Power – Lee William Barney
Lee comes from a long line of Barneys in the United States. The Barney’s originally were Quakers living in England and came to America in the late 1600’s. Jonathan Barney, Lee’s 3rd great grandfather, was an early settler to Johnsburg, NY prior to 1807. It is possible he was influenced by the persuasiveness of John Thurman who was trying to colonize the wilderness lands of the Thurman Patent, now Johnsburg. The story is told that Mr. Thurman was in the habit of exhibiting beech nuts to the natives and immigrants in New York and observe that that was the kind of buckwheat that could be raised on Elm Hill (now Warrensburg).
Lee was born 3 March 1903 in the Town of Johnsburg, New York to Anna E. Ross and Lewis Barney. Lewis was the son of William who was the son of Wells whose father was Jonathan. Lee had two older siblings, Clara and Charles.
Lee’s father died of pneumonia in 1908 when Lee only 5 years old. Shortly after his father died, Lee, his brother and sister were placed in a Catholic orphanage in Troy, NY while his mother got on her feet. It is believed the children lived there about 3-5 years. Afterward, Charles Ross Barney went to live with his grandparents Charles and Amanda (Richardson) Ross in Johnsburg, NY.
In 1911 Anna married Seaford Reynolds, a widower. According to the 1915 NY State Census, Lee (age 11) and his sister Clara (age 16) were living with Seaford and Anna in West Sand Lake, NY, southeast of Troy.
As a young man, Lee worked at Blue Mountain Lake in northern New York at a summer lodge. He worked in the vegetable garden and barn, bringing fresh milk to the house every evening. It was there that he met Antonia Heinz who also worked there as a chambermaid. They were married in the Town of Johnsburg on 10 May 1923. Witnesses were Anna Barney and J. N. Armstrong. After they married, they moved to South Glens Falls, NY where they lived for a while on Main Street.
In 1929 Lee and Antonia (Tony), were able to purchase a house from their good friends William T. and Lucy C. Reynolds. The house had been built by the mill and had previously belonged to the Union Free Church of Feeder Dam.
Now we get to the reason I chose Lee as my subject for Power. Lee worked as a Hydrostatic operator at Feeder Dam for the Niagra Mohawk Power Corporation for 31 years. He was a member of the 25 Year Club of the Niagara-Mohawk Power Corp and the I.B.E.W. Local 1369. (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers)
As a hobby, he made cement lawn fixtures, such as elves, ducks, flowers, etc. that he sold at a small stand along Route 9.
The local paper mill sent timber from where it was cut, down the Hudson River, to the mill in Glens Falls. Lee had to go out at times on the river, walking on the logs to route the timber across the Feeder Dam. On one occasion his right leg became crushed between logs. It was badly crushed and he developed cancer in that leg so it was eventually amputated just above the knee. Afterwards, he wore a wooden leg, and when the children were around, Lee would tease them by sticking pins into his wood leg and pretending it hurt. One time Dorothy, his daughter, tried to beat Lee to the punch by sticking the pin herself. Unfortunately, it was in the wrong leg.
Lee died on Oct 12, 1962 at the age of 59. He is buried at Griswold Cemetery, Moreau, New York.
