site New London. When the lottery charter expired, he built a larger store in Bethel, but through bad debts the enterprise proved a failure. After his marriage in 1829 he established and edited a weekly newspaper entitled "The Herald of Freedom," and for the free expression of his opinions he was imprisoned sixty days for libel. In 1834 he removed to New York, his property having become much reduced. He soon afterward visited Philadelphia, and saw there on exhibition a colored slave woman named Joyce Heth, advertised as the nurse of George Washington, one hundred and sixty-one year's old. Her owner exhibited an ancient-looking, time-colored bill of sale, dated 1727. Mr. Barnum bought her for $1,000, advertised her extensively, and his receipts soon reached $1,500 a week. Within a year Joyce Heth died, and a post-mortem examination proved that the Virginia Slanter had added about eighty years to her age. laving thus acquired a taste for the show business, Mr. Barnum travelled through the south with small shows, which were generally unsuccessful. In 1841, although without a dollar of his own, he purchased Scudder's American Museum, named it Barnum's Museum, and, by adding novel curiosities and advertising freely, he was able to pay for it the first year, and in 1848 he had added to it two other extensive collections, besides several minor ones. In 1842 he first heard of Charles S. Stratton, of Bridgeport, Conn., then less than two feet high and weighing only sixteen pounds, who soon became known to the world, under Mr. Barnum's direction, as Gen. Tom Thumb, and was exhibited in the United States and Europe with great success. In 1849 Mr. Barnum, after long negotiations, engaged Jenny Lind to sing in America for 150 nights at $1,000 a night, and a concert company was formed to support her. Only ninety-five concerts were given ; but the gross receipts of the tour in nine months of 1850 and 1851 were $712,101, upon which Mr. Barnum made a large profit. In 1855, after being connected with many enterprises besides those named, he retired to an oriental villa in Bridgeport, which he had built in 1846, He ex- pended large sums in improving that city, built up the city of East Bridgeport, made miles of streets, and therein planted thousands of trees. He encouraged manufacturers to remove to his new city, which has since been united with Bridgeport. But in 1856-7, to encourage a large manufacturing company to remove there, he became so impressed with confidence in their wealth and certain success that he endorsed their notes for nearly $1,000,000. The company went into bankruptcy, wiping out Mr. Barnum's property; but he had settled a fortune upon his wife. He went to England again with Tom Thumb, and lectured with success in London and other English cities, returning in 1857. His earnings and his wife's assistance enabled him to emerge from his financial misfortunes, and he once more took charge of the old museum on the corner of Broadway and Ann street, and conducted it with success till it was burned on 13 July, 1865. Another museum which he opened was also burned. He then, in the spring of 1871, established a great travelling museum and menagerie, introducing rare equestrian and athletic performances, which, after the addition of a representation of the ancient Roman hippodrome races, the great elephant Jumbo, and other novelties, he called "P. T. Barnum's Greatest Show on Earth." Mr. Barnum has been four times a member of the Connecticut legislature, and mayor of Bridgeport, to which city he presented a public park. His other benefactions have been large and numerous. among them a stone museum building presented to Tufts college near Boston, Mass., filled with specimens of natural history. He has delivered hundreds of lectures on temperance and the practical affairs of life. He has published his autobiography (New York, 1855; enlarged ed., Hartford, 1869, with yearly appendices), "Humbugs of the World" (New York, 1865): and "Lion Jack," a story (1876).
BARNUM, William H., senator, b. in Boston Corners, N. Y.. 17 Sept., 1818; d. in Lime Rock, Conn., 30 April, 1889. He was educated at the
public schools, and was for many years engaged in
the manufacture of car-wheels, and in the production of iron from the ore. He was elected to the
state legislature in 1852, was a delegate to the
union national convention at Philadelphia in 1866,
was sent to congress as a democrat in 1866, and retained his seat by successive re-elections till 1876, in which year he was elected to the U. S. senate to fill the term of Orris S. Ferry, deceased, ending 4 March. 1879.
BARNUM, Zenas, capitalist, b. near Wilkesbarre. Pa., 9 Dec, 1810; d. in Baltimore, Md., 5 April, 1865. He was a civil engineer, but became
proprietor of Barnum's Hotel in Baltimore, in the
management of which he acquired a large fortune.
Later he became president of the Baltimore central
railroad, and devoted his entire energies to its reorganization, a task in which he was thoroughly
successful. Mr. Barnum was largely interested in
the development of the telegraph, and was the first
president of the American Telegraph Company.
He was also president of the Magnetic Telegraph
Company at the time of his death.
BARNWELL, John, soldier, b. in Ireland about 1671; d, about June, 1724, in Beaufort, S. C. In 1712 a formidable conspiracy was formed by the
Tuscarora Indians in North Carolina against the
white settlers of the colony. In the neighborhood
of Roanoke alone 137 whites were killed in one
night. Col. Barnwell was sent by Gov. Craven, of
South Carolina, with a regiment of 600 Carolinians
and several hundred friendly Indians to punish
the offenders. He marched through an unbroken
wilderness without provision trains or any regular
source of supplies. The advance was conducted
with great expedition and skill. Barnwell's force
overtook the Tuscaroras and killed 300 in the first
engagement. The survivors were driven into their
fortified town, besieged, and finally reduced to
submission. Nearly 1,000 of them were killed or
captured, and the remnant abandoned their hereditary lands and joined the Five Nations of New York. This was the first crushing blow dealt against the Indians by the white settlers in the Carolinas, and Barnwell is to this day known to his descendants as "Tuscarora John." In 1722 he was sent to England as agent for the colony of South Carolina.—His grandson, Robert, b. in Beaufort, S. C.,
in 1762; d. in 1814, He volunteered for the revolutionary war when sixteen years old, and was dangerously wounded in a fight at Port Royal shortly afterward. He was taken prisoner and confined in a prison ship in Cape Fear river, N. C., but with his fellow prisoners organized a revolt, overpowered the guards, captured the ship and
made their escape. Mr. Barnwell was afterward a
member of the convention in South Carolina on
the adoption of the federal constitution, was a
member of congress from 1791 till 1792. He declined reelection, but was a member of the state legislature for many years afterward. He was speaker of the house of representatives of South Carolina in 1795, and president of the senate in 1805.—His son, Robert Woodward, statesman.
