter of another early settler in that 
locality, and had a family of seven children, of whom the sons were 
Samuel, William, James, Thomas H., John and Harrison.  Betsey became 
the wife of Lawson Bell, and Sarah of his brother, Hosea Bell. Thomas 
H. Barlow was the father of Milton, and was born in the year 1787. He 
was reared upon his father's farm, and in early life enlisted in
Johnson's regiment during the war of 1812-15, being present at the
battle of the Thames. He subsequently engaged in farming; and being 
possessed of great mechanical ingenuity and skill turned his attention 
to the building of steam mills, and at Augusta, Ky., built a steamboat. 
He erected a steam mill at Cynthiana, Ky., and later established a 
foundry and machine shop at Lexington, where he chiefly manufactured 
saw-mill machinery and steam engines. He made the machinery for the Red 
River furnace, and in May, 1826, exhibited at Lexington a small 
locomotive which he had designed and made from his own model, without 
having seen one.  About the year 1838 he built a steam mill in Lincoln 
County, which he operated for a time in conjunction with his son 
Milton, and later returned to Lexington, where he engaged 
successfully in the preparation of hemp for naval rope-making purposes-
his son being also associated in this enterprise. Soon after he began 
work upon an instrument, afterward called a planetarium, which was an 
ingenious mechanical device, designed to illustrate, in a practical 
way, the motions of the heavenly bodies, and showing the relation which 
they sustained  to each other at  different seasons of the year, as 
well as to the sun and moon. After three years of study and experiment,
assisted by Mr. Van Dalsem, Prof. Dodd, president of the university, 
and his son, to whom its mechanical construction and perfection was 
assigned, the instrument was completed, and pronounced a wonderful 
invention by those public educators of the country to whom it was 
shown. It was adopted by the United States Congress for West Point and 
Annapolis Academies, for which a complimentary prize of $4,000 was 
paid. New Orleans, Mississippi University, St. Louis and Washington Lee 
Universities and many other leading institutions of learning of this 
country were supplied with fine planetariums prior to the late war, 
which suspended the manufactory. In 1843 father and son conceived
the idea of building a rifle-cannon, and after careful experiments
completed it, and procured a patent on it in January, 1855. On August
30, 1856, an appropriation of $3,000 was made by Congress to furnish a 
gun to the Government which was tested, accepted, and the patent 
adopted for general use. Thomas H. Barlow died in Cincinnati near the 
close of the late civil war. He was pre-eminently a man of genius and 
great usefulness, and left the impress of his intellectual strength 
upon the men and institutions of his time. His wife was Keziah West, 
and his children, Milton, Samuel and Elizabeth.  Milton Barlow at the 
age of twelve years was set to work in his father's shop. When about 
fourteen years of age he manufactured a low pressure steam engine with 
glass air pump and condenser for Rev. Benjamin O. Pears, who was the 
head of an excellent private school in Lexington, and by way of payment 
received $150 and three sessions of schooling. Upon the breaking out of
the war between Texas and Mexico he enlisted under Gen. Gaines in Capt. 
Carter's company at Lexington, Ky. (for Fort Sabine), the expedition 
for the protection of our southwestern frontier; and upon the 
disbandment of his regiment returned home by way of New Orleans as a
river engineer. He subsequently worked in the machine shop of 
Bridgeford & Hanson at Louisville, then engaged in milling in Lincoln 
County with his father, and finally manufactured  silver-ware in 
Lexington for several years. He was the operative constructor of the 
planetarium, to which reference has been made, and prior to the opening 
of the war engaged  in its manufacture at Lexington, disposing of 
readily of eighty-two  of them in the United States. He exhibited it 
at the great Crystal Palace exhibition in New York in 1855. The 
breaking out of the civil war sadly disarranged all of his plans. Being 
opposed to both secession and coercion it was his intention to
remain neutral, but having been placed under arrest by the Federal
authorities in Lexington, and subjected to indignities, he espoused the
cause of the South, and served in the Confederate Army, first under Gen.
Abe Beauford, and later as captain of ordnance under Morgan. After the
close of the war he resumed his residence in Kentucky. The planetarium
was selected by the Kentucky Legislature as Kentucky's most suitable
contribution to the International Exhibition at Paris, France, in 1867,
contributing $1,500 to defray expenses, etc. During the exposition Mr.
Barlow visited France, patented the planetarium and caused  a
manufactury to be established in Paris. At the close of the exhibition
the planetarium was awarded the highest premium given to any 
illustrative apparatus. Thus Kentucky has furnished the world with the 
best illustrative astronomical apparatus. Returning to the United 
States Mr. Barlow located at Richmond, Ky., where he built a residence
and a large flouring-mill, which he is now successfully operating. He 
inherited his father's inventive genius, and has always been engaged in 
the conception or manufacture of some mechanical contrivance. He 
recently petitioned Congress to allow him to make a large gun for the 
Government coast-defense, to demonstrate the advantages of a new 
improvement he has designed, and which he thinks will prove efficacious
against any ship that can be sent against us. Mr. Barlow was married on
May 20, 1845, to Anastasia C., daughter of Lewis A. Thompson, of 
Lexington, Ky., and has had nine children, of whom seven are living, 
viz.: Margaret, Virginia, Carrie, Milton V., Richard A., Robert E. Leo 
and Florence Barlow.

Barlow Kimbrough Bell Van_Dalsem Dodd West Pears Gaines Carter
Bridgeford Hanson Beauford Morgan Thompson
=
Flemingburg-Fleming-KY Nicholas-KY Lincoln-KY OH VA France England

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/madison/barlow.m.txt