"GEORGE W. BARNES was born in Smith township, Belmont county, November 20,
1827. His father, John Barnes, was born near Frederick, Maryland, June 3,
1788, and migrated, with his parents, to St. Clairsville, Belmont county,
Ohio, in 1799.
David Barnes, the grandfather of our subject, was a brother of
James, the founder of Barnesville. John Barnes, father of George W., remained
in St. Clairsville one year, then leased a quarter section of land two miles
west of town, on which he moved and made improvements. His educational
advantages were superior to most young men of that day, having attended school
in the easterna and southern states. When a young man he clerked for several
years in the stores of Caldwell and Thompson, of St. Clairsville.
In 1817 he
married Ann Thompson, daughter of John and Sarah Thompson, and resided in
Richland township until his death, excepting the year he lived in Smith, where
he cast the only Whig vote polled in that township. His principal occupation
was farming. He died in 1865; his companion followed in July, 1870, aged 78
years. Our subject received a common school education.
On January 14,
1892[sic], he was married to Isabella Ferrel. His wife died May 8, 1866, and
on the 24th day of December, 1868, he was again united in marriage to Martha
Price, who died January 14, 1872. On the 11th of March, 1873, he made his
third choice in Lucretia G. Hamilton. He has always been a citizen of St.
Clairsville or vicinity, moving where he now lives, near the County Home, in
1877, and erected the dwelling in which he resides."