My Genealogy Hound

JUDGE JOHN BARND is a native of the town of Finley, Hancock county, Ohio, and is the fifth of a family of eight children born to Adna F. and Delemma (Whitelock) Barnd. On his paternal side, he is of German extraction; on his maternal, English. On both sides he is a descendant of two of the first settled families of Ohio. His father, Dr. Adna F. Barnd, was born in Pennsylvania, reared in Ohio, moved after his marriage to Illinois, and is now a resident of Pike county, that state. He was educated for the medical profession and has long followed the practice of physic, being now well advanced in years. A great lover of books, a close observer of men, and an interested spectator in all public matters, his speculations have taken a wider range and his sphere of activity extended beyond the limits usually allotted to a common medical practitioner. Judge Barnd’s mother died when he was young.

The subject of this sketch was born February, 2, 1844, and was reared in McLean county, Ill. April 22, 1861, when he had just turned his seventeenth year, he enlisted in the Union army as a member of Company C, Twentieth Illinois infantry. This regiment enjoys the distinction of having been one of the three hundred fighting regiments of the Union army. It was organized in Lovejoy’s old district, and composed of ten companies, one from each county, except Will, which furnished two. It was organized May 14, 1861, at Joliet, and mustered into service June 15. It left camp the following week for Alton, and July 6 it moved to Cape Girardeau, Mo., remaining there seven months, during which time it engaged in minor expeditions, including the battle at Frederickstown, Mo., against Jeff Thompson February 2, 1862; then, in W. H. L. Wallace’s brigade, McClernand’s division, the regiment started for Fort Donelson. It participated in the battle there, and lost eighteen men killed, one hundred and eight wounded, and six missing. Lieutenant-colonel William Ervin was killed there by a shot in the breast. Every man of the color guard was either killed or wounded. At Shiloh, the regiment’s loss was twenty-two killed, one hundred and seven wounded and seven missing. In the Vicksburg campaign the Twentieth served in General Logan’s division. At Raymond, it went into battle with two hundred and forty guns. It lost seventeen killed, sixty-eight wounded and one missing. It also engaged in Champion hills, Black river and siege of Vicksburg. It was stationed in the vicinity of Vicksburg from July, 1863, to February, 1864:, and during the month of February, went with General Sherman on the Meridian expedition. After the Meridian expedition they left Sherman and returned to Big Black river, whence, after a furlough, they marched to Huntsville, Ala., and then to the front of Kenesaw mountain, where they again joined Sherman’s army. June 8, 1864, it was assigned to duty in Force’s brigade, Leggett’s division, and took part in the Atlanta campaign; was in the famous March to the Sea, the campaign through the Carolinas and also took part in the grand review at Washington. The history of this regiment, so far as it can be applied to an individual soldier, constitutes the military record of the subject of this sketch. It is certainly an honorable one. A regiment that entered the service with a total enrollment of one thousand and ninety-two men, as did the Twentieth Illinois, and lost in killed and wounded five hundred and three, or nearly half, has given ample proof of the service it saw, and no words of praise could confer on it greater distinction than these cold figures. Judge Barnd bears the marks of his service, having received a wound in the hip at Fort Donelson, and one in the head at Raymond, Miss., where he had four bullet holes through his hat, and the top of his coat sleeve cut off. In the latter of these engagements, his regiment sustained the heaviest loss of the day. In July, 1865, after the close of the war, he returned to Illinois.

Mr. Barnd married, May 5, 1865, Mary C., daughter of William and Susan Stevenson, of Lexington, McLean county, Ill. They have two children living, viz. — Ruth A. and Lizzie. Settling down to the less martial but no less exacting duties which the return of peace brought, he began to cast about for some calling, which, if it did not bring great honor, would, at least, bring that which was then of much more practical use, bread and butter. He began teaching, and in the meantime took up the study of law. He continued in the school-room and pursued his law studies several years; in fact, until his health became seriously impaired and he decided that a change of occupation and locality was necessary. He was examined before the supreme court at Springfield, and admitted to the bar January 9, 1874. Coming West in the following spring, he located in Kearney and immediately opened a law office, and in connection therewith a collecting and land agency. He followed this business continuously and successfully for fifteen years, relinquishing it only recently. In the meantime, he served his county two terms as county judge, having been elected first in November, 1879, and re-elected in November, 1881. He was nominated for attorney-general of the state by the anti-monopoly party at the convention held at Hastings, and was an opposition candidate to Judge F. G. Hamer, but was defeated by a little over one hundred votes in Buffalo county. Subsequently he was nominated for the same office by the temperance party at Omaha.

April 1, 1888, Judge Barnd, in connection with S. S. St. John and eastern parties, organized the Mutual Loan and Investment Company of Kearney, with an authorized capital of $250,000, he becoming vice-president and treasurer. August, 1889. he, in connection with Mr. St. John, bought of L. R. Robertson, the Commercial and Savings Bank of Kearney, a private bank, which they re-organized under the state laws, with an authorized capital of $100,000, forty per cent, of which is paid up. Judge Barnd became cashier and has since had the general management of the bank’s affairs. It is one of the solid institutions of the city of Kearney and of Buffalo county, and is recognized as doing a safe, conservative business. It has interested in it some of the best business men in Kearney; men known for their honesty and discriminating judgment in financial matters. It has good backing, the stockholders owning large amounts of real estate and other securities.

Judge Barnd has had absolute faith in the future of Kearney and Buffalo county from the beginning, and he is one of the few “old timers” who availed themselves of early opportunities. He came to Kearney poor. As he gradually accumulated he invested in acre and city property, and these investments have brought him handsome returns. He has large landed interests, not only in Buffalo county, but in other localities of the state. He is no longer known in the law, his banking and other interests now engrossing all his time and attention. He has been somewhat active in politics and is occasionally heard from in local matters. Formerly he voted and worked with the democrats, but more recently he has affiliated with the prohibitionists. He is, as he says, sometimes known as a “kicker.” He does not court popularity and cares but little for majorities. He fights for principles, and when once committed to a measure, believes in fighting it out without compromise, fear or favor. He is clear in judgment, prompt in action and steadfast in the faith by which he acts. Personally, he is popular and socially stands high. His feelings for the old soldiers are naturally warm and his relations with them intimate. He can not but help feel that every old soldier is, in some sense, his brother, and as such entitled to a consideration at his hands that but few are, outside of the now fast-vanishing brotherhood. It is natural for him to feel so, for with them are associated memories of the most eventful years of his life. None but those who were actors in the scenes of 1861-5 know what these memories are.