Jack's Patent 3,313,057

Jack patented some color code caps for knobs for electronic gear on April 11, 1967.  The application was made on Oct. 26, 1964.  I remember the knobs well.  We often played with these electronic knobs that were always around Jack's workroom.  The machines that were used to produce the knobs would extrude globs of plastic that we all thought really cool-looking and collected in the family garden for a while.  You can see the patent by clicking on this link:  3,313,057

Bowles Hall, University of California Berkeley

Jack was always proud of his membership in Bowles Hall.  He was listed as a senior there in the Blue and Gold Yearbook, class of 1946.  Jack said that he was elected president of Bowles Hall, and I remember once seeing a plