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The following material was generously contributed by Mary Martin of Salem,
Virginia, whose husband, Robert Martin, is a great-great-great-grandson
of Rev. Enoch Barnes, who died in Sackets Harbor on 9 June 1877 at the
age of 85 yrs 5 mo. and is buried in the Sulpher Springs Cemetery.
Enoch's daughter Armenia Barnes and her husband Benjamin Orchard had ten
children, among whom was Effie E. Orchard who married Lonson Dyer Harris,
son of James Harris and Annie Valitta Washburn, daughter of Dyer Washburn,
also of Hounsfield.
More information can be had by contacting the Martins at mbmart@earthlink.net |
Barnes
Family | Orchard Family | Harris
Family | Washburn
Family
Sulpher Springs Church | 1864
Property Map
The
Benjamin Orchard Home Farm
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From, John A. Haddock's Centennial History of Jefferson County, N.Y., Sherman & Co., Philadelphia, Pa., 1894, p. 609-610. Rev. Enoch Barnes was one of the earliest Methodist preachers in the Black River country. His father, Rev. Asah Barnes, was also a minister, well remembered at Little Falls1 and along the Mohawk Valley as a most fearless and devoted preacher of the word of God, the contemporary of the Rev. Lorenzo Dow, who made Elder Barnes' house his home while upon his journeys up and down the central part of the State--a man of rude and uncultured manners, but possessed of a power over men, through the persusave influence of his eloquence, that roused thousands to the forsaking of sinful ways, and to following Him, who Himself was a preacher, and "spake as never man spake." Enoch Barnes married Miss Anor Hazen soon after he was licensed to preach. He first began as an exhorter, when a mere lad, doubtless tutored more or less by his father, and when scarcely 21 was accepted into the Methodist itinerancy, and began that singularly devoted Christian life, which earned him a place among the foremost preachers of his day. There must have been some peculiar strain of eloquence in this family, for one of Elder Barnes' nephews was that Rev. Dr. Haddock, murdered at Sioux City, Iowa, by the Whiskey men, after he had been for years one of the most eloquent Methodist preachers in the whole West. Elder Barnes' eldest child was born at Little Falls in 1814. Soon afterwards he removed to the Black River country, and located upon a piece of land in Jericho, a precinct of Hounsfield, where he reared a numerous family, all of whom are deceased, except his eldest daughter, Mrs. Benjamin Orchard2, who has removed from Camp's Mills to her residence in Sackets Harbor. It was in 1811 that he joined the Methodist itinerency. His first visit to Jefferson County was as a drafted man to participate in the battle of Sacket's Harbor.3 Without attempting to follow Elder Barnes through all his itineracy, it will be enough to say that he was faithful in the discharge of every ministerial duty. There came a time when the great question of Christian fellowship with slave-holders began to agitate the Methodist Church, and Elder Barnes, who had Revolutionary blood in his veins, resolved to secede from any ministerial relation with a church which countenanced slavery, even by implication. He left, with great reluctance, the organization in which he had been so long an honored minister, and retired to his farm in Jericho. It was not many years before the M.E. Church took the same ground he had advocated, and declared itself as unwilling to longer maintain Christian fellowship with owners of slaves, and then began the two distinct organizations of the great church, an Northern and Southern, the separation continuing until this day. Elder Barnes had one peculiarly eloquent and able son, William Hazen Thomas Barnes, who was also a preacher. He lost his life in the Texan army, where he held the rank of Chaplain, in one of the battles with the Mexicans previous to the admission of that State into the Union. This young man was a protege of Hon. Eldridge G. Merick, of Clayton, who sent him to college. Having retired from the Methodist itinerancy, Elder Barnes thenceforth affiliated himself with the Seventh-Day Baptists, which denomination he served for nearly twenty-five years, both in New Jersey and State of New York. In 1842 he removed to Sackets Harbor, and though he preached more of less after that, the real activity of his ministerial life was closed. The Seventh-Day Baptist Church at Sulphur Springs he served more or less for many years, for it was near his old Jericho home, and was also the neighborhood where three of his sisters had lived, and in the near-by graveyard reposed his aged mother, Mrs. Sally Barnes. Having come to Houndsfield to reside, in the year 1822, he was at his death one of the oldest inhabitants of the town, certainly one of the most respected. He died in Sacket's Harbor, in 1877.4 Elder Barnes was a man of peculiarly simple and unpretending manner. But his personal convictions were always strong. When he believed a thing he gave it its complete logical sequence. Believing human slavery to be a sin against God and man, he declined to fellowship with any church or body of men who held the converse to be true. He could not stifle his convictions. If he could not preach the complete doctrine of universal Christianity, as applied to all men his blessed Master died to save, both black and white, he could not preach at all. He was a Garrison Abolitionist, one who believed that the Federal constitution, when it failed to protect the poor black man from brutality and chains, was indeed a "league with Hell." Thus believing, he so preached, and so lived." 1 Little Falls is a town in Herkimer County, New York |
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| 1864 Map of Hounsfield, showing residences of Benjamin Orchard & Family in lots 16 & 13 (the "Store" next door later became the Jenkins Homestead); Rev. E. Barnes in lot 45; and the Seventh Day Baptist Church in lower lot 10. The road extending north-south through the right-hand side of the map north of the church is Jericho Road. |
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Page 147; Dwelling Number 0355; Family Number 355
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| Sulpher
Springs Cemetery Burials
Recorded by Charles L. Martin; with notes Benjamin and Armenia B. Orchard Cyrus H., Richard B., Benjamin H., Darius Orchard (all sons of Benjamin and Armenia who died as infants or children) Rev. Enoch and Anor Barnes Sally Barnes (mother of Enoch) James and Anna V.(Washburn) Harris (parents of Lonson Dyer Harris) John M. Harris (son of James and Anna V.) Byron C. Harris (son of James and Anna V.) Mina (wife of Byron) |
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