Barnes, Uriah

Passed: 1935-12-22

Age: 52

Source: Jackson Herald

Death Notice:

Obituary Date: 1936-01-03

Information: BARNES FUNERAL HELD TUESDAY - Funeral services for Uriah Barnes were held at two-thirty o'clock last Tuesday afternoon at the Bartlett Funeral home in Charleston and burial was in the Spring Hill cemetery.  Attorney and Mrs. W. F. Boggess, of Ripley, brother-in-law and sister-in-law of the deceased, and Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Browning and Mr. and Mrs. Rex Plymale attended the funeral.  Mr. Barnes died at Huntington on Sunday following an illness of about 10 years.  His body, accompanied by his widow, Mrs. Lena B. Barnes, was brought to Charleston on Sunday night and taken to Bartlett's.  Although he possessed one of the outstanding legal minds of the state, Mr. Barnes engaged little in the practice of his profession, but devoted himself almost exclusively to intensive studies of legal subjects which he used in compiling codes and in writing law books.  His fame as a compiler of laws spread to other states, and he was called first to Kansas in 1923, where he compiled a code for that state and later to Indiana, where he performed a similar service.  Mrs. Barnes accompanied him to both states and assisted him in his laborious tasks.  It was after his long siege of work in Kansas that his health began to fail and he suffered a stroke of paralysis, but even after this he went to Indiana and fulfilled an engagement there.      Mr. Barnes was born on April 22, 1883, at Leroy, Jackson county, the son of Charles and Margaret Barnes.  His father was a Civil war veteran and a farmer.  As a boy, Mr. Barnes attended public schools in Jackson county, and while still quite young he obtained a position as a teacher.  At the age of 16 he went to Charleston and attended the Capital City Business college.  He had been making studies of religious subjects, and planned to become a minister.  While thus engaged he accumulated a large library of books on religious subjects.  After preparing himself at the business college, he became interested in law subjects and transferred his attention to that profession.  He undertook a correspondence course in law from an Illinois school and by self instruction soon became proficient as a lawyer.  He obtained a position with the firm of Brown, Jackson and Knight, and became its secretary.  Later he was private secretary to Judge William N. Miller of the state supreme court.      In 1908 he went to the West Virginia university and, after taking private examinations, was engaged as a law instructor in the university law school under Dean Charles E. Hogg.  After assisting Dean Hogg in several productions, he returned to Charleston and became private secretary to Judge Charles E. Lynch of the state supreme court.  Meanwhile, Mr. Barnes pursued his studies and in spare moments worked upon the immense task he had set for himself of codifying West Virginia's laws in one volume.  This was accomplished in 1916, and it was the state's first annotated code in one volume.  He subsequently compiled a code for the city of Charleston and still later produced a compilation of the federal statutes which was called Barnes' Federal Code.  In 1920, Mr. Barnes, who was always a Republican, was elected to the house of delegates from Kanawha county, and he served one term.  It was after this that he was called to Kansas and Indiana.  Returning from Indiana to Charleston, Mr. Barnes, still in impaired health, organized the Kanawha Law college, which was successfully run for several years before his health gave away almost completely and he was unable to carry on further.  In addition to compling codes, Mr. Barnes wrote several books and many papers on legal subjects.  One of his most noteworthy books was ""Barnes Corporations"".  He once engaged in writing fiction and produced a novel entitled ""Circumstantial Evidence"".    Mr. Barnes was a member of the First M. E. Church, a member of the Bar Association of the City of Charleston, a member of the West Virginia State Bar association and of the American Bar association.  Besides his widow he is survived by a son, Hugh Edmund Barnes, and a daughter, Mrs. Paul Heydrick, both of Charleston; by a brother, Rev. Benjamin H. Barnes of Parkersburg and four sisters, Miss Bessie Pearl Barnes, who is a foreign missionary serving in Peking, China, Mrs. A. A. Raike of Parkersburg, Mrs. Dolly Boso of Ravenswood and Mrs. Harvey Moore of Indianapolis.