Since William H. Barney was a rather significant and well-known person in Hopedale from around 1890 and into the 1940s, I thought it would be a good idea to have a page on him here for anyone who might be interested. When we started working on the Hopedale book for the Arcadia Press Images of America series, at our request, the Milford News did an article saying that we were looking for picture of Hopedale from long ago. A week or so after the article appeared, we received a call from Arthur Allen saying that he had a box of old glass slides with many views of Hopedale. He brought them to our house and we were thrilled when we went through them. I think we picked about 60 or 70 to use in the book, and had them made into prints at Morin's Studio. Arthur didn't tell us the origin of the pictures, other than to say that they'd been in his house for many years. All we knew about them was that on the border of many, it said, "William H. Barney, Hopedale." After the book came out, someone asked who he was. As I recall, I passed the question on to Glenis Bishop Hatchey, who at that time was getting the Hopedale High School Alumni website started. She either had an address, or directed me to someone who did, for Barney's son, also named William. Bill Barney was living on Nantucket at that time, but spent the winters in Florida. I wrote to him with a few questions, beginning a series of letters that you can see below. The story in brief is that his father came from Nantucket (Barney is one of those "old Nantucket names,")in the 1890s or so, and went to work for the Milford Water Company, which Bill said had been started by someone from Nantucket. Before long, William was in Hopedale, and in time became manager (and I think, part owner) of the Hopedale Stable, which evolved into the Hopedale Coal Company and the Hopedale Ice Company, and eventually, Hopedale Coal & Ice. The Barneys eventually moved to Adin Street, but for some time they lived on Dutcher Street, just south of the apartment house across from the fire station. The Allens lived in the next house. Bill and Arthur were classmates and good friends who kept in touch all their lives, but for some reason Arthur never mentioned any of this. Bill said that his father and uncle had taken courses in photography in New York. He remembered the equipment being up in the attic, but he said he never saw his father take a picture. Bill was born in 1920. In one letter, he said all his father's pictures were taken before 1900, and in another, between 1890 and 1900. Anyway, they were all from at least ten years before he was born, but there were still a number of people and places he could recognize when he looked at them in 2002. We met Bill twice. The first time was when we went to Nantucket for a day - and got trapped there overnight because of high winds out at sea which caused cancellation of the ferry trip back. The second time was when Bill and his wife came to Hopedale after Arthur's wife, Barbara, died.
had a father who had been taking pictures in 1890 was that William's first wife had died and his second wife was much younger than he was. I think he was about 60 when Bill was born. Hopedale Coal & Ice Company Memories Menu HOME . |
with the camera was his father. We had the picture put onto a tee-shirt and sent it to him, along with copies of pictures taken by his father. |
From Bowdoin Magazine. William H Barney Jr. ’43 died on March 19, 2016, in Nantucket, Massachusetts. (The following was submitted by the family): William Hadwen Barney, of Nantucket and formerly of Boca Grande, Fla., died Saturday, March 19, 2016, at home. He was 95. Born July 8, 1920, in Milford, Mass., he was the son of Lucile Pierce Barney and William Hadwen Barney. He grew up in Hopedale, Mass. and graduated from Tabor Academy. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in October 1941 after leaving Bowdoin College. He patrolled the East Coast aboard a submarine-chaser. He married the former Katherine Kennedy and was sent to the West Coast and shipped out to the Pacific. William and his widow Katherine “Kay” Barney had three children, their son William III and his wife Ruth, their daughter Katherine Moose and her husband George, and their daughter Lili Calabrese and her husband Pat. They had seven grandchildren and their spouses; and eleven great-grandchildren. |
Katherine Kennedy Barney (Kay) died peacefully in her sleep at home on Nantucket on August 1, 2017. Her husband, William Hadwen Barney, preceded her in death last year. Mrs. Barney was born on September 8, 1919 in Brooklyn, N.Y. She was the daughter of the late Colonel and Mrs. Grafton Sherwood Kennedy. As an Army brat she moved to a number of different places in the United States. She graduated from the Brimmer and May School and Wellesley College. She was presented to society in Boston and Dayton. After college she was the society editor of the Dayton Journal-Herald and Boston Herald. During World War II she was a submarine watcher on Nantucket. While in College she was a member of the glee club. On August 12, 1944 she and Bill Barney, who had been in the Bowdoin glee club, recognized each other while waiting for the Sunday papers at The Hub on Nantucket. Both the Barney and Kennedy families had homes on Nantucket. On the 13th he proposed and on September 25th they were married at Christ Church, Cambridge. While Bill was in the Pacific she and her sister moved to North Hollywood, CA where she had a nursery school, and volunteered greeting incoming Navy ships with many well-known celebrities. When Bill returned from the War they moved to Havre de Grace, MD; then to New Castle, DE; Birmingham, MI; and Long Island. In 1991 they settled in Boca Grande, FL and divided their time between Boca Grande and Nantucket. During these years Mrs. Barney was involved with garden clubs, the Junior League, the Alliance Francais, (she always wanted to practice her French), women’s clubs, the Wellesley Club, the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, and the DAR. Mrs. Barney was a direct descendant of Governor Thomas Dudley, first colonial governor of Massachusetts and a founder of Harvard College and Cambridge. Both she and her husband were Starbuck descendants. Mrs. Barney is survived by her daughters Katie Barney, and Lili Calabrese and her husband Pat; and son Bill Barney and his wife Ruth; seven grandchildren and their spouses; and eleven great-grandchildren. A memorial service will be held on August 9 at 11AM in Prospect Hill Cemetery at the Barney-Swain plot. Memorial contributions may be made to the Nantucket Historical Association, the Nantucket Atheneum, or Wellesley College. |
Wedding of Bill Barney, Sr from the Milford Gazette. |
