Your Selected Michigan Memorial

NEWELL BARNARD.

Once more, as journalists, we are brought face to face with the mystery that shrouds this world, a mystery that all the investigation and resources of civilization in all the ages have been unable to explain. At 5 o’clock yesterday evening, July 9, 1883, a telephone message to the Courier from Sagi­naw City conveyed the startling announcement that Hon. Newell Barnard was no more, that he had been suddenly stricken down at his own home, and apparently in the full enjoyment of all his physical faculties, and had quietly laid down the burdens of a busy life forever.

The intelligence spread rapidly, and shocked the business circles in which Mr. Barnard had so long moved and in which he was well known in the Saginaw valley. Early last week Mr. Barnard went east, visiting Buffalo and other places, and also calling upon his daughter Lelia at Castile, N. Y., she being there for the benefit of her health. He returned on Saturday, and gentlemen who came on the train with him from Detroit report him as being in good spirits. Saturday afternoon he complained of being unusually tired, and called Dr. Barber in Sunday afternoon to attend a difficulty of long standing, and which apparently had been aggravated by the journey east, a difficulty not at all regarded as serious, and not connected with the cause of sudden dissolution. As the physician left, Mr. Barnard remarked: “Doctor, call again in the morning,” to which the reply was: “If I do you will not he here.” On Monday morning the doctor called again, and Mr. Barnard met him on the porch and said he was feeling better. The doctor advised him to keep quiet a little. He said he intended to. The doctor did not leave any medicine at either visit. Mr. Barnard ate a hearty dinner and for a time played with his son Arthur’s children, and then said to Arthur’s wife that be would go up stairs for a while. The next that was heard was his groaning as if in great distress. Mrs. Barnard went to him and he complained of a terrible pain in his chest, and told them to send for a doctor. They tel­ephoned and sent messengers for doctors. Dr. Barber was the first to get there. He saw at once that the case was very serious. He applied such rem­edies as were at hand, and sent for other physicians, but in a few moments death ended all. Before reaching the house, Dr. Barber heard Mr. Barnard’s groans. When he went in Mr. Barnard knew him and said: " For God’s sake, doctor, do something for this pain in my chest.” The cause of death is attributed to angina pectoris. Dr. Barber stated that he had never before noted any indications of the disease, nor anything that would lead him to think that Mr. Barnard would die suddenly.

Newell Barnard was born at Thornton, Grafton County, New Hampshire, March 19, 1825, the family moving to Oldtown, Maine, in September 1830, and lived there until 1853. September 12, 1854, Newell Barnard was mar­ried at Boston, Mass.; came direct to Michigan, and settled in Saginaw the following spring where he has remained since. Looking beyond the pine interest, which has proved of such immense benefit in effecting accumula­tions that are to aid in the development of other resources, he discovered in the future of Saginaw valley such permanent and enduring prosperity as are already indicated by the position which the former pine counties of Gratiot and Tuscola have taken among the farm counties of Michigan.

Mr. Barnard commenced at once the business of lumbering in Saginaw, in which he continued to the time of his death, handling, in connection with the firms with which he has been connected, an average of probably 15,000,000 feet every year since that time.

He was active in organizing, and was elected president of the second salt manufacturing company on Saginaw River, the Saginaw Salt Manufacturing Company, which commenced operations in 1861. He was a director in the first salt combination, the Saginaw and Bay Salt Company, during its exist­ence, and has since been a director of the legitimate successor of that company, the Michigan Salt Association, during its existence ; and not in either case a mere passive observer of the efforts of those organizations to effect system in the business and secure a legally authorized system of inspection, through which means Michigan’s salt has attained its present position in the markets of the country, but an earnest and consistent supporter of the association plan, the only plan that has ever been permanently successful here as elsewhere among salt manufacturers.

Mr. Barnard was the leading spirit in the organization of the Saginaw Bar­rel Works; was the leading spirit in organizing the delegation of Michigan lumbermen who visited Washington in 1872, the strongest lobby, it was said at the time, which ever appeared in Washington to represent any single man­ufacturing interest; and upon that, as upon every other important occasion where the interests of either lumber or salt were involved, was accounted the strongest among all strong men in the lumber fraternity. In 1872 the firm of Barnard & Binder built the iron-front block, corner of Hamilton and Franklin streets, Saginaw City, which is among the finest business blocks in any of the cities of the Saginaw valley. As assessor of the City of Saginaw, Mr. Barnard was a member of the board of supervisors for three years, and wielded an influence in that body which no man before or since has ever held; he was one of the most active and influential of all the citizens of Saginaw in securing the building of the Jackson, Lansing & Saginaw Railroad to and through the city, taking a leading part in the enterprise; was one of the directors, as also one of the executive committee, of the Saginaw Valley & St. Louis Railroad Company ; and has been foremost in aiding every church and public improvement, and encouraging every enterprise calculated to be of general benefit. He gave liberally to every agricultural enterprise, sus­taining by contribution and participation every fair that has been held in the vicinity ; and was one of the first to recognize the practicability of utilizing the farm districts in the vicinity of lumber operations by starting, many years ago, a six-hundred-acre farm on the Tobacco, whence he drew a large share of supplies, and whereon he reckoned, as among the most creditable improvements, a hundred and twenty-five-acre field without a stump.

Last fall Mr. Barnard was regularly nominated by the Republican conven­tion, of which party he was an active member, as candidate for Representa­tive in the State Legislature, from the First Saginaw district, and elected by a handsome majority of one hundred and sixty-five in a strong Democratic district. He was active and influential at Lansing during the session. Last spring he was nominated Mayor of Saginaw City, but failed by a few votes of an election. Mr. Barnard, though not a member of St. John’s Church, Sag­inaw City, was a regular attendant and most liberal supporter. He was a member of the vestry, and has been for a great many years. He was a mem­ber of the building committee and one of the largest contributors to the new church fund.

The funeral arrangements have not at this writing been completed.