THE HISTORIAN’S CORNER

by L. Jane Tracy, Town of Onondaga Historian

          
                                                                                GEORGE N. BARNARD
                                                                                 Civil War Photographer
                                                                              Buried in Town of Onondaga

       It is said that “a picture is worth a thousand words”. The photos taken by George N. Barnard were among the earliest and most exciting ever seen. George Barnard was renowned for his portraits of the Civil War and of the Great Chicago Fire, but he is best remembered in the Town of Onondaga for his photos of neighborhood youngsters and groups, taken after his retirement to Punkin Hollow.

       My interest in George Barnard was first piqued after I found a copy of a group picture taken at an outing in the late 1800’s, with the caption “Children at Otisco Lake “. It was such a wonderfully evocative picture that I couldn’t forget it – all those beautiful childhood faces, all dressed in their best clothes and their Sunday bonnets. After several years, I found another copy of this same photo that had been in the newspaper when Jasena Foley, my predecessor as Historian of the Town of Onondaga, became intrigued with the group and set out to find out who they were.

       Mrs. Foley found that in 1898 George Barnard loaded his camera and paraphernalia into a horse-drawn rig outside his Punkin Hollow home and carried it to Davis Grove at Otisco Lake when a group from Gilbert District No. 10 in the Town of Onondaga and Marble District No. 6 of Marcellus met there for a picnic at the end of the school year.

       All of the group were identified except one small member. This little girl looks to be about 5 or 6 years old, so would have been born c.1892 or 3. Maybe someone can tell us who she is. From left, back row: Elizabeth Manley, Anna O’Malley (teacher at Gilbert School), Myra Bowler, Alice Marble, Lillian Judge, Lena Thompson, Lulu Thompson, Murnie Amidon, “Lil” Kenyon (Marble district teacher), Louise Amidon, Louise Field, Jennie Amidon. Second Row: Ed Manley, Hannah Bowler, Julius Speich, Elizabeth Speich, Florence Manley, Merton Leach, Ralph Fellows, (unidentified miss), Letta Thompson, Lois Case, Jennie Newman, Cynthia Newman. Third Row: Charles Norris, May Speich, Cora McNally, Edward Speich, Lottie Case, Anna Laxton, Nancy Amidon, Florence Amidon, Gertrude Amidon, Eva Raymond, Jennie Case. Front Row (on ground): Robert McNally, Nellie Norris, Nettie Amidon, Charles Ryan, Arlo Case.

       George Barnard has been called “one of the most important and respected photographers in 19th century America.” Born in 1820 in Connecticut, George took up photography in 1842. We can follow much of our country’s history of that era by following Barnard’s photographs. In 1854 he was in Syracuse and is credited with the earliest known images of Clinton Square. In the 1850s he began using the newer collodian processes and received a bronze medal from the American Institute in 1857. In 1860 he was on the island of Cuba photographing sugar and molasses-making for the stereopticon views, the most up-to-date visual images of the day. Next we find Barnard’s photographs of Lincoln’s inauguration, taken under the name of Matthew Brady. Mr. Brady had become very near-sighted and now paid others to take the pictures that bore his name. Early in the Civil War, Barnard was at the front using the new wet plant photography to photograph the Battle of Bull Run. From there, he followed General Sherman on his “March to the Sea”. (You probably saw many of Barnard’s photos, credited to Brady, in the Ken Burns’ TV documentary on the Civil War.) After the war, Barnard had a studio in Chicago where he shot the ruins of the infamous Chicago Fire of 1871. Barnard and his friend, George Eastman, were made members of the Rochester Photographic Association on the same night in 1884 after they introduced dry plate photography.

       In 1893, George and his second wife, Emma Gilbert, retired to her family’s farm on Pleasant Valley Road in the Town of Onondaga. After a lifetime of documenting the lives of millions, Barnard couldn’t give up photography completely. He set up a small studio in the old farmhouse and took pictures of school kids, family and neighbors. In 1902, George died and was buried in the Gilbert family cemetery, along with his wife.
Their graves were marked only “Father” and “Mother” and forgotten by almost everyone. About 1960, Richard Wright, president of the Onondaga Historical Association in Syracuse, started a research project into Barnard’s life and the graves were found. The OHA placed a new monument on the grave in 1964. Under a tall evergreen, with a small American flag next to the modest block of granite, it says “George N. Barnard, 1819-1902. Pioneer in Photography”.

       To further ensure that his grave will not again be forgotten, a grant was received from the William G. Pomeroy Foundation for the purchase of a historic marker erected at the Gilbert Cemetery on Pleasant Valley Road which reads:

GILBERT CEMETERY
Burial place of many early
settlers, including famed
Civil War photographer,
George N. Barnard.



 

 

 

 

 

 

School picnic at Davis Grove on Otisco Lake

   

   

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last updated May, 2008