California Commission - Alviso Rifles

Description

Captain's Commission for THATCHER FERRIS BARNES - Company C, Alviso Rifles, 5th Battalion Infantry, 2nd Brigade National Guard of California.  Also included is a certificate to Captain Barnes exempting him from jury duty due to his military service.  Certificate is signed by the Adjutant General for the State of California.

"Although April, 1898, witnessed the lamented demise of Captain Thatcher Ferris Barnes, he still lives in the heart of his faithful wife in San Jose, and in the history of Santa Clara County, with which he was closely and honorably identified for almost half a century. Captain Barnes, who won his rank as successor to Captain A. B. Rowley, of Company B, California Volunteer Infantry, during the Civil War, and whose excellent command and successful drilling created one of the best rifle corps in central California, spent his early life on a farm in Cayuga County, NY, where he was born in September, 1828, a son of Luther and Zipporah (Ferris) Barnes, both of eastern ancestry. In the same neighborhood in Cayuga county lived Henry and Lydia (Conger) Van Wie, whose interesting daughter, Mary C., attracted the youthful friendship and later the love of Thatcher Ferris, in consequence of which the marriage ceremony was performed, and furnished entertainment for their many friends and relatives in the state. This was in 1851, and Mr. Barnes continued to farm after his marriage, and as heretofore saved always more than he spent, in anticipation of being able to meet any advantage which might come his way. Contracting the gold fever, he proposed to come to the coast alone, make a fortune and establish a home, and send for his bride of a year to join him. This plan failing to meet with the approval of Mrs. Barnes, other means were talked of, with the result that both set out in a train for St. Louis, happy in the thought of being able to strive together for the competence which fate seemed to have in store. 

In St. Louis Mr. Barnes outfitted with a wagon and ox team, some cows, horses and provisions, and started in a small train across the plains, via the lower Platte and the Beckwith (sic) Cut-Off, reaching Marysville, Yuba County, six months from the time of starting. Although not strong, Mrs. Barnes enjoyed the novelty immensely, assumed her share of the responsibilities of camp life when the day’s travel was over, and for many miles rode horseback over the rough and insecure trails. The outdoor life, change, and happy companionship had the desired result, and on this long journey she laid the foundation for the splendid constitution which is hers to-day. A year spent in the mines convinced them that they were the average rather than the exceptional miners, and they therefore went to near Hollister and took up a tract of what was supposedly government land, which eventually proved to be covered by Spanish title. Obliged to vacate, they came to Santa Clara County and bought a hundred acres on the Alviso Road, some of which was swamp land, and all of which was new and untilled. Mr. Barnes erected at first a small house, put in his crops after clearing and cultivating, and in time had a better house, and large barns, outhouses and good fences. Setting out a small orchard and garden, he devoted his farm to general produce and gardening, and was thus established when the Civil War called for his active participation. As years passed, he kept adding to the value of his property by cultivation and modern equipment, and at the time of his death had as fine and well improved a home as any farmer in his neighborhood. He added a department of dairying, and became much interested in horse-raising, being a lover of a good horse, and understanding well what constituted one.

A stanch Republican, Mr. Barnes nevertheless had no time for office or lodge life, being essentially a home maker, and caring more for the society of his wife and children and intimate friends, than for any honors which the community might thrust upon him. His death was sudden, and was caused by the bursting of a blood vessel after suffering a stroke of paralysis. He was seventy years old at the time, and had no cause to complain of either the briefness or success of his life. He was honored by everyone with whom he had any dealings whatsoever, and his word was law, when it came to a matter of principle or common sense. Three years after his death his wife moved to San Jose, where she had a pleasant home, and where she has since negotiated for the disposal of her pasture land, but rents the balance of the farm. She is a member of the Santa Clara Valley Pioneer Association, and is a woman respected and loved for her strong pioneer characteristics, her unbounded faith in goodness and industry and human nature, and her large-heartedness toward those less fortunate than herself. She has two children, of whom Emogene is the wife of Rufus Fink, and has a daughter, Stella; and Endora is the wife of Charles Marcen, of San Jose."
 

Source:  History of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties, California by Professor J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 285-286.