Jackson County, West Virginia Biography of HON. URIAH BARNES. This file was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 446-447 HON. URIAH BARNES. While he has practiced law suc- cessfully and has been an influential member of the Leg- islature, Uriah Barnes is now and will be in the future known permanently for his remarkable industry and his mature scholarship as a legal writer and contributor to the literature of the legal profession. He was born in Jackson County, West Virginia, in 1883. His father, Charles W. Barnes, was a native of Ohio, and the Town of Barnesville, Ohio, was named for the family. Charles W. Barnes about 1875 settled in Jackson County, West Virginia, and is still living there. Uriah Barnes was accustomed to farm labor when a boy, secured his education in public schools, and also attended West Virginia University. At the age of sixteen he began teaching, and taught for two terms. His home has been at Charleston since 1901. He finished a business course in Elliott's Business College, did clerical work in several offices, and in the meantime was diligently studying law and qualified for practice in 1908. The next four years he was at the state capitol with the Supreme Court of Appeals, briefing cases for the use of the judges of that court. No law school could offer opportunities for a more thorough training for a young lawyer, and it was in this work that Mr. Barnes improved his talent for a legal analysis and a clear statement that distin- guished his own publications. For years he has been a student of the best in standard and general literature as well as in his own field. For years he was a law instructor in the University College of Law and for one year was secretary of the College of Agriculture and the Experiment Station at Morgantown. His literary work has been done both as an editor and author, and he has contributed a number of articles to law encyclopedias. Recently he com- piled and edited the ordinances of Charleston. His first important achievement was editing the "West Virginia Code" of 1916, making a careful and exhaustive study of all state statutes. This was issued in a handy form, but has recently been fully revised to include all the laws down to 1922, with full annotations to the same date, and has been published as "Barnes' West Virginia Code of 1922, Annotated." One or the other of these books is probably known to every practicing attorney in West Virginia and in many other states as well. In 1919 his "Barnes' Federal Code" appeared. This book is now the standard and monumental work in its field. The American Law Review said: "It marks an epoch in law publishing." The "Bench and Bar of West Vir- ginia," by Judge Atkinson, speaks of this work as fol- lows: "He brought to bear in this work a comprehensive knowledge, a sound and discriminating judgment, a genius for editorial detail that have combined to bring him uni- versal recognition as a master in his field. The remark able sale of the Federal Code in every state in the Union and abroad, and the unsolicited encomiums upon it, coming from bench and bar and from eminent scholars and edu- cators throughout the country, attest its rank as a master- piece of compilation." Mr. Barnes was elected to the House of Delegates in 1920 as a member from Kanawha County. He served on the judiciary committee and the committee on public build- ings and humane institutions, and was sponsor for a law creating the State Board of Childrens' Guardians, and the State Training School for Mental Defectives. He introduced a minimum wage bill, which was killed in com- mittee, and was author of a bill favored by many of the ablest lawyers and judges of the state for the reform of the judicial procedure. Mr. Barnes has participated in a number of republican campaigns and has attended three national conventions of the party. He has a mind of remarkable power, and has carried on his studies and investigations over a large field involving sociology, economics, political science and history, as well as the literature of his own profession. He is a member of the Methodist Church. Mr. Barnes married Lena Belle Ice, and they have two children, Hugh and Margaret.