A One-Name Study for the BARNUM/BARNHAM Surname
Caleb Barnum received his B.A. from The College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) in 1757 and his M.A. from Harvard University in 1768. He was a member of the congregation of the First Congregational Society, Franklin, Massachusetts, during 1760-63 and was installed as the third minister at Taunton, Massachusetts, February 2, 1769. He entered the army as chaplain of Colonel Greaton's 24th Regiment during the Revolutionary War, was chaplain in 1775 in Colonel Timothy Walker's regiment, and in 1776 served in New York under Colonel Loammi Baldwin. He died at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, February 10, 1776, of privations and exhaustion on the march.
From Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution: Barnum, Caler [sic], Taunton. Chaplain, Col. Timothy Walker's regt.; engaged May 3, 1775; service, 3 mos. 5 days; also, Col. Loammi Baldwin's (26th) regt.; pay abstract for rations from Jan. 1, 1776, to April 1, 1776, dated New York.
He was licensed as a minister by the Fairfield East Association on 30 May 1759.
According to A Centurial History of the Mendon Association of Congregational Ministers by Rev. Mortimer Blake (1853): He received a call to settle over the second church in Wrentham, now Franklin, 28 Oct., 1759, and was ordained 4 June 1760. Rev. Philips Payson of Walpole, preached the sermon. Difficulties arose, and Mr. Barnum felt it his duty to ask a dismission; to which the church reluctantly consented, and he was dismissed, 6 March, 1768. After his departure from Franklin, he received an invitation to the pastoral office in Taunton, and was installed there, 2 Feb., 1769. The war of the colonies awakened his strongest sympathies, and he applied for a chaplaincy in the army. He enlisted 3 May, 1775, left Taunton, and was chaplain, first to Col. Walker's regiment, and then to the XXIV Regiment, Col. John Greaton commander, at that time stationed at Boston. This latter connection began 10 Feb., 1776. After the evacuation of Boston, he accompanied his regiment to New York, then to Montreal, where he was inoculated for the small pox. He shared with fortitude in the disastrous retreat from Canada. At Ticonderoga he was seized with a bilious disorder, which so impaired his health that he obtained a discharge on the 24 July, and commenced his return homewards. But on his reaching Pittsfield, Aug. 2, he was arrested by an accession of his disorder. he wrestled with his disease until he fell, 23 Aug. 1776, at the age of 39. A sermon was preached at his funeral, from John 14:28, by Rev. Thomas Allen, then minister of Pittsfield.
From the Independent Gazette, Taunton, Massachusetts, Friday, May 17, 1833.
Caleb Barnum was a native of Danbury in Connecticut, and was born June 30, 1737. He was educated at Princeton College, New Jersey, where he was graduated in 1757.
In 1768, the honorary degree of Master of Arts was conferred on him at Cambridge.
In the same year he received a call from the Church and Society in this place, which he accepted, and was installed February 2, 1769.
When Mr. Barnum commenced his ministerial labors in this place, the contests which terminated in the revolution had commenced. The enthusiasm which once displayed itself in the manifestation of strong religious feeling, took a new direction. Men thought more of their civil rights than of the affairs of religion: they read political pamphlets with more eagerness than their bibles, and listened to the speeches of political orators with more interest than to the discourses of gospel ministers. The clergy themselves caught the enthusiasm of the times, and their pulpits resounded with denunciations of the oppression of the British Ministry: the differences of religious opinion seem to have been merged in the great question on the issue of which depended the liberties of America.
In this struggle for civil liberty Mr. Barnum engaged with all his soul ̶ he was a patriot who knew no fear. As soon as the news of the battle of Lexington reached Taunton, he announced the intelligence from his pulpit, and roused the people by an address, in animated and eloquent terms invoking their patriotism and firmness. ̶ His own patriotism did not exhaust itself in words ̶ he was willing to share all the perils of the cause which he advocated, and to fight “the good fight" not only in the pulpit, but in the camp; for this purpose the sought the office of Chaplain in the Army, and on the 10th of February 1776, he entered the army in that capacity, and was attached to the 24th Regiment commanded by Col. John Greaton, then stationed in the vicinity of Boston. When Boston was evacuated, he accompanied his regiment to New York, and then to Montreal in Canada, where he was inoculated for the small pox. In the disastrous retreat from that province he underwent great hardships with great fortitude. On the arrival of the army at Ticonderoga, he was attacked with a bilious disorder, in consequence of which his health became so much impaired that he obtained a discharge on the 24th of July, and commenced his homeward journey. On the 2d of August he reached Pittsfield and there his progress was arrested by an accession of his complaint. He languished until the 23d when he died at the age of 39. His death bed was made, and his eyes were closed by strangers.
