Los Angeles County, CA, Biographies

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm



WILLIAM P. BARNES 
 
is the son of Larkin Barnes, one of the early settlers of Los Angeles County. 
His father was a native of Boone County, Kentucky, and was born in 1803. He was 
closely related to the historical Daniel Boone. In his young manhood he located 
in Missouri and engaged in farming in Carroll and Warren counties. While there 
he
was married, and after the death of that wife he took for his second wife Mrs. 
Elizabeth Jones, nee Bohannan, the widow of David Jones. In 1847 he located in 
Tarrant County, Texas, where the subject of this sketch was born in 1857. In 
1859 Mr. Barnes' father came with the family to Los Angeles County and located
at El Monte, and engaged in farming operations until 1870. And in that year he 
located at the Azusa, about a mile and a half southeast of the present city of 
Azusa, and engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death, which occurred in 
1885. He was a man well known throughout the section in which he resided, and by 
his many good qualities and consistent course of life gained the respect and 
esteem of the community. The subject of this sketch was reared in Los Angeles 
County, receiving his education in the public schools of El Monte and the Azusa. 
He remained upon his father's farm until 1881, and then went to Arizona, where 
he spent about a year in prospecting and mining. Not meeting with the desired 
success in that occupation he returned to the Azusa and conducted his father's 
farming operations until 1883. He then established a livery stable and hotel at 
the Azusa and managed these enterprises until the death of his father, when he 
returned again to the old homestead and engaged in farming and settling up of 
the estate. In 1887 Mr. Barnes sold out his farming lands, a portion of the old 
homestead, and established a real-estate agency in Azusa and at Gladstone, which 
he has since conducted. He has been prominently connected with the building up 
of both Azusa and Gladstone, and has taken an active and leading part in such 
enterprises as would tend to induce the settlement of his section. He is well 
known throughout the Azusa. Politically he is a Democrat, but is liberal in his 
views. In 1880 he was elected constable of the township, and in 1883 elected as 
the overseer of the water supply of the district, both of which positions he 
filled with credit to himself and to the satisfaction of his constituents. He is 
an energetic and go-ahead citizen, and besides his interest in Azusa and 
Gladstone, he is an owner of real estate in Alosta. In 1884 Mr. Barnes married 
Miss Blanche Hudson, the daughter of Henry and Martha Hudson, residents of 
Azusa. Mrs. Barnes was born in Texas. From this marriage there are two children: 
Herbert and Lucile. Mr. Barnes's mother died at the Azusa in 1881. The members 
of his father's family now residing in California are: James C., who married 
Miss Mary Neel; and Sarah E., now Mrs. Oliver G. Malone, residents of Lompoc, 
Santa Barbara County; and Cynthia E., now Mrs. M. Wakefield, of Los Angeles 
County. Of his mother's children from her first marriage there are two, both 
residents of Los Angeles County: Jonathan C. Jones and Mrs. Mary E. Downs.
 
An Illustrated History of Los Angeles County, California �  Chicago, The Lewis 
Publishing Company, 1889   Page 708
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler