From History of Walworth County Wisconsin by Albert Clayton Beckwith, Vol. II, 
Publ. 1912 - Page 924-928
 
DWIGHT BENNETT BARNES.  The bar of Walworth county has an able representative 
in Dwight BARNES, whose name needs no formal introduction to the readers of 
this history, his long, useful and honorable career speaking for itself, being 
familiar with all classes in this locality, whose interest he has ever had at 
heart and sought to advance wtih succeeding years.
 
Mr. BARNES was born at Martinsburg, Lewis county, New York, May 15, 1846.  He 
is one of the five children of Alanson H. and Clarissa (HILLS) BARNES.  His 
ancestry is of unusual interest on both sides of the house.  His father was 
born in New York state, April 15, 1817, and he and Clarissa HILLS were married 
on September 3, 1838.  He was associate justice of the supreme court of Dakota 
Territory under President Grant, from 1871 to 1879.  His death occurred on May 
10, 1890, at Delavan, Wisconsin.
 
Alanson Hamilton BARNES, son of Abraham and Ruhamah (KENNEDY) BARNES was born 
at Turin, New York, April 15, 1817; he first married Clarissa HILLS, who was 
born in 1817 and died December 10, 1856; then, on June 8, 1857, he married 
Sarah J. ALLEN, who was born October 30, 1839, and died May 10, 1880.  He came 
to Delavan, Wisconsin, in 1855 to practice law; in 1863 he was draft 
commissioner at Milwaukee.  After filling the office of judge of the 
territorial court of Dakota, he returned to Delavan, where his death occurred 
May 10, 1890.  A county in North Dakota was named for him.  His children by 
his first marriage were Lucien H.; Herbert H., who died in 1864; Fannie, who 
married Alfred D. THOMAS; Dwight Bennett, of this sketch; Stella, who married 
a Mr. TYLER.  Judge BARNES was an ingenious lawyer and was long a leader in 
local politics and had appreciable weight in state affairs.  When opposed he 
was resolute and was usually victorious.  
 
Abraham BARNES was the son of John BARNES, the son of Nathaniel BARNES, son of 
Thomas BARNES, son of Thomas BARNES of New Haven.  The last named came to New 
Haven when a boy, and came of age in 1844, sharing in the land distribution of 
the first settlement of New Haven, and shown by the early records of 
Connecticut.
 
The BARNES name is derived from the Norse BJORNE, meaning warrior, and was 
brought to England with William the Conqueror, being the name of his trusted 
aid.  The family became numerous and spread throughout Great Britain and her 
colonies.  This family furnished a lord mayor to London, Barnaby BARNES, a 
poet, whose father was Bishop of Durham.  William BARNES received lands from 
Henry VIII in the royal forest of Tillingham.  Dame Juliana BERNIER, who also 
wrote her names BARNES and BORNES, was a celebrated writer in the fourteenth 
century.  Her father was created a baron by King Henry IV.
 
