Santa
Clara County
Biographies
JOHN
S. BARNUM
When the trans-Mississippi region was
still the frontier, its broad plains uninhabited save by hardy frontiersmen and
roving bands of Indians, Mr. Barnum passed through many exciting and perilous
experiences in that portion of the country.
Possessing the robust constitution, intrepid courage and patient perseverance
of the true pioneer, the life of a plainsman and scout was not without its
fascination for him, and he looks back upon those years as among the most
interesting of his entire career. It was
then that he met and enjoyed the comradeship of such noted scouts as Colonel
Boon, Kit Carson, Spottswood, and Bill Mathewson, the noted, and original
Buffalo Bill of Wichita, and one of the bravest men on the plains.
Mr. Barnum is a native of Knoxville, Ill.,
born October 26, 1842, a son of Amon and Catherine (Irvine) Barnum, natives of
New Jersey, but pioneers of Knoxville, Ill., where the father followed the
hatter’s trade until his death. The
maternal grandfather, Cornelius Irvine, a shoemaker by trade, was a pioneer of
Knoxville, Ill. In a family of two sons
and three daughters, only the sons survive.
Of these Col. W. L. Barnum,, who was a
lieutenant in the Eleventh Missouri Infantry, rose to the command of that
regiment and won distinction as an officer.
He is now a resident of Chicago, where he has his office as a secretary
of the National Millers’ Association.
The next to the youngest of the children was John S., now of San
Jose. While still a mere child he was
orphaned by the death of his parents.
Shortly after gold was discovered in Pike’s Peak he joined a party bound
for that region. With horse teams he
drove from Illinois in 1860, crossing the Missouri at Plattsmouth and thence up
the Platte to Boulder, Colo. For a time
he was employed in quartz mill near Central City. There, at the opening of the Civil war, he
was mustered into the First Colorado Infantry as a private in Company B. Under Col. John P. Slough he went to New
Mexico to aid in turning back the Texas Rangers, under General Sibley, after a
similar project by General Canby had resulted disastrously. The brigade of fourteen hundred and forty men
were pitted against thirty-two hundred rangers in the battle of Gloretta, Pigeon’s
Ranch and Piralto and they won in each struggle, finally driving the rangers
down the Rio Grande into Texas. After
his return from that expedition he assisted in subduing the Sioux Indians on
the frontier. At close of the war he was
mustered out in Leavenworth.
After a short experience on the plains as
wagon boss, Mr. Barnum became a government scout. After the flood at Fort Fletcher, in June,
1867, he picked out the site of Camp Hays, Kans., now the city of that
name. While acting as scout he was sent
out alone by Gen.A. J. Smith from Fort Hays to head off Hancock who, with an
escort of twenty men, was en route to Denver.
It had been learned that hostile Indians were preparing for an attack
and Hancock would have been murdered undoubtedly had not Mr. Barnum conveyed
the warning to him.
After resigning as scout he located a
homestead near Ellsworth, and in 1866 put in the first crop planted in all of
Ellsworth county.
While there he piloted the troops to the present site of Wichita, they
having been ordered to guard the crossing of the Arkansas river. While he was in that locality Steele Brothers
came to lay out the town. A meeting of
interested parties was held relative to a name for the new village. Various suggestions were made. Mr. Barnum, having been present at the treaty
of the Wichita and other tribes on the same spot in 1865, suggested that the
name Wichita be adopted, saying there would be no other name like it in the
United States. The suggestion was
immediately adopted. For a few months he
ran a sutler’s store in Wichita, and in Ellsworth county
he served as deputy United States marshal and township clerk.
During 1882 Mr. Barnum went to New Mexico
land embarked in the feed business at Santa Fe, but after five years there he
removed to Lamy, N.M., continuing in that place for four years as manager of
the Santa Fe eating house for Fred Harvey.
The spring of 1891 found him in Washington and for a short time he
engaged in business at Toledo, but not being pleased with the location he came
to California in the spring of 1892.
Since then he has engaged in handling feed, hay, and grain, wood and
coal, having his yards at the head of Alum Rock avenue in East San Jose.
While living in Kansas he was married in Topeka to Ann F. Green, who was
born in Vermont, of New England descent.
The only child of the union is a son, W.L., who is now an
attorney-at-law in Chicago. While living
at Lamy, Mr. Barnum served as postmaster, both under
President Cleveland and President Harrison.
In political views he is a firm Republican and stanchly upholds party
principles. All matters pertaining to
the Grand Army of the Republic claim his interest and attention and he has been
active in the work of John A. Dix Post No. 42.
While living in Kansas he was made a Mason in Ellsworth Lodge and is now
associated with San Jose Lodge No. 10, F. & A. M. Among his acquaintances he is held in esteem
as an honorable business man. In his
devotion to his home town he is surpassed by none. Though his travels have taken him through
every portion of the great west, he has found no location more satisfactory than
this, in the midst of a valley blessed with a fertile soil and a contented
people.
Transcribed by Louise E.
Shoemaker, February 16, 2015.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 378-379. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
©
2015 Louise E.
Shoemaker.