CHARLES EDWARD BARNS
Bio- Sawyers
SURNAMES: EDDY, BALSTON, GARBETT,
Santa Clara County, famed the world over for landscape beauty,
climate, fruit and intelligent, progressive and kindhearted people, is
also known, to those familiar with the real California of- today, as
among the leading shires in the Golden State for attracting those so
distinguished in the world of science, art or letters that any section
of the country would feel itself honored in their residence. Prominent
among such eminently desirable citizens to whom this favored portion of
the coast has made. an irresistible appeal, and who, in turn, have
conferred something upon life here of exceptionally high value, is
Charles Edward Barns, the astronomer of Morgan Hill, known to the
scientific world as a fellow-scientist, to the literary world as an
inspiring writer, and to the world of art as the genius presiding over
the Diana Printery, which bids fair to rival, in genial fame, the
renowned Walpole Press of old Strawberry Hill.
Mr. Barns was born at Burlington, Wis., on July 23, 1864. the son of
Caleb P. and Elizabeth A. (Eddy) Barns, who were both natives of
Northern New York. They migrated westward, and became sturdy pioneers
in the Badger State, where Caleb became a banker, and thus it happened
that Charles Edward attended the excellent Wisconsin schools, where the
processes for stimulating the curiosity of a lad are properly
appreciated and used by the pedagogues. and then, at the academy at
Racine, he prepared for college. In 1884. he entered Columbia
University Law School, and soon after was busy studying the natural
sciences and high mathematics. He also became a special writer on the
staff of the New York Herald.
Later, when only twenty-three years of age, Mr. Barns made a tour of
China, Japan and India. primarily to recover shattered health; but he
also acquired a wealth of material, fact and local color, which he
applied to excellent advantage in his work in fiction during the next
eight or nine years, most of which time, after his return to New York.
were spent in the service of the New York Herald. It was his fortune
during this period to make a trip to Continental Europe, and he spent
two years in extensive travels in France and Italy, stopping a good
part of this time at Venice and Florence. Such a man, with an unusual
head upon his shoulders, and something very unusual therein, could not
lie around idle; he was, in fact, in constant demand by Eastern
publications.
For many years. M. Barns had been associated. as a friend, with Charles
Kellogg, the naturalist, and having visited his home near Morgan Hill
in 1915, he was greatly impressed with the natural resources and the
beauties of the Santa Clara Valley. He resolved to locate here some
day; and in 1918 he made good his resolution and removed with his
family to California. Now he has a comfortable home in a handsome
orchard of twenty acres at Morgan Hill, in which he has erected a
dwelling house, a study and an observatory; for he was busy with
astronomical work for many years before coming to California. He is a
member of the American Astronomical Society, which includes
representatives of every department of astronomy, and is a charter
member of the Association of Variable Star Observers. He is a
thoroughly modern scientist, and looks forward confidently to a
complete revision of the rules governing experimental astronomy.
A most interesting evidence of Mr. Barns' intense and unselfish
devotion to the cause of astronomical science is afforded in the
learned publications, issued from time to time in the form of very
neatly-printed booklets, from his own private press known as the "Diana
Printery." Such an one is the little volume entitled, "The Practical
Observing of Variable Stars," a series of timely essays on this most
fascinating field of practical astronomy, wherein Edward C. Pickering
wrote upon "Organized System," and other scholars discussed the
"Conversion of Calendar Date to Julian Days," the "Variable Stars for
the Amateur," "The Variable Star Problem," "The Spectrum of Variable
Stars," "The Overcoming of Initial Difficulties," "Charts and Their
Uses," "Method in Observing," "Conditions in Observing Faint Stars,"
"The Subject of Personal Equation," and "The Plotting of Light Curve,"
and there is much good matter by the secretary. The work is well
illustrated, -and is serviceable as well as entertaining. In some
respects a more important issue of these brochures is that devoted to a
"Memorial to Edward Charles Pickering," whose life stretched from 1846
to 1919, a memorial of the American Association of Variable Star
Observers. Besides an excellent portrait, and the well-written tribute,
there is a lengthy poem entitled, "Translated," by Charles Edward
Barns, which well reveals the author's depth of thought and sympathy of
heart, and is a graceful and worthy addition to the great mass of
Pickering In Memoria. Particularly suggestive, in the light of recent
world-events, is the content of the last admirable verse:
Monarchs maintain and pass, forsooth—The exiled kings, unsceptered czars; But who adds one cosmic truth,
He shall be deathless as the stars.
At Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1884, Mr.. Barns was married to Miss Mabel E.
Balston, the daughter of James P. Balston, a native of Fredricksburg,
N. S., and their union has been blessed with three children: Cornelia
has become the wife of Arthur Garbett, the composer and writer, for
several years associated with the title department of the Victor
Phonograph, they have one child, Charles Richard; Fred B., who is an
electrical engineer and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, served ill the United States Army during the late war, and
while in France for two years was commissioned first lieutenant, he is
married, and resides in New York City; and Miss Anne Barns was formerly
of the traffic department of. the Southern Pacific Railroad. Mr. Barns
is a Blue Lodge Mason.
Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County,California, published by Historic Record Co. , 1922. page 1111
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