Hon. Danford Newton Barney, III

Danford Newton Barney III (1859–1936),[19] a former Connecticut State Senator and treasurer of the Hartford Electric Light Company

[Following is an excerpt of a history of the Barney Library, Farmington, CT, downloaded 2010 from http://www.farmingtonhistoricalsociety-ct.org/barneylibrary2.html]

In 1882, eight years before the [Farmington, CT] Town Hall was built, when Julia Brandegee, the younger sister of Sarah Brandegee Barney (a Miss Porter's School graduate) took a precedent-breaking step. She opened her own library, she, a single Farmington woman, instead of a company of men. Julia was also the aunt of Danford Newton Barney [1859-1936], a successful young businessman. Ann Arcari, Farmington Room librarian and president of the Historical Society, reported in her research that Julia's motives were not obvious, since the subscription Farmington Library Co. had been securely settled in the town clerk's office for 27 years. Perhaps she felt there should be a free library or that the existing library did little to attract young people, as most titles were ponderous tomes on religion or morals, Arcari said.

Brandegee first launched her library in a friend's house with 14 books, geared to the interests of the Boys Club. Before long she owned 400 books and bought an old shoemaker's shop on Farmington Avenue (opposite High Street).

Julius Gay described the library as "a tenement house" transformed by the subtle magic of a genial philosophy into the Tunxis Library. Entertaining books fill every nook and corner and antique furniture ranged around the vast old fireplace welcomes readers young and old to a free and healthful entertainment.

Both sister Sarah Brandegee Barney and nephew D. N. Barney organized a support organization for Julia the Village Library Co., which also included Sarah Porter. This helped Julia to achieve the inviting home-like library, shown in her nephew D. N. Barney's photograph (from Julius Gay's history) below.

[In Julia Brandegee's profile, see D. Newton Barney's photograph of Julia Brandegee's Tunxis Library, from Farmington, Connecticut: The Village of Beautiful Homes, 1906.]

The Farmington Library Co., operating in the small, crowded town clerk's office, quickly reacted to Julia's enterprise. Thomas Porter, the librarian, visited her with this greeting, recorded in several town histories: "I want to know what you are doing to run out the town library." Chris Bickford, in Farmington in Connecticut, adds, He told her there were not enough people paying 50 cents a year to borrow books to cover his salary of $5.

Undeterred, Julia enlarged her library with her family's support, accepting book and money donations, stacking shelves with bound magazine volumes, encyclopedias and popular books for all ages. She opened two afternoons and evenings, rather than only on Sunday, a day of rest, attracting women and students, in addition to Sunday's male businessmen and workers. In contrast to the plain design of the Farmington Library Co.'s room in the town clerk's office, Julia usually had a fire going and served tea and cookies, especially to the girls, according to Ann Arcari's research.

Julius Gay summarized Julia's impact on the children: "She wanted all to have food for their minds as well [as] their bodies. ... For some years, she and her sister Sarah Brandegee Barney gave a Christmas party for the village children, with a huge Christmas tree and a live Santa Claus presents for all pockets of nuts and candies, a sweater for school and a good book for each."

Julia Brandegee's Tunxis Library, once a shoemaker's shop,

from The Village of Beautiful Homes, 1906.

When the new Town Hall was built in 1890 on Main Street (where the fire station is now), Julia Brandegee's Tunxis Free Library merged with the Farmington Library Co. from the town clerk's office, once represented by the fearful librarian Tom Porter. Julia was named librarian, and her Tunxis Library contributed 1,500 books. The other, older Farmington Library Co. added several hundred of its most valued books. With the merger of the two libraries, Julia's philosophy influenced the new entity. It became a free library like her Tunxis one, and books appealing to young people and women were purchased, as well as literature to feed readers' minds.

Surprisingly, Julia Brandegee's Tunxis Library building, the old shoemaker's shop and tenement (rented) house, survives today in the Brick Walk Shops, according to Arline Whitaker's research. She and her husband, Lucius (Buzz) Whitaker, own the shops. It was originally bought by the preservationist Dr. Walls W. Bunnell, moved across Farmington Avenue and renovated into the Yarn Winder Shop. Today it is attorney Christian Hoheb's office.

The merger of the Tunxis and Farmington Library Co. and the move into the Town Hall created a boom in membership, donations and the size of the collection, Bickford writes. By 1905, the shelves held 5,000 books and membership reached 300. Despite this growth, Julia Brandegee dreamed of seeing a separate library building, and in 1901 mention was made of her hopes to live long enough to see the books moved on to the shelves of a new fireproof structure. Brandegee's nephew D. N. Barney responded to her wish. In 1909, a year after his mother's death, he began planning to construct a library as a memorial to her.

Portrait of D. Newton Barney, by Robert Brandegee. Barney Library.

Betty Coykendall researched the complicated history of Barney's role in the realization of the Sarah Brandegee Memorial Library. She writes that it began with Sarah Porter's codicil in her 1900 will, in which she left land to seven trustees. The property was to become a public park to be called the Village Green. It had already been purchased with funds contributed by a number of my former pupils. Porter also left $3,000, the income of which was to pay for maintaining and improving the property, the park opposite the former Elm Tree Inn on Farmington Avenue. The trustees were to apply for a state charter for a tax-exempt corporation to own the land. Oddly, they were also to ask whether a library on the land would violate the will. The legislature approved the corporation and added three trustees: D. N. Barney, Waldo Chase and Alfred Pope of the Hill-Stead. The corporation was to be named the Farmington Village Green and Library Association (the FVGLA). Barney was elected president. In 1909, Barney's offer to construct a public library was presented to the new association. He would donate $25,000 if the trustees would match it within one year, but the group failed to do that.

Barney, the astute entrepreneur, invented another solution. He bought the First Church's land, between it and the 1904 Center School (now Noah Wallace), in a special deal in which he arranged to lease the part where he planned to build the library. He cleared the plot of the buildings there: the horse sheds for those who rode or drove carriages to church, and the Old Academy, which was moved up to the corner of Hart Street, where it stands now (the former Art Guild building).

The Old Academy building, which was moved to make way for the Barney Library.

Barney also applied to the state to expand the FVGLA's territory to the entire town, thus enabling the group to accept the building he was constructing, which was outside Sarah Porter's Village Green. His request was approved, so in 1918 Barney gave to the library association his "free public library," to be named the Sarah Brandegee Barney Memorial Library. He also donated 200 shares of U.S. Steel preferred stock for its upkeep, worth $20,000 then. A special library committee of nine trustees was added to the basic FVGLA, including his wife, Laura Dunham Barney, and Julia Brandegee; the committee of nine members included five women.

Other donations arrived shortly. Trustee Whitney Palache established a fund for history books in memory of his son James, who had died in World War I. Barney again gave stock, 100 shares of his company, the Hartford Electric Light Company (HELCO). In the 1930s, the FVGLA acquired the library land that Barney had leased from the church. By 1946, the library discovered that its investment income alone couldn't support its needs, although the town provided backup funds. To rise to the fiscal need without seeking more taxes, the association formed a fund-raising committee called the Friends of the Farmington Library, an official arm of the FVGLA that raises more than $30,000 annually.

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• Reference: Ancestry Genealogy - SmartCopy: Nov 11 2017, 8:48:25 UTC