Reproduction of photograph from Fox Valley Memory.
Used with permission of the Appleton Public Library.
Lyman Barnes and his wife Helen Conkey Barnes occupied the original Conkey home at 433 W. Prospect Ave. after Helen's mother Cynthia Conkey was widowed in 1891 and moved to 423 W. Prospect Ave.
The following was taken verbatim from Ryan's History of Outagamie County, Part 15:
HON. LYMAN EDDY BARNES, deceased, was one of Appleton's distinguished men and for years was both prominent in public affairs, and useful, earnest and conscientious in all those things which go to make up a community's higher life. He was born at Weyauwega, Wisconsin, June 30, 1856, and died at Appleton, January 16, 1904. His parents were William and Lucy (Thomas) Barnes, the former of whom was born in Kentucky and claimed as kindred the Clays, the Bentons and the Harts of that state. The latter was of true Pilgrim stock, her ancestors coming across the Atlantic ocean in the Mayflower. William Barnes went to England when he was young, but at the age of responsibility returned to America, locating at Plymouth, Massachusetts, where he married and with his bride came to Wisconsin in 1849, a pioneer in the lumber business in the section in which he settled. Lyman Eddy Barnes attended the public schools of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and then entered Columbia College and was graduated from the law department in 1876, coming then, in 1877, to Appleton, where he entered upon the practice of law until 1882, at which time he removed to Florida. For four years he resided in that state, and then returned to Wisconsin and was warmly welcomed by his old friends and associates and was elected district attorney, and in 1892, was still further honored by an election to the United States Congress. During his term at Washington he maintained the same broad--minded attitude in reference to public questions that had previously won him friends and supporters, and when he returned and practically retired from public life it was with an unstained reputation and a record for efficiency that many a statesman of many years' standing had never achieved. He was an ardent democrat. He was a man of benevolent impulses and ever ready to participate in charitable movements, and was a devoted member of the Episcopal Church. On August 18, 1880, Mr. Barnes was married to Helen Byrd Conkey, a daughter of Col. Theodore and Cynthia. Byrd (Foote) Conkey. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Barnes, namely: Theodora Byrd, who died aged nine years; Alice Alexandra, who is the wife of Lieut. Frank Lee Beals, a native of Virginia, a retired army officer, appointed military attache at American Embassy, Rio de Janiero, Brazil, in 1909; Thomas Hart, who is with the Payne-Lucas Company of Oshkosh; and Edward Talcott and Lyman Eddy, residing at home. At a meeting of the Bar Association, held in Appleton, February 3, 1904, a strong tribute was paid to the memory of Mr. Barnes, from which we copy the following:
"As a citizen and public official, he was faithful in the discharge of every duty; and although a strong partisan, he never sacrificed his state or country to his party. As a friend, he was courteous, congenial and companionable; as a man honorable, frank in his criticisms, positive in his convictions and tolerant of the opinions of his neighbor. As a lawyer always industrious, exact, thorough in his work, true to his clients, honorable toward his associates at the bar and courteous to the Court."