The ancestry of the subject's mother, Clarissa HILLS, is even more 
interesting.  She was born at Houseville, New York, March 9, 1817, and was the 
daughter of Allen and Fanny ALSMENA (YALE) HILLS.  Her father was born at East 
Hartford, Connecticut, August 22, 1784.  He was a son of Amos and Elizabeth 
(JUDSON) HILLS.  Her mother, Fanny A. YALE, was the daughter of Amasa YALE, of 
Southwick, Massachusetts, and Sally BAXTER, of Boston.  Amasa YALE was a 
soldier in the American Revolution.  Sally BAXTER was born in Boston, January 
30, 1762.  On December 16, 1773, her brother Paul and another brother were 
members of the famous Boston Tea Party, who, disguised as Indians, threw three 
hundred and forty-two chests of tea into the sea in defiance of the British 
tax levied on tea without consent of the colonists.  Amasa YALE was the son of 
Nathaniel YALE, of Wallingford, Connecticut, afterwards of Southwick, 
Massachusetts, who was also a soldier in the patriot army.  Nathaniel was the 
son of John YALE, of Wallingford, who was the son of Capt. Thomas YALE.  The 
latter was born about 1647 in New Haven, Connecticut, and was one of the band 
who first settled Wallingford in May 1670.  The records show that he was one 
of the most prominent and active among them.  He was a justice of the peace, 
captain of the train band, surveyor of land, moderator of their meetings and 
he kept their records for more than twenty years.  Capt. Thomas YALE was the 
son of Thomas YALE, the latter born either at Chester, England, or at Plas 
Grono, the family estate near Wrexam, Wales, in 1616.  He was the son of 
Thomas and Anna (LLOYD) YALE.  His father died and his mother married in 1625, 
Theophilus EATON, a wealthy merchant of London, and in 1637 came with him and 
her children to America in company with Rev. John DAVENPORT, and in 1638 EATON 
and a few men founded New Haven, and Mr. EATON was governor of the colony for 
the first twenty years.  He and Rev. DAVENPORT drew up the famous "Blue Laws" 
of Connecticut.  Thomas YALE, Mr. EATON's step-son, became a merchant at New 
Haven in 1638.  He was a signer of the Plantation Covenant at New Haven and he 
filled many offices of trust and honor there.  In Great Britain this ancestry 
includes so many illustrious names that we cannot even mention all of them, 
although they have been traced with historical certainty back through various 
branches of the family for many centuries.
 
Thomas YALE, father of the Thomas YALE, who emigrated to America in 1637, was 
the son of Dr. David YALE, D.C.L., Chancellor of Chester, son of John YALE.  
The last named was sometimes called John WYN or WYNN, of Plas-yn-lal (Plas-yn-
Yale).  It was about this time that surnames became established in Yale, and 
Dr. David YALE was also known as David LLOYD, D.C.L.  He was the owner of very 
large estates and held various honored positions.  He was the son of John YALE 
or John WYN, as above stated, who was the son of David LLOYD, son of Ellis ap 
(son of) Griffith.  Ellis ap Griffith was the son of Griffith ap Einion and 
wife Lowrie.  Lowrie was living in 1416, and she was descended from Tudor ap 
Griffith VYCHAN and through him from three royal lines of ancestry, one of 
which goes back through thirty-three generations in a direct, unbroken line 
through many early British sovereigns to Cundea WLEDIG, the first king of the 
Cymry (Britons) about 415 A.D.  Another line of her father's ancestry goes 
back to Rodri MAWR (Roderick the Great), King of Wales 877 A.D.  The third 
line goes back through Tudor ap Griffith VYCHAN's mother's mother, Eleanor 
GOCH, and through various kings and princes to the same ancient ruler, 
Roderick the Great.  From Eleanor GOCH and her husband (Thomas ap Lewelyn ap 
Rhys) were descended Henry VII, Henry VIII, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth.  
To return to the original line: Griffith ap Einon, who married Lowrie, was the 
son of Einion ap Griffith and was captain of the King's archers.  Einion ap 
Griffith was the son of Griffith ap Llewelyn, who died about 1398.  He was the 
son of Llewelyn ap Cynrik, son of Cynrik ap Osborn, son of Osborn WYDDELL, son 
of John Fitz THOMAS, Lord of Dicies and Desmond and county palatine in 1259.  
John Fitz THOMAS was the son of Thomas Fitz MAURICE, the son of Maurice Fitz 
GERALD, commander of the first Norman invasion of Ireland.  Maurice Fitz 
GERALD was the son of Gerald Fitz WALTER, a son of Walter Fitz OTTO, son of 
Dominus OTHO.  The last named is believe to have been a member of the family 
of Gheraldini of Florence, Italy.  He was a nobleman, came from Florence, 
passed over into Normandy, thence to England, where he became a favorite of 
King Edward the Confessor.
 
