Barnes House

The Barnes House is a historic but now abandoned residence once occupied by a well-regarded and politically connected family in Ohio.

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The Barnes House is a historic but now abandoned residence once occupied by a well-regarded and politically connected family in Ohio.

After losing a patent dispute before the Virginia legislature, Joseph Barnes, a respected Virginian and co-inventor of the steamboat, moved his family to Scioto County, Ohio. ^{1 2} Between 1803 and 1805, they constructed a stately Georgian-style home south of Sargents (present-day Piketon) in the fertile Scioto River Valley. The house, inspired by Masonic design principles, featured a distinctive pyramid-on-cube form. ²

A prominent Freemason, Barnes was acquainted with several national figures, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. ^{1 2} Serving as Secretary of State under Washington, Jefferson worked personally with Barnes to revise the nation’s early patent laws. ²

In 1848, Abraham Lincoln stayed at the Barnes residence during his final term in Congress. ^{1 2} Traveling by steamboat from St. Louis up the Ohio River, Lincoln became intrigued by the region’s Native American earthworks after reading Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley by Ephraim George Squier and Edwin Hamilton Davis. ² The Barnes property, aligned on a cross-axis with the Seal Township earthworks, a perfect circle and square uniquely oriented north-south, was of particular interest to him.

In 1900, a local youth reportedly shot the last passenger pigeon seen in the wild near the Barnes farm. ^{1 2} Unaware of the bird’s rarity, he brought it to the Barnes residence, where Blanche Barnes, a taxidermist, preserved it. The specimen was displayed in the home for many years before being donated to the Ohio History Center in Columbus.

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Sources

1. Wrage, Eric. “A Pike County Gem: The Barnes Home.” News Watchman, 29 Mar. 2019.
2. “Barnes or ‘Seal Township’ Earthworks.” The Ancient Ohio Trail, 2017.