The following letter from the Rev. Thomas Allen, the minister of Pittsfield, addressed to the Representatives of that town, describes minutely his situation and temper of mind in his last moments:
Pittsfield, Aug't 26, 1776.
Last Friday died here, in the 40th year of his age, after an illness of about 36 days, the Rev'd Mr. Caleb Barnum, late minister of the Gospel in Taunton: much respected and greatly lamented.
As this valuable person was much a stranger in this part of the country, we shall speak of him only in his last sickness and death, which seemed to verify that inspired observation, 'The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more to the perfect day.' He engaged in the continental service as Chaplain to Col. Greaton's Regiment stationed before Boston, sometime in Feb'y last; after the precipitate flight of the rebels from Boston in March following, he went with the Regiment to New York; and from thence soon after to Montreal in Canada, where he was inoculated for the small pox. In this northern tour he underwent various fatigues from several causes in a heroic manner. After the return of the army to Ticonderoga, he was taken sick of the bilious cholic, about the 18th of July, and obtained such relief from it, that on account of his ill state of health, having obtained a dismission from the army on the 24th, was making his way home.
He arrived at this place August 21 in a weak state, where he languished of a bilious fever till the 23d and then died.
During this season of distress, aggravated by divers moving considerations, he maintained an unclouded serenity of mind, the most exemplary patience and submission to the will of heaven. Not a repining word was uttered by him. He received the report of his physician of the great hazard of his case with equable firmness and composure of mind. Such sweetness of temper, such tranquility of spirit, such serenity and peace in the near view of death and eternity ̶ such patience under pain, and entire submission to God's disposing will, which appeared in him, manifested at once the power of those supports and consolation which he enjoyed, and the excellence of the Christian religion. ‘Mark the perfect man and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace’.
He discovered much of a spirit of gratitude to God in his last sickness, and a firm trust and confidence in him to take care of, support and provide for his wife and children.
Being asked his present views in the approach of death as to the goodness of the American cause, in which he had been engaged, and by means of which he was now about to die, replied ̶ He had no doubts of the justice and goodness of that cause, and that had he a thousand lives, he should be willing to lay them all down in it.
He was interred yesterday afternoon with great respect, when a funeral sermon was delivered from these words ̶ John, 14th Chap. 28th verse. ‘If ye loved me ye would rejoice, because I said I go unto the Father. For my Father is greater than I’.
He has left a widow and seven children to lament their irreparable loss. ‘Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness’.
Thus died Caleb Barnum, a victim to patriotism ̶ a patriotism which endured to the last ̶ which neither hesitated or doubted ̶ but enabled him in sight of death to retain in all its strength, the conviction , that his countrymen were right, and that the cause in which they had engaged was holy.
His appearance was commanding ̶ his deportment dignified, and his manners pleasing and affable, uniting the paternal mildness of the clergyman with the grace and polish of the gentleman ̶ but the same fearless spirit which bore him through the perils of war, developed itself in his pulpit, and in the administration of his parochial and ecclesiastical affairs.
So far as we can ascertain from a cursory inspection of a few of the great number of his MS. Sermons, we are induced to believe that in religious sentiment he was a moderate Calvinist.
Mr. Barnum married a sister of Col. Nathan Rice, formerly of Hingham, now of Burlington (Vermont) who was an aid-de-camp to Gen. Lincoln during the Southern campaign.
He left three sons and four daughters. His daughter Priscilla married the late Capt. David Vickery. His daughter Deborah, Thomas S. Baylies, Esq., of Dighton. His daughter Mary, Rev. Peter Nurse, of Ellsworth, Me. The other daughter, Mrs. Child, now lives in this town.
'The Barnum Family, 1517-1904' gives a birth date of 3 Jun 1737.
'The Barnum Family, 1517-1904' says he died in 1777.
A Research Guide to the Genealogy of the Barnum/Barnam/Barnham Family Worldwide
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