ROBERT BARNETT, a retired farmer m Warsaw, Wyoming County, N.Y., was born near the Erie Railway station in this village on July 12, 1839. His grandparents, Jonathan and Ruth (Merrill) Barnett, came from New Hampshire to Orangeville, N. Y., in 1820, bringing their family with them, the journey being made in slow stages with a team. Two of their elder sons, Amos M. and William D. Barnett, had come a few years previous and were engaged here in manufacturing fanning mills. Jonathan Barnett was a descendant of Scotch­ Irish immigrants who settled in Londonderry, N. H., in 1720. He was born in that town on September 13, 1767. He died on August 27, 1842. Mrs. Ruth Barnett survived her hus­ band several years and died March 29, 1855.

Their son Robert, the father of the original of this sketch, was born in Londonderry, N. H., in 1798 and was twice married. His first wife, Sally Nevins, died, leaving one son, James Nevins Barnett, who was a commercial traveler in the interests of the fanning mills and Miller’s blacking but later became a farmer. He died aged fifty­ two years. Mr. Barnett’s second wife was Miss Hetty Foster, to whom he was married in 1837. She was the daughter of Luther and Ruth (Hedges) Foster.

Her father was from Eastern New York, and her mother was a na­tive of Long Island. Mrs. Hetty Barnett’s brothers and sisters, Solon Foster, an octo­genarian in Salt Lake City, and Mrs. Ruth E. Cleveland, who is eighty-one years of age, and resides in Warsaw, survive. Robert Barnett, Sr., was a -farmer in comfortable circum­stances. He and his wife, Hetty Foster Bar­nett, were both members of the Congregational church. They had but one child, the present Robert Barnett, of Warsaw. The father died in May 1870, the mother in March 1875, at seventy-five years of age.

Robert Barnett received a suitable, plain edu­cation in the schools in Warsaw and was early trained to practical farming knowledge. He remained at home until 1862, when he enlisted in the One Hundred and Thirtieth New York Volunteer Infantry, Company D, but was transferred to the First New York Dragoons, where he served three years. During the campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, he received a gunshot wound at Stras­burg, which resulted in many weeks of suf­fering in various hospitals and, finally, in amputating his leg just above the knee joint.

Mr. Barnett was seven weeks at the Brick Church Hospital in Winchester, Va., a fortnight at the hospital in Frederick City, Md., and was finally stint to the Central Park Hospital, which was under Dr. Shrady’s charge and had for its nurses the Sisters of Charity, whose gentle ministry always brought comfort, and whose calm, sweet faces seemed to leave a benediction upon cot and ward.

He was discharged on August 22, 1865, when he returned to his parents, who, while they lived, were his principal care. Mr. Barnett has always been engaged in agriculture and has owned three farms, all of which he has disposed of by sale or lease. In recognition of services rendered in his country, he receives a monthly pension of thirty-six dollars. He is a member of Gibbs’ Post, No. 130, Grand Army of the Republic, of which he was Commander for a year, and is a member of Crystal Salt Lodge, No. 505, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mr. Barnett cast his first vote for the mar­tyred President, Abraham Lincoln, and he has ever since been loyal to the Republican party, to which his early allegiance was plighted.