A One-Name Study for the BARNUM/BARNHAM Surname
In the 1895 Minnesota State Census for Saint Paul Ward 4, Ramsey County, Augustus K. Barnum and his son Edmund were enumerated as follows:
Barnum, Augustus K.; 45; Male; White; b. Alabama; Resident of Minnesota for 37 years and 11 months; Resident of this enumeration district for 2 years and 6 months; Occupation Real Estate; Employed during the previous 12 months; Neither father nor mother of foreign birth
Barnum, Edmund K.; 14; Male; White; b. Minnesota; Neither father nor mother of foreign birth
Augustus moved with his mother from Alabama to Saint Paul, Minnesota prior to the Civil War.
He was often referred to as the first real millionaire in Saint Paul. He built a magnificent house there (since demolished) and owned much real estate there during the best years of his life. His last job was sweeping the halls of the city hospital and he died a pauper.
His obituary says that he was the son of "Dr. David Barnum," but that (incorrect) information may have come from one of his half-brothers who were still living at the time of his death. On A.K.'s death certificate, his parents are listed as: Augustus Barnum, born Maryland, and Allie Miller, born Pennsylvania. his birth date is given as: Dec. 8, 1848, in Alabama. He died in Saint Paul, at the City Hospital, where he had lived and worked for many years, on May 16, 1923.
Penciled on his death certificate (near the top) are the words "Selma, Alabama." His obituary says that he was brought to Minnesota in 1856 by his mother, from "Greensboro, Alabama."
A court document filed in in 1901 at Saint Paul, by Barnum's half-brother, states that A. K.'s father was born in Baltimore, Maryland and his mother in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The 1880 US Census lists his parents' birthplaces as Father in Maryland and mother in Pennsylvania.
Augustus Kirby Barnum's father may have died young, because his mother Allie (aka Alice, née Miller) married second, Girard Hewitt (1825-1879), who was born in Holidaysburg, PA, studied law, and moved to Alabama in 1845, where he lived for 12 years before moving to Saint Paul, Minnesota for health reasons. Hewitt was one of the early movers and shakers during the city's pioneer days. It is not certain whether Mrs. Allie (Miller) Barnum & Mr. Girard Hewitt married in Alabama or in Minnesota but from the published dates of their moves to Minn., it looks like they both arrived there from Alabama in about 1857. Of their marriage, two half-brothers of Augustus K. Barnum were produced: Walter Hewitt, born abt. 1859 and James Byrd Hewitt, born abt. 1863, both b. in Minnesota
Allie (Miller) (Barnum) Hewitt, died in Saint Paul, Minnesota, April 8, 1898.
A.K. Barnum married in Saint Paul, Josephine Thompson (b. GA, abt. 1851, d. abt. 1922), daughter of James E. Thompson, a prominent pioneer banker. The couple had at least two children: Edith J. Barnum, born 1879, in Saint Paul, Minnesota (living in 1923, at Roswell, New Mexico), m. Henry Meyers, and Edmund Kirby Barnum, b. abt. 1881 (living in 1923 in Fresno, California).
He died at the City Hospital, where he had worked for many years.
A Research Guide to the Genealogy of the Barnum/Barnam/Barnham Family Worldwide
AncientFaces - Family History Photos
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