Husband William R. Barnhart 1 2 3
Born: 23 Jun 1841 - Hempfield Twp, Westmoreland Co, PA 1 4
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Died: 26 Jan 1922 3
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Father: John Barnhart (1807-1858) 1 2 5
Mother: Elizabeth Row (1809-1884) 1 3 4
Marriage: 29 Jan 1863 1 6
Wife Catherine Sherrick Shupe 1 3 7
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Died: 25 Apr 1917 3 7
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Father: George Shupe ( - ) 1 3 8
Mother: Ann(a) Sherrick (1811-1886) 3 8
Children
1 F Anna Elizabeth Barnhart 1 3 7
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2 F Ella J. Barnhart 1 3 7
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Spouse: William H. Blank (1861- ) 1 6
3 M George S. Barnhart 1 3 7 9 10
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Spouse: Agnes Beatty Steel ( -Aft 1906) 1 6 9
4 F Cora Blanche Barnhart 1 3 7 11
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Spouse: James Craig McClelland ( - ) 11 12
5 M John Love Barnhart 1 3 7
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Spouse: Emma Rupp ( - ) 6
6 F Lavina S. Barnhart 1 3
AKA: Lavinia S. Barnhart 7
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Spouse: John Hood Branson ( - ) 6
7 F Alberta May Barnhart 1 3 7
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Died: 16 Jun 1914 3 7
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Spouse: John Hood Branson ( - ) 6
Marr: 29 Aug 1907 6
8 M William Ralph Barnhart 1 3 7
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Spouse: Helen Bryce ( - ) 6
9 M Paul Shupe Barnhart 1 5 13
Born: 16 Sep 1880 - Hempfield Twp, Westmoreland Co, PA 3 14
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Spouse: M. Alice Breck ( - ) 3 6
Marr: 25 Mar 1909 - Scranton, Lackawanna Co, PA 3 14
General Notes: Husband - William R. Barnhart
He received his education in the rural schools and Westmoreland College at Mount Pleasant. He was especially strong in mathematics at school and devoted much time to surveying, in which he became proficient. Leaving school he was engaged in farming and surveying until 1868, when he was elected county surveyor. He served very creditably and at the expiration of his term of office returned to his farm, where he remained engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1889, when he was re-elected county surveyor.
In political opinion he was an earnest democrat.
He was a deacon and elder of the Reformed church for over twenty-seven years, beginning in about 1863. He was one of the eight lay delegates of his denomination from the United States to the Alliance of the different Reformed denominations of the world, which was held at London, England, in July, 1889. Leaving London, he made an extensive tour through continental Europe and visited many of its special points of interest.
He always took an active interest in school affairs.
His two farms consisted of two hundred and fifty acres of very fertile and highly cultivated land. "Mr. Barnhart understands the secrets of progressive agriculture so well and practices them so successfully that he raises as many bushels of wheat, corn and cuts as many tons of hay per acre as any other farmer in the county and at the same time does not impoverish the soil of his fertile farms."
He was born and lived many years on the homestead farm, where he prospered by farming on a large scale. He bought an adjoining farm, which brought his acreage up to a total of two hundred and fifty, most of it under cultivation. He moved to Greensburg in 1903.
He was born on the Barnhart homestead. He lived there until 1903, when the family home was changed to one on South Main street in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. He received his education in the district school at Hannastown, and in the Mt. Pleasant College, where he had one winter term. Being apt in mathematics he devoted most of his time there to trigonometry and surveying. Afterwards he made farming along with surveying a successful business. He was elected county surveyor in 1868, during the period when the State had ordered all unpatented lands to be surveyed, paid for and patented. In 1889, twenty-one years later, he was again elected to the same office.
In 1892 he was elected to the House of Representatives at Harrisburg. He was a born Democrat and worked for his party's best interests. He was a gold Democrat in 1896, voted for McKinley and Roosevelt in 1900, for Roosevelt in 1904, and reluctantly for Bryan in 1908. He was a staunch friend of Mr. Wilson from his nomination at the Baltimore convention. His confidence in this man and President increased during the trying years of his administration. Mr. Barnhart was an active politician all his life. In the State he was effective with his pen against the proposed constitutional amendment for the fifty million dollar loan in 1913, and against the woman's suffrage amendment in 1915. He was an occasional contributor to church, agricultural and county papers. He was a member of the consistory of the Second Reformed Church for more than fifty years, having been elected deacon in 1863, and elder in 1869. He quite frequently represented the congregation in Westmoreland Classis and in Pittsburgh Synod, and was sent as a delegate of Classis to General Synod a number of times. Three times the latter body elected him a delegate to the Alliance of the Reformed Churches holding the Presbyterian System, and he attended these meetings in London and Glasgow. He served as treasurer of General Synod for fifteen years. He was a member of the board of trustees of Franklin and Marshall College at Lancaster, Pennsylvania and served thirty-two years or more on the board of trustees of the Theological Seminary at that place.
As a farmer Mr. Barnhart had unusual success. In 1870 he purchased an adjoining farm and for more than twenty-five years raised large crops of wheat and corn. In 1906 he sold the Pittsburgh seam of coal which underlay these farms, and the surface became the property of his oldest son.
He was a director and a large stockholder in the Barclay-Westmoreland Trust Company. In the strenuous years of his life, and later, he found time to travel extensively with various members of his family in America and in Europe.