Biography of Benjamin Franklin Barnes, Chattahoochee, Gadsden County, FL

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Transcribed from:  The History of Florida:  Past & Present, The Lewis Publishing Co., Vol. 
II, page 251, 1923.

BARNES, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, M.D.  Besides the time he has given to the Florida State Hospital 
at Chattahoochee as assistant physician Doctor Barnes has been prominent as a private 
practitioner and has made himself one of the most prominent influences working for the civic 
and prominent influences working for the civic and material advancement of his section of the
state.

He is a native of Florida, born on a plantation near Monticello in Jefferson County, February 28, 
1877.  His father, BENJAMIN F. BARNES, Sr., was born at Madison, North Carolina, in 1843, and 
died at Monticello, Florida, in 1920.  His mother, DELIAH A. GILBERT, was born in Jefferson 
County, Florida, where her father, R. M. GILBERT, was one of the first settlers.  BENJAMIN F. 
BARNES became a large landowner in Jefferson County, and operated a plantation with cotton 
gins and water mills.  He was a deacon in the Baptist Church.

Doctor BARNES spent his boyhood on a farm, acquired a country school education, attended the 
high school at Monticello, and spent two years, 1895-96 and 1896-97, in the South Florida 
Military and Educational Institute. In 1897 he began the study of medicine in the University 
of Pennsylvania, spent two years there and one year in the University of Maryland, and received
his M. D. degree in 1901 from the Marion Sims College of Medicine in St. Louis.  Doctor BARNES 
returned to Monticello in June, 1901, and was in general practice there two years, and in 1903
removed to Chattahoochee.  He continued general practice until 1910, when he was appointed the
first assistant physician to the Florida State Hospital.  He resigned this post in October, 
1914, and resumed his practice at Chattahoochee.  He again became assistant physician at the 
State Hospital in December, 1921.

Doctor BARNES is owner of the River Junction Drug Store.  While at Monticello he served as 
secretary of the Jefferson County Medical Society, and is now a member of the Gadsden-Leon 
County Medical Society, the Florida State and American Medical associations.  He was actively 
interested in the Red Cross and other movements during the World war.  In Masonry he is a past 
master of Gee Lodge No. 21, F. and A. M., past high priest of Gadsden Chapter No. 30, R. A. M., 
at present is senior warden of DeMolay Commandery, K. T., U. D., a member of Morocco Temple of 
the Mystic Shrine since 1908, and for two years served as district deputy grand master for 
Gadsden, Liberty and Franklin counties.

In the interval between his services with the State Hospital Doctor BARNES was local physician
 for the Louisville & Nashville, Seaboard Atlantic Coast Line and the Apalachicola Northern 
Railroads.  He was instrumental in incorporating the town of River Junction, and has served as 
its mayor.  He has been active in politics, serving on the executive committee for Gadsden 
County in the Third Congressional District.  He has been chairman of his school district for 
over ten years.  He was closely associated with others in the movement to secure Gadsden County's 
cooperation in the issue of bonds for the building of the Victory Bridge over the Chattahoochee 
River, one of the finest bridges in the state.  Doctor BARNES is a director of the Gadsden County 
Chamber of Commerce, and is a man ever ready to enlist his support in every constructive movement. 
His recreation usually takes the form of hunting.

In 1903, at River Junction, he married Miss LENA JOHNSON, a native of Gadsden County, and daughter
of J. H. JOHNSON, now deceased, who was a farmer near Mount Pleasant.  Doctor and Mrs. BARNES 
have three children, MARY OLIVIA, BENJAMIN F., Jr., and MARJORIE.