Biographies:  Horace W. BARNES, Eau Claire, Eau Claire Co., WI 

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Horace W. Barnes was born in the town of Colesville,  Broome county, New 
York in 1818.  His boyhood was spent in the family of an uncle who settled 
in a dense beech and maple forest in Medina county, Ohio, where he lived 
a life of constant toil, without one day's schooling until his majority, 
and Shakespeare's line would then forcibly apply to the youthful Buckeye:

"This boy is forest-born, and hath been tutored in the rudiments of many 
desperate studies.:

How many men famous in American history have laid the superstructure of 
their education and built up an honorable name for such rough materials 
as poverty and the adverse circumstances that pioneer life always impose!  
There seems to have been something inspiring in the grand old woods where 
the early days of many of our most distinguished men first saw the light; 
and in overcoming the many natural obstacles always encountered in new 
districts, high aspirations and a determination to achieve grander results 
take possession of the hardy backwoodsman and frequently leads to victory, 
honor and fortune.

These feelings inspired Mr. Barnes, and with indomitable energy he set 
himself to earn the means to education himself.  By the most rigid economy 
and assiduous attention to his studies, he acquired a good English and 
mathematical education and considerable proficiency in the classics at 
Oberlin Institute, Ohio, acquisitions that he utilized in teaching and 
surveying until 1852, when he commenced the study and practice of law in 
which he soon won distinction as a sound legal adviser and laborious faithful 
advocate.

As a pleader, Mr. Barnes displayed qualities which, if not always insuring 
his own success, were well calculated to quench the ardor and paralyze the 
force of his adversary.

Carefully noting as the cause proceeded, the points which his antagonist 
intended to make, he would anticipate him and tell the court and jury 
precisely what his opponent would say, frequently using the exact language 
in which it would be clothed, and emasculating the argument of all points 
of power before it was uttered.  He felt defeat intensely and seemed to 
suffer even more than his client the loss incurred by any want of skill or 
foresight in managing a suit, and hence in all civil suits was wary and 
cautious, always exacting a full, impartial statement of the case from his 
client before taking it, and not then unless the evidence, justice and a 
reasonable prospect of success justified it.

In serving the public, no matter in what capacity, his industry and 
perseverance were untiring, and he shares with Mr. Thorp the honor of 
exposing frauds in the accounts of the Eau Claire county treasurer and of 
restoring the credit of the county.

Mr. Barnes came to Eau Claire in 1858 and was elected district attorney 
the next year, 1859, and county judge in 1865; was a member of the 
legislature in 1861 and 1867.  In politics, was a steadfast republican, and 
during the war zealous and active in carrying forward any and every measure 
for its prosecution.

In his friendship he utterly ignored position or caste, and wherever he 
found what he considered a true man, he was his friend, but scorned 
obsequious or patronizing airs, and was sometimes so impolite as to prefer 
blunt honesty to assumed gentility.  In 1872 he removed to Oswego, Kans., 
with his family, where he now resides in the practice of his profession.    

--Taken from "The History of Eau Claire County, 1914, Past & Present",
page 285.