Sylvester W. Barnum, the oldest attorney at law in active practice in Otsego County, passed away at his home in Cherry Valley in the evening of March 2nd. He had been seriously ill for about three weeks and, owing to his advanced years, his life had been despaired of from the beginning. Mr. Barnum was born December 2, 1852, in the town of Middlefield, the youngest son of Sylvester W. Barnum and Almira Chase and came of a family long prominent in the life of the county. Associated with his brother, Judge J. W. Barnum, under the firm name of Barnum Brothers, he was engaged in the practice of law in Cherry Valley for upward of fifty years and was looked up to as the leading citizen of the community. Mr. Barnum was of that rather rare type of men who literally followed the Scripture injunction "in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves." He consistently refused preferment and public office which his fellow citizens often would have been glad to bestow upon him and yet he was foremost in every movement for civic betterment in the community.
Mr. Barnum first married Miss Elizabeth Daniels of Cherry Valley and three years after her demise, twenty-four years ago,he married Minnie D. Booth, who survives him as does also one daughter by the first marriage, Mrs. Howard Johnson of East Lansing, Mich., who has been with her father for the past two weeks and assisted in his care. Burial in Cherry Valley Cemetery.
Sylvester W. Barnum, the oldest attorney at law in active practice in Otsego County, passed away at his home in Cherry Valley in the evening of March 2nd. He had been seriously ill for about three weeks and, owing to his advanced years, his life had been despaired of from the beginning. Mr. Barnum was born December 2, 1852, in the town of Middlefield, the youngest son of Sylvester W. Barnum and Almira Chase and came of a family long prominent in the life of the county. Associated with his brother, Judge J. W. Barnum, under the firm name of Barnum Brothers, he was engaged in the practice of law in Cherry Valley for upward of fifty years and was looked up to as the leading citizen of the community. Mr. Barnum was of that rather rare type of men who literally followed the Scripture injunction "in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves." He consistently refused preferment and public office which his fellow citizens often would have been glad to bestow upon him and yet he was foremost in every movement for civic betterment in the community.
Mr. Barnum first married Miss Elizabeth Daniels of Cherry Valley and three years after her demise, twenty-four years ago,he married Minnie D. Booth, who survives him as does also one daughter by the first marriage, Mrs. Howard Johnson of East Lansing, Mich., who has been with her father for the past two weeks and assisted in his care. Burial in Cherry Valley Cemetery.
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