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In
Memoriam
John B. Barnes
At
the session of the Supreme Court of the State of Nebraska,
June 6, 1921, there being present:
Chief
Justice
Honorable
Andrew M. Morrissey
Associate
Justices
Honorable
Charles B. Letton,
Honorable
William B. Rose,
Honorable
James R. Dean,
Honorable
Chester H. Aldrich,
Honorable
George A. Day, and
Honorable
Leonard A. Flansburg
the
following proceedings were had:
May
it please the court:
Your
committee appointed to present appropriate resolutions
commemorative of the life and services of the late John
B. Barnes. Beg to report as follows:
John
B. Barnes was born on a farm in Ashtabula county, Ohio
in 1846. At the age of 18 years he enlisted as a private
in Battery E, First Ohio Light Artillery, and there
after until the close of the Civil War, and until mustered
out in July, 1865, engaged in active service with his
company. Judge Barnes came west in 1870, settling first
at Fredericksburg, Iowa, and in June 1871, located near
Ponca, Nebraska, on a homestead. He married Miss Ida
Hannant of Butler county, Iowa. After coming to Nebraska
he taught school for a time and studied law, was admitted
to the bar, and immediately entered on the practice
of his profession. He was elected district attorney
of the Third district in 1876, and served until he was
appointed judge of that district in 1877, in which capacity
he served for six years. In 1888 he located in Norfolk,
Nebraska, where he remained in the practice of his profession
Until January 1, 1902, when he was appointed supreme
court commissioner, in which capacity he served until
elected one of the judges in 1905. He served two full
terms as a judge of this court. Later he was assisted
in the office of attorney general. Judge Barnes died
in Lincoln, January 14, 1921, survived by a wife and
two sons.
Intensely
patriotic as a citizen, industrious and painstaking
in every vocation he entered, frank, open, kindly, and
courageous at all times, generous to a fault, devoid
of malice and ready to forgive, he passed through the
pioneer days of Nebraska, and came to this high court
at the zenith of his splendid physical and mental powers.
On this bench, as on the district bench, his varied
experience in life, his studious and industrious habits,
his logical turn of mind, his sympathy, coupled with
inflexible integrity, and a genius for the disposition
of work that came to his hands, made him a just and
learned judge, helpful to his associates, and a valuable
servant of the commonwealth. In private life his counsel
was ever sought, first by his neighbors and later by
his clients, and his desire was ever that he should
assist those neighbors and clients, rather than that
out of their misfortunes he should amass a fortune.
His life was a blessing, and his memory shall ever be
an unfailing joy to his family, comrades, associates,
and to the people of this great state. The sudden removal
of such a man from the commonwealth in which he for
many years held high and responsible positions leaves
a vacancy and casts a shadow, which is deeply felt by
all, and his death will prove a grievous loss to the
state.
Therefore,
Be It resolved, that in the death of John B. Barnes,
the bar of this state has lost and active, able, and
upright member, and the commonwealth a loyal, devoted
and useful judge and citizen.
Be
It Further Resolved, that these resolutions be spread
upon the records of the court, and that a copy be transmitted
by the clerk, under the seal of the court, to the widow
and family of our departed brother.
Respectfully
submitted,
M.
D. Tyler
Jacob
Fawcett
Clarence
A. Davis
Jesse
L. Root
William
V. Allen
Judge
William V. Allen:
May
It Please The Court:
John
Beaumont Barnes was born in East Trumbull, Ohio, August
26, 1846. He was educated in the common schools and
at Grand River Institute in that state, and was a private
in Battery E, First Ohio Light Artillery in the Civil
War. He was admitted to the bar in 1872, and was married
to Ida Frances Hannant at Ponca, Nebraska, in 1874.
He was district attorney of the sixth judicial district
from 1875 to 1879, and judge of the sixth judicial district
from 1879 to 1883. He was a commissioner of this court
from 1902 to 1904, and a justice from January 1, 1904,
to his reelection in 1909. For a time he was en officio
chief justice, and he died January 14, 1921.
I
first met him at Fredericksburg, an interior Iowa village,
in the winter of 1867. We were young men fresh from
the Civil War. It was after he came to the bar of the
county of my residence in 1888 that I became better
acquainted with him. I found him to be an intelligent
gentleman of pleasing address, easily approached, and
companionable. It was then that I first met him in a
professional way, and, until I was elevated to the bench
in 1892, we were opposing counsel in many cases, and,
while there was sharp rivalry, our relations were pleasant.
He practiced before me in 1892 and until I was sent
to the United States senate, and again in 1899 until
I was returned to the senate, and our friendship was
never marred nor broken.
