CHARLES BARNHART.-From the age of twenty-four years to the present time Charles Barnhart has been prominently identified with the business interests of Sullivan county. At that age he started to work for himself, but for some years following this he conducted his father's farm, and then buying out the heirs to the home estate resided thereon until the year of 1887. Selling the land then he bought another farm of ninety- two acres where the village of Hymera now stands, but he has since sold this entire tract in town lots with the exception of one and a half acres. During about six years of this time he was engaged in the furniture business, was also in the livery business for about four years, and during the past twenty-one years he has been the proprietor of a well known and popular hotel. He has thus contributed much to the public life and interests of Hymera and vicinity, and the community numbers him among her foremost business men and citizens.
Mr. Barnhart was born in Owen county, Indiana, February 28, 1851, and is of German parentage. His father, Henry Barnhart, came to America when about twenty-two years of age and located in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, where he was employed on public works for some years and then bought a farm in that county. After a residence there of several years, however, he sold the land and moved to Owen county, Indiana, where he bought a farm and resided there until selling the land in 1885 he came to Jackson township, Sullivan county, buying a farm a half a mile south of Hymera. He resided on this homestead until his death in the year of 1877, when he had reached the age of sixty-eight years. His wife, Margaret, was born near his old home in Germany, and coming to America about the same time they were married in Ohio. The wife died about ten years after the death of her husband, aged seventy-seven years. The two children of Mr. and Mrs. Barnhart are Bert, a pharmacist, and engaged in the drug business in Indianapolis, and Ralph, who is with his parents and attending school. Mr. Barnhart is a member of the. Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of the Methodist church, and in politics he upholds the principles of the Democratic party. The original spelling of this name was Barnhardt, but it has since been changed to its present form.