William Henry Barnum

William Henry Barnum (September 17, 1818 – April30, 1889) was a United States politician, serving as a staterepresentative, U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, and fi-nally as chairman of the Democratic National Commit-tee. He was also known as Seven Mule Barnum.

1 Life and career

Though born in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Bar-num moved to Lime Rock, Connecticut and served in thestate house of representatives from 1851 to 1852. Hethen served in the United States House of Representativesfor Connecticut’s 4th District fromMarch 4, 1867 toMay18, 1876, until the death of Senator Orris S. Ferry. Bar-num then became a United States Senator, serving untilMarch 4, 1879. He was chairman of the DNC from 1877to 1889. He died in Lime Rock on April 30, 1889 and isburied in Lime Rock Cemetery.In addition to Barnum’s political attainments — whichalso include defeating his third cousin, the famous show-man P. T. Barnum, for Congress, and notably being thelongest-serving chair of the Democratic National Com-mittee — Barnum was a prominent industrialist. TheBarnum Richardson Company, of which he was chief ex-ecutive, was headquartered in Lime Rock (now a neigh-borhood of Lakeville) CT, was the leading company inthe Salisbury iron district of that time, owning or con-trolling iron mines, charcoal production resources, lime-stone quarries, and rail transportation. Barnum Richard-son Company was also the preeminent manufacturer ofrailroad car wheels at a time when the railroad industryheld a place in the economy analogous to the computerindustry today.In 1872 he partnered with Collis P. Huntington to financeEnsign Manufacturing Company, a railroad freight carmanufacturer. Among Ensign’s products were the largestwooden hopper cars built for Central Pacific Railroad aswell as a large number of high-capacity wood boxcars forSouthern Pacific Railroad (both railroads were controlledin part by Huntington). Ensign was one of the 13 com-panies that merged in 1899 to form American Car andFoundry Company.[1][2]

William H. Barnum was a founder of the Barnum &Richardson Company of Lime Rock, Connecticut, andChicago, Illinois. The corporation grew to immenseprofitability and industrial volume, and became oneof the foremost metal products manufacturers in the

world. William H. Barnum had a nephew, Milo BarnumRichardson, who was a leader in New York City financeand insurance, having acted as a founder of the NewYorkCity branch of the Caledonian Life Insurance Companyof Scotland. Milo B. Richardson, who also was a leader inthe development and management of New England rail-roads, served as President of the Barnum & RichardsonCompany of Lime Rock, Connecticut, and Chicago, Illi-nois. Through the marriage of his sister to Connecticutindustrialist and financier Leonard Richardson, WilliamH. Barnum was collaterally related to the Jacob Bunnand John Whitfield Bunn industrial and financial familyof Springfield, Illinois, and Chicago, Illinois.William H. Barnum was also a pioneer in religious tol-erance. Although an Episcopalian (he was the principaldonor for the construction of, and chairman of the incor-porators of Trinity Episcopal Church in Lime Rock) hedid not discriminate against Roman Catholics as so manyin that area of New England did at the time. Notably,according to several stories in 1883 in the New YorkTimes, he contributed around $6000 to St. Mary’s Ro-man Catholic Church of Lakeville, and later contributed$500 to build a new Roman Catholic church in CornwallBridge, CT. Importantly, when the local community an-grily responded to the raising of a crucifix by the localCatholic priest by demanding that Barnum fire all hisCatholic workmen, he declined to do so.

2 References• Biographical Directory of the United StatesCongress

[1] “Ensign Manufacturing Company”. Mid-Continent Rail-way Museum. 2006-04-09. Retrieved 2008-04-15.

[2] White, John H., Jr. (1993). The American RailroadFreight Car. Boston and London: The Johns Hopkins Uni-versity Press. pp. 142, 202, 347. ISBN 0-8018-5236-6.

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2 3 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

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