John C. Barnhisel is numbered aiming the representative citizens of the Upper Peninsula and has been identified with important business interests in Sault Ste. Marie and Chippewa county for n number of years past. Mr. Barnhisel was born in the city of Cleveland, Ohio, on the 14th of July, 1870. and is a son of David and Martha (Campbell) Barnhisel, the former of whom was born in the state of Pennsylvania and the latter in England. The father now maintains his home at Willoughby, Lake county, Ohio, and the mother, who was born in 1848, died in 1888. The subject of this sketch being the only child. John C. Barnhisel was reared to maturity in his native city and after completing the curriculum of the public schools he continued his educational training in Brooks Academy, at Cleveland, Ohio. For many years he was identified with the coal mining and shipping industry. When twenty-two years of age he entered the employ of the Sterling Coal Mining Company, of Cleveland, with which he remained for a number of years, after which he was actively concerned in the management of the affairs of the Interocean Coal & Coke Company, in which he was a stockholder. In 1897 Mr. Barnhisel came to Sault Ste. Marie, where he became one of the organizers of the corporation just mentioned. Later the same was merged with the Port Royal Dock Company, which was organized in 1899, with headquarters in the city of Pittsburgh. This company also secured the property and business of the Port Royal Dock. Mr. Barnhisel is essentially progressive and public-spirited as a citizen and is distinctively popular in the city and county in which he maintains his home. He is a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Club and the Country Club, and in politics he maintains an independent attitude.

On the 5th of February. 1902, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Barnhisel to Ella Joanna, daughter of the late Guy H. Carleton, of Sault Ste. Marie.

History of Northern Peninsula of Michigan by Alvah L. Sawyer 1911