Maurice Fitz GERALD, mentioned above, great-grandson of Dominus OTHO, and 
commander of the first Norman invasion of Ireland, married Alice, daughter of 
Arnulf de MONTGOMERY, granddaughter of Roger de MONTGOMERY, the greatest of 
the Norman lords, who was the son of Roger the Great, a cousin of William the 
Conqueror.
 
The name YALE comes from the district where the family lied in Wales when 
surnames were adopted.  The founder of Yale University was a member of this 
family, as are many other famous men on both sides of the Atlantic.
 
Returning to Dwight Bennett BARNES, of Delavan, the immediate subject of this 
sketch; he came to Wisconsin with his parents when nine years of age, the 
family locating in Delavan, where he grew to manhood, and has since resided 
most of the time.  Here he attended the public schools, after which he spent 
about a year as grocery clerk, then about a year in a Chicago wholesale house, 
then returned to Delavan and took a position in the National Bank of Delavan, 
in which he remained until 1879, when he wound up the business of the bank, 
paid every depositor in full, taking the institution safely through panics 
when other banks were failing.
 
The State Deaf and Dumb Institute burned in the summer of 1879 and Mr. BARNES 
was elected to the State Assembly with the purpose of getting appropriation to 
rebuild at Delavan.  He had a bitter fight on his hands, for many other places 
wanted it, but by perseverance and tact he won and the institution was rebuilt 
at this place.  He made such a commendable record that he was re-elected in 
1880, going back to the Legislature for the express purpose of legislating out 
of office every local board of state institutions in Wisconsin.  He and 
Senator Sutherland, of Fond du Lac county, got up the bill, and it was 
introduced in the senate by Mr. Sutherland, and was passed during a night 
session and engrossed and it was brought up in the house the following day.  
Mr. BARNES had the house so well organized that he fought down over thirty 
proposed amendments and got it through the same day, as originally passed in 
the senate.  He and Senator Quarles also started the fight against the 
railroad lobby and pushed a bill to alter the mode of taxing railroads, which 
showed by the fall of stocks in New York that it was hitting the railroads.  
The fight went on through various sessions, kept up by others in later times, 
until it succeeded.  After his career in the Legislature, Mr. BARNES engaged 
in a number of business enterprises.
 
On December 7, 1880, Mr. BARNES was admitted to the bar at Fargo, North 
Dakota, and in 1885 he was admitted to practice law in Walworth county, 
Wisconsin.  On September 4, 1894, he was admitted to the bar of the Wisconsin 
supreme court.  He began practicing at Delavan in the midst of financial 
adversity, but won some very notable cases early in his practice and soon had 
all he could attend to.  For about eighteen years he has been local attorney 
for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company.  In 1900 he was 
elected president of the Walworth County Bar Association, and he has been at 
the head of the organization ever since.  About 1905 he and E. L. VON 
SUESSMILCH organized a company to deal in lands and since then they have made 
a number of big deals in the Dakotas, Alberta and Saskatchewan.
 
Mr. BARNES was married on November 17, 1897, to Alice DOWNS, a resident of 
Delavan township, and the daughter of Lemuel and Susan (HUSTON) DOWNS.  Like 
Mr. BARNES, she had an illustrious ancestry, some of whom were in the American 
Revolution.  Her mother was a near relative of Gen. Sam HUSTON, renowned in 
the early history of Texas and in the Mexican war.
 
Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. BARNES, namely: Dwight Bennett, 
Jr., born May 15, 1905, and Cornelia Benita, born at San Diego, California, 
March 3, 1901.
 
Politically, Mr. BARNES is a Republican and has long been active in his 
party.  Fraternally, he belongs to the Masonic order, the Delavan Commandery 
No. 33 Knights Templar.  He assisted in organizing the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows at Delavan, and was district deputy for many years.  Personally, 
he is a genial, companionable, obliging gentleman, able and successful both in 
law and business, and is very resourceful.
 
Submitted by Carol