Frank Goffe Phipps Barnes, city controller and one of the best known of the younger business men of New Haven, was born in this city, September 18, 1877, a son of the late Thomas Attwater and Phoebe B. (Phipps) Barnes, and a grandson of Amos Foote Barnes, one of the city's leading business men. Amos F. Barnes came to New Haven from Watertown, Connecticut, in 1836 and in 1842 began his independent business career as a grocer, the outgrowth of which was the wholesale grocery business conducted for many years under the name of Fintch & Barnes and one of the well and favorably known business houses of the city. He married Nancy Richards Attwater, daughter of Thomas Attwater, and a descendant of David Attwater, one of the first settlers of New Haven.

Thomas Attwater Barnes, son of Amos F., was born in New Haven in 1848 and in 1869 became a partner of his father, when the firm name was established as Amos F. Barnes & Son and so continued until the partnership was terminated by the death of the senior member in 1890. Thomas Barnes stood in the first rank of New Haven's substantial and valued citizens, becoming closely identified with a number of the city's large business interests and actively interested in its public affairs. He served as president of the chamber of commerce; secretary of the State Board of Trade; president of the Union & New Haven Trust Company, which he organized; vice president and a director of the First National Bank, of which his father was an organizer; a trustee of the Connecticut Savings Bank, and director in a number of other corporations in New Haven and elsewhere. He was a member of the New Haven Grays, a famous organization in the city's history, known as Company F, Second Regiment of the National Guard of Connecticut, joining as a private and advancing to the rank of major in the regiment. He died in 1902. Major Barnes was married in 1873 to Phoebe Bryan Phipps, daughter of Frank Goffe Phipps, of New Haven. Mrs. Barnes passed away in 1903, the mother of two children, Amos Foote and Frank Goffe Phipps, the elder also a resident of New Haven.

Frank G. P. Barnes supplemented his public and high school training by study in the Boardman Manual Training School and after leaving the latter institution entered the banking business in connection with the New Haven Trust Company, with which he occupied a clerical position until 1897. He then turned his attention to newspaper publication, becoming connected with the Record Publishing Company as advertising solicitor. There he remained for two years and on the expiration of that period he became identified with the motor manufacturing business as secretary and treasurer of the Kidder Motor Vehicle Company. Mr. Barnes later secured a position with the New Haven Gas Light Company, steadily working his way upward from a minor position to one of prominence. When he resigned he was manager of the by-products department, but he put aside his duties in that connection in order to enter public office, having been elected in October, 1915, to the office of city controller.

On the 30th of November, 1904, Mr. Barnes was married to Miss Mae Louise Gilbert, of New Haven, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Gilbert, and they have two children: Francis Phipps, who was born in 1913; and Mathew Gilbert, in 1915.
 

Mr. Barnes is a popular public official and is a recognized leader in the local ranks of the republican party. He and his wife hold membership in Trinity church and he is identified with various social organizations, including the Quinnipiac Club, the Country Club, the Lawn Club and the New Haven Yacht Club.