He
lived and was active in the most important period of
the world's history. The life of our dead friend was
typical of the lives of thousands of other American
boys of humble birth, who, by energy and persistence,
arose from obscurity to popularity and power. It has
been given to few men to participate more actively than
he in the development of the state. As husband and father,
soldier and citizen, jurist and judge, he performed
his full duty, and he did much in shaping and molding
the policies of the state. His domestic life was tranquil,
and he peacefully passed away, leaving his wife and
two sons to mourn his loss; one son having preceded
him to eternity. He was a careful and painstaking judge
and a jurist of undoubted merit. He was familiar with
the legislative and judicial history of the state and
was well grounded in the elementary principles of jurisprudence.
I am not sufficiently informed of his habits of study
to know whether he explored the field of abstract science
or was devoted to Belles letters, familiar with the
great epochs of history.
It
is difficult to speak in befitting terms and in adequate
language of one who was lately of our number. I am assured
that he held to the Christian faith, - that life is
but a transition state and the grave, instead of being
a wall, is a door opening into a future and more delightful
world. Since the introduction of the Christian era and
the extinction of paganism and pagan philosophy, men
have believed in a future existence and the hope of
salvation has been universal. "I am the resurrection
and the life: He that believeth in me, though he were
dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die," says Christ. If life is
to end here and is a mere span of the hand on the dial-plate
of time, and labor and sorrow are to count for nothing,
if death is to end all and the grave is the final resting
place, man's struggle is of no avail. But we have the
Divine promise of the resurrection and the life to come,
and that the natural body is to be superseded by a spiritual
body, and these promises are definite and specific:
"Behold,"
it is said, "I show you a mystery: We shall not
all sleep, but we shall all be
changed: In a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: For the
trumpet
shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible,
and we shall be changed. For
this corruptible must put
on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
So
when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption,
and this mortal shall have put on
immortality, then
shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,
Death is swallowed
up in victory. O death, where is
thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"
And
when we, too, shall pass away, our homes will be among
the heavens; "the problems
that our burdened souls
have studied so despairingly shall be happily solved;
and we
may even become participators in the knowledge
and power of Him.
Whose
power o'er moving worlds presides,
Whose
voice created and whose wisdom guides.
To
this felicity the friend we now with tenderness remember
has already advanced. We would not, if we could, bring
him back to earth, slowly and painfully to die again.
We wait, reverently and hopefully, for the summons to
us to join him in some star that is shining, from eternity
to eternity, with unfading luster in God's illimitable
wilderness of worlds." Requiescat in pace.
Honorable
M. D. Tyler:
May It Please The Court:
I cannot permit this occasion
to pass without paying a personal tribute to the memory, character, and
services of Judge Barnes, by bringing, as it were, my robin's leaf to deck the hearse
of him who in this life wrought so honorably and so well.
I knew Judge Barnes well, even intimately, for more than
thirty years. I came to this state a stranger in 1888 and judge Barnes was the
first person with whom I became acquainted after arriving here. He generously
permitted me to occupy a desk in his office until the beginning of the year
1890, when we formed a partnership in the practice of law, which continued
until the year 1902, when he became a supreme court commissioner. Our
relations, both personal and in a business way, were always most pleasant and
agreeable, and, to me at least, most helpful. His death, therefore, comes to me
as a great personal loss.
Judge Barnes was in many ways a remarkable man. He had a
mind of great power and clearness. He possessed, to a degree vouchsafed to but
few, the faculty of taking a complicated state of facts involved in a lawsuit
and arriving quickly and accurately at the real, deciding issues involved
therein. This faculty was of great assistance to him, not only as a lawyer at
the bar, but also as a judge on the bench. He was strongly partisan, but never
contentious. I never knew him to take part in a political argument. He was
jealous of his own opinions, yet always tolerant of the opinions of others. One
beautiful trait of his character was exhibited in this, that he never spoke ill
of any one. He seemed able always to find something good to say of every one.
Although he loved and was exceedingly proud of his profession, he cared little
for its emoluments. He was absolutely without acquisitiveness. Being happiest
when doing good for others, he would go on foot and out of his way to help
those in need.
Of Judge Barnes it can truthfully be said that he was a
splendid lawyer and an upright judge, and that he was a man, taken all in all,
whose like we shall not soon see again.
Chief
Justice Andrew M. Morrissey
Realizing that our committee, so far as human minds are
given to do, have correctly portrayed the life and character of our late
associate, I am content to let the record stand as they have written it.
However, I cannot let the occasion go by without a personal word to the memory
of one I loved so well. It is often said of some striking character that he is
typical of that; but as I live and work again, in memory, with Judge Barnes, I
see in him the typical American – big and active of body, keen and alert of
intellect, courageous in battle, wise in council, loyal to his ideals, and
devoted to his family and friends. As a judge all persons were alike to him,
and in his judgments "Equality Before The Law" was a living,
breathing idealism. He did what his conscience told him it was right to do and
never stopped to count the cost.
As a mark of respect to his memory the resolutions
presented and the addresses delivered will be spread upon the journal and
printed in the reports.
The Source: Reports of Cases in the Supreme Court of
Nebraska January and September Terms, 1920,
and January Term 1921 Volume CV
Transcribed
and Contributed by: Debbie Lee
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