CENTRE LINES

The BARNHART Family

This column is part of a feature series which focuses on a different Centre County family each week. Five new columns will be released each month unless some technical difficulty enters the picture.

This column's focus is on BARNHART. An effort has been made to identify all persons carrying that name in the 1890 U.S. Census, using the Centre County business directory which was formed from a preliminary review of that census before the larger set of 1890 U.S. Census records was destroyed by fire. (Sadly, the postal directory does not typically provide the ages of females, but it's the best record we've got).

Two books in the Pennsylvania Room of the Centre County Library in Bellefonte apparently deal with the Barnhart family. They are: John Holt Barnhart Descendants' Barnhart Family of Central and Eastern Pennsylvania (Goshen, Ind.: 1965), and Vashti Seaman's and Flora A. Curtin's Record of John and Jane Antes Holter's Children...: Their Ancestors and Descendants of Holter, Seaman, & Barnhart Families (19--).

There are 17 different first-name entries for Barnhart in John Blair Linn's History of Centre and Clinton County (1883). In addition, there are many references to the name in Beers' Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania (1898).

And, now, your ancestors' BARNHART neighbors in 1890:

In BELLEFONTE Borough:

Irvin, 15--23 W. High James K., 28, bank clerk--116 N. Penn

In BOGGS Township:

Henry T., 66, farmer--Roland Mary Irvin D. 15 John C., 31, farmer--Roland Laura Philip W., 77, farmer--Roland Rebecca L. Lucy Amanda William W., 29, farmer--Roland Anna E. Verda N. Harvey H. 7 Maude M.

In HAINES Township:

Nicholas, 43, laborer--Poe Mills Sarah Bertha Franklin 8 Myrtle E. Carrie V.

In MILLHEIM Borough:

Charles W. 16

In SPRING Township:

Carrie--Bellefonte Julia--Bellefonte Martha J.--Bellefonte Belle B. Edith S. John H. 14 Millery Harry P. 6 Philip W., 63, laborer--Bellefonte Sarah Elizabeth Thomas A. 39 Clara E. Fannie M. Philip B. 9 Lloyd L. 3