Biographies B
Marshall Barnes
Son of an illustrious father who left his mark in a wide region in the form of philanthropic works, good roads, industrial and mercantile development and otherwise endeared himself to his fellow citizens, Marshall Barnes has made his own name in his native Beaver Dam and Ohio County and in the entire State of Kentucky.
Third of the family to head the bank which the elder Barnes helped to establish, the Beaver Dam Deposit Bank, Marshall Barnes is not only a banker but a political leader, having served his State as member of the legislature and as clerk of its lower house, and is also foremost in educational affairs, his other activities including service on the Alumni Trustees of his alma mater, the University of Kentucky, and leadership in fraternity circles. Continuing active and prominent in politics, he has been a Presidential Elector and State Campaign Chairman for John Young Brown. In addition, he is well known in fraternal circles, the American Legion and other organizations, including professional.
Marshall Barnes was born in Beaver Dam in 1897. His father was John H. Barnes, farmer, banker, philanthropist, civic leader and public official, who was born in Beaver Dam on December 16, 1857, and died seventy-seven years later on May 16, 1934. The mother was Maggie E. (Eblen) Barnes, born in Carrollton, Kentucky, on March 21, 1870, who died in Beaver Dam on January 14, 1940, and is, like her late husband, buried in Beaver Dam.
In 1890, the elder Barnes became associated with I.P. Barnard in the founding of the Beaver Dam Deposit Bank, of which the partner was first president. When Mr. Barnard later sold his interests in the bank to Mr. Barnes, the latter assumed the presidency, which he held until his death. Among the business concerns he had a hand in developing were the Beaver Dam Milling Company, the Beaver Dam Manufacturing and Supply Company and the Barnes Mercantile Company at Central City, Kentucky. Ever interested and active in the civic life and welfare of the community, he was noted for numerous accomplishments in this sphere. In the first World War, for example, he served as chairman of the Liberty Loan Drives and, by his untiring efforts, brought about oversubscriptions of quotas. He was also a member of the Schools' Board of Trustees and chairman of the Ohio County Road Bond Commission, in which latter post he devoted a great deal of his time to the building of good roads and improving existing roads. Aside from giving generously to many charitable causes, he created a large hall in one of his buildings and made it available as a community center to further social, educational and other phases of community life. Intensely interested in farming, he owned and operated eight farms and at one time was the largest individual farm owner in Ohio County. In addition to Marshall Barnes, he had another son, who on his death, succeeded to the presidency of the Beaver Dam Deposit Bank but who himself died December 4, 1940, when Marshall Barnes assumed the office.
Marshall Barnes obtained his early education in the grade and high schools of Beaver Dam. He then went to Lexington as an undergraduate at the University of Kentucky, where he soon gave evidence of the leadership he would later show. Not only was he on the university's basketball team, but he was elected to The Mystic Thirteen, an honor fraternity, to the Lamp and Cross Fraternity and to Phi Kappa Tau and Phi Alpha Delta fraternities. In his junior year, he was president of his class and in his senior year was president of the Men' Student Council. Later he became an Alumni Trustee. In 1924, he was graduated from the University's Law School.
Mr. Barnes then returned to Beaver Dam and immediately joined his father and brother in the bank, becoming president on the brother's death, sixteen years later, but having in the meantime assumed greater and greater responsibility.
On October 29, 1929, Mr. Barnes married Ann Burke, a native of Owensboro, Kentucky. They have two children - Patricia Lynn Barnes and John Timothy Barnes.
Having interrupted his scholastic career to serve the native in the first World War, Mr. Barnes as a veteran joined the American Legion after the Armistice. He remains active among the membership.
In 1931, he was elected for the first of two terms in the State House of Representatives. In 1936, he returned to the House as assistant clerk, this being the same year that he was a Presidential Elector. In 1938, he was clerk of the House.
Mr. Barnes is a Methodist, a Mason and a Shriner.
Source: Wallis, Frederick A., and Hambleton Tapp, eds. A Sesqui-Centennial History of Kentucky. Vol. 4. Hopkinsville, KY: Historical Record Association, 1945. Pages 2165-2166.
Updated July 6, 2018