Yolo-San Francisco County CA Archives Biographies.....Barnes, H. T. 1857 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 5, 2005, 2:47 am

Author: Tom Gregory

H. T. BARNES & SON

    No modern development in the building business has affected more vitally the
permanent character of such work than the introduction and increasing use of
cement, which, utilized in foundations or for entire structures as well as in
sidewalks, bridges and vaults, has proved an indispensable factor in the
industrial growth of every community. The firm of H. T. Barnes & Son, organized
in 1906, represents the results of years of activity on the part of the older
member of the concern, who for thirty years or more has engaged in cement work
in Woodland and vicinity. Meanwhile he has had charge of the building of
practically all of the sidewalks in the town, has erected cement dairies in the
country and has built vaults and walls in the cemetery, besides erecting a fine
monument of reinforced concrete in the city cemetery. The first concrete
foundation in this part of Yolo county was put under his residence at No. 524
Walnut street, Woodland, and since then an almost universal adoption of such
foundations has followed. Many of these have been put in place under his
supervision, including the foundation for the Odd Fellows' Building.

    A superior quality of cement always has been used. In earlier days much of
this was imported from Germany, Belgium and England, but more recently the
product manufactured in Solano and Napa counties has grown in popular favor and
its practicability has been proved by actual experience. About twenty-seven
years ago Mr. Barnes built a reinforced culvert bridge with steel rods, being
the first resident of the entire county to attempt such work. Ten years later
reinforced work was patented. As early as 1894 he erected at the Yolo Orchard a
reinforced concrete packinghouse, 50x100 feet in dimensions and two and one-half
stories high. Although on two different occasions fire has broken out in this
packing house and threatened its destruction, its walls are still standing firm
and substantial as when first erected. Besides his work in this locality he has
had contracts at Suisun, Solano county, and in other counties. The joint bridge
between Yolo and Solano county, of which he was the inspector and which was
built in 1906, has three spans, each one hundred and twenty-five feet long, and
merits especial mention on account of being the largest bridge of its kind west
of Kansas City. In 1911 he was inspector on the facing of levees two and
one-half miles long in the Lisbon district; said reinforced facing would equal
an area of twelve and one-half acres. In it were used over twenty thousand
barrels of cement, and it is considered the largest space covered continuously
in the United States.

    Of Canadian birth and parentage, Henry Thomas Barnes was born near the city
of Toronto April 14, 1857. At the age of fourteen years he lost by death his
father, John Barnes, and then went to Michigan, where he served an
apprenticeship under a merchant tailor. The occupation proved too sedentary for
his health and he sought outdoor employment, thus having his attention called to
the cement business, in which he has been unqualifiedly successful. After he
came to California in 1879 he endeavored to resume tailoring, but a short period
of work proved too confining and he left San Francisco for Woodland in 1882. In
the marble yard of H. P. Martin he found employment congenial to his tastes and
suited to his physical demands. Here he began to interest people in cement work.
His predecessors had been so unsuccessful that would-be buyers were suspicious
of the industry, but Mr. Barnes soon proved that he thoroughly understood the
proper proportions of sand and cement necessary for permanent results. Sidewalks
laid by him years ago are as solid today as when first laid. Forming a
partnership with J. O. Shaffer in 1883 he opened a marble yard and plant for the
manufacture of cement products on Main street, opposite the Pacific hotel, but
when his partner died a year later he discontinued the marble business, since
which time he has devoted his energies to the erection of concrete bridges,
culverts, foundations, fence posts, water troughs, tanks, houses, business
structures, and indeed, the many purposes to which cement is applicable.

    When he came to Woodland in 1882 Mr. Barnes was unmarried. November 5, 1884,
he married Miss Mollie Cosby, a native of St. Charles county, Mo., and a
daughter of Josiah Cosby of that state. Mr. and Mrs. Barnes are the parents of
two children, Cosby H. (his father's partner) and Ruth. Fraternally he holds
membership with the Woodland lodge of Masons, chapter and commandery, and with
the lodge and encampment of Odd Fellows and the Woodmen of the World. For many
years Mr. Barnes was a member of the board of trustees of the Odd Fellows' Hall,
besides having served as noble grand and for four terms filling the post of
district deputy grand master and two terms as district deputy grand patriarch of
the encampment. In the Rebekahs, to which he and his wife belong, the latter has
served as noble grand, and they are also both members of the Order of Eastern
Star. The Methodist Episcopal Church South has received their earnest support,
and Mr. Barnes for years gave the most efficient service as superintendent of
the Sunday school. As a member of the First Rifle Team he accompanied his
command from California to the meet at Seagirt, N. J., the government defraying
all expenses. For seven years he was a member of the California National Guard
and retired with the rank of sergeant of Company F, Second California Regiment,
to which his son and partner also has belonged for the past five years or more.

    The junior member of the firm, Cosby H. Barnes, is a native son of Woodland,
born June 1, 1886. After completing his education he was for a time employed
with the Wells, Fargo Company. Having learned the cement business from a youth,
in 1906 lie joined his father in the business and since then has been actively
interested with him. He was married in Woodland, December 30, 1906, to Miss
Hazel Irene Roberts, who was born near Woodland, and to them have been born two
children, Virginia Elberta and Elwood Henry. For six years he has been and still
is a member of Company F, Second Regiment of California, and served with the
regiment at the San Francisco fire in 1906. In 1911 he was a member of the team
that won the regimental cup and also the lodge state cup. He holds membership in
Woodland Lodge of Masons and encampment of the Odd Fellows, in which he is a
past grand, and he is also a member of the Woodmen of the World.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

HISTORY OF YOLO COUNTY CALIFORNIA
WITH
Biographical Sketches
OF
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been Identified With Its Growth
and Development From the Early Days to the Present

HISTORY BY
TOM GREGORY
AND OTHER WELL KNOWN WRITERS
ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME

HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA [1913]

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