Hosta

Milton Barnes (April 26, 1830 – June 2, 1895) was a Republican politician who was Ohio Secretary of State from 1877 to 1881.

Milton Barnes was born April 26, 1830, in Barnesville, Ohio. He attended country schools and at eighteen became a teacher, and at nineteen attended Allegheny College at Meadville, Pennsylvania, but went home due to failing health.^[1] He studied law and higher mathematics at an academy at Salem, Ohio, then at a law office in Mount Vernon, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar in January, 1859. He moved to Cambridge, Ohio, and opened a law office.^[1]

At the start of the American Civil War, Barnes raised a company and enlisted as captain in the Sixty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry. This unit participated in the first Federal invasion of the Shenandoah Valley in the spring of 1862. In mid-1862, Milton returned home on sick leave, resigned his command, and re-enlisted in the Ninety-seventh Regiment as lieutenant colonel. He was twice wounded severely, and mustered out June, 1865.^[1]

In 1867 and 1869 Barnes was elected prosecuting attorney of Guernsey County.^[1] In 1876 the Republican Party nominated him for Ohio Secretary of State, and he defeated William Bell Jr. in the general election.^[2] He won re-election with a plurality over David R. Paige and two others in 1878,^[3] and did not run again.

Notes

References

• Smith, Joseph P, ed. (1898). History of the Republican Party in Ohio. Vol. I. Chicago: the Lewis Publishing Company.