Mr. Barnard's legislative experience materially changed his plans in life; and he decided to enter at once upon his professional studies. He was well known in the house from his first appearance in that body; not merely because so youthful in appearance, but because, also, of the uncommon capacity, the sincerity and sagacity with which, in unassuming, almost diffident ways, he met all his duties; and in the latter sessions of the four years' service he became a leader of the Independent party in the house, and an influential member of that body. At home, during the same period, he was sleepless in his vigilance, contriving by sagacious management to hold the little band of Free-soil Democrats in a solid column, and annually to carry the town till he left it, in the autumn of 1851.
At the close of the legislative session of that year, with fixed professional aims, he went to Franklin, entered upon the study of the law in the office of Nesmith & Pike, and in 1854, on admission to the bar, became at once the junior partner with Mr. Pike, in the office where he had read his profession, Mr. Nesmith at that time retiring from the office and extensive business which he had so honorably founded and built into its large proportions. In 1863, Mr. Barnard withdrew from the firm and established himself alone in his profession in the same village, rapidly rising into the very large, wide, and lucrative business which for more than eighteen years has allowed him not so much as a week, or scarcely a day, of vacation in the year. During this period he has had as many students in his office constantly as the circumstances of his office would admit, and has nearly all the time had a partner in a temporary way. His partner now is his eldest son, William M. Barnard, who graduated at Dartmouth College with superior rank, in 1876, at the age of twenty years; studied his profession in his father's office and at the Boston Law School; and was admitted to the bar and into partnership with his father in 1879. In relation to the business of the office, it is perfectly safe to add that there has been no time within the last fifteen years in which there has not been a formidable amount of business piled up awaiting attention, notwithstanding the most sleepless and indefatigable industry which Mr. Barnard has brought to his duties. For the last ten years he has not only regularly attended all the courts in the counties of Merrimack, Belknap, and the Plymouth sessions of Grafton, but has constantly attended the United States circuit courts, practicing in bankrupt, patent, and revenue cases.
The esteem in which Mr. Barnard is held by the immediate community in which he lives may be casually mentioned. Though never seeking office, he has been often chosen to places of responsibility by his townsmen. In 1860 and 1862 he represented the town of Franklin in the legislature; and in all political contests in the town in which he has been candidate for the suffrages of his townsmen he has always run much ahead of the party ticket. In 1865 and 1866 he was a member of the state senate, presiding over that body in the latter-named year; in 1870 and 1871 he was a member of the governor's council; and in 1872 was a member of the Republican national convention at Philadelphia. He was solicitor of Merrimack county from 1867 till declining re-appointment in 1872, the position being again tendered to him and declined in 1877. He was a firm, earnest supporter of the homestead-exemption law of 1850, which was opposed by most of the profession through the state, and introduced the resolution in the house which first gave the members a daily paper. As a member of the senate in 1867, he took a profound interest in the amendment of the federal constitution prohibiting slavery, making an able and effective argument in its support in that body.
In the cause of education he has always been a foremost friend in Franklin and throughout the state. His own early struggles have doubtless contributed to make him peculiarly a friend of the common school, and his experience as a teacher in his early years gives him practical wisdom in the cause. While studying his profession in Franklin, he was from year to year employed in the Teachers' Institutes, which did a large work in awakening higher ideas of the mission of the common school in New Hampshire during that period, and in that business he was in nearly every county of the state. In 1867, the honorary degree of Master of Arts was conferred upon Mr. Barnard by Dartmouth College.
Mr. Barnard has been prominently identified with all the leading industries which have been established in Franklin, and which have so remarkably built up the town within the last twenty years; procured the charters and helped organize all the great corporations; has been a continuous trustee of the Franklin Library Association since its establishment, more than fifteen years since, and a trustee of the Franklin Savings Bank since its establishment, in 1865; legal counsel of the Franklin Falls Company from its organization, in 1864, and the last eight years its local agent; and is a director and vice-president of the Franklin National Bank, recently organized in that town.
As a lawyer, Mr. Barnard ranks very high in the profession, his advice being eagerly sought by the humblest client and the most influential corporations; but no person, however poor, with a meritorious cause, was ever turned away from his office to make room for a richer or more powerful client. His client's cause becomes his, and his whole energy is directed to winning for his employer what he believes he should have. His terse and logical arguments are especially powerful before a jury; and his eloquent voice has been often heard in legislative halls, leading and guiding the law-making assemblies, and in political meetings, sustaining the motives and policy of his party.
In the social, humane, and religious work of the community, he has always been active and efficient, generous almost to a fault in every good enterprise; and in these spheres of duty he has ever had the efficient co-operation of a cultivated, and, it is not too much to add, a model Christian wife,—Amelia, only child of Rev. William Morse, a Unitarian clergyman of Chelmsford, Mass., at the time of the marriage,—to whom he was married November 8, 1854. Mr. Morse, now deceased, was one of the pioneer clergymen of the Unitarian faith in this country, was many years pastor of the Callow-Hill-street church, Philadelphia, and an able and excellent minister. His wife was Sophronia, daughter of Abner Kneeland, of Boston, an able and upright man, whose trial on the technical charge of blasphemy, but really for the publication of heretical religious doctrines, was a most noted episode in New England forty years ago. Mrs. Morse was a noble woman. Mr. Morse and his wife resided during the last years of their pleasant lives in Franklin, near their daughter, who watched with singular tenderness over the closing years of the parents to whom she is indebted for superior training as well as superior ability. Their union has been blessed with seven children, six of whom, four sons and two daughters, are living.
Respectfully
William P. Riddle