The Biographical Dictionary of America/Barnes, Daniel Henry

​BARNES, Daniel Henry, educator, was born at Canaan, Columbia county, N.Y., April 25, 1785. After his graduation from Union college in 1809, he spent two years in studying Hebrew under an eminent instructor. In 1811 he removed to Poughkeepsie, where he became principal of the academy, and in the same year began the study of divinity, with the intention of becoming a Baptist minister. He received his preacher's license in 1813, and in 1814 went to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he taught a school for several years, hoping to see it grow into a Baptist college. Disappointed in this he, in 1816, became principal of the Union college classical school, many of his pupils afterwards attaining distinction, and in 1819 professor of languages in the Baptist theological seminary, New York city. This institution was transferred to Hamilton, N.Y., and Mr. Barnes established an English and classical school in New York city, in which he was very successful. A few years later he became associate principal of the high school for boys in New York city. In 1827 he refused an election to the presidency of Waterville college, Me., and also that of Columbian college, Washington, D.C. He was eminent as a conchologist. and contributed to the American Journal of Science and Art papers on "Geological Section of the Canaan Mountain," "Memoir of the Genera Unio and Alasmodonta," "Five Species of Chiton," "Magnetic Polarity," "Reclamation of Unios," and "Memoir on Batrachian Animals and Doubtful Reptiles." He also rendered service in preparing the original edition of "Webster's Dictionary." He died at Troy, N.Y., Oct. 27, 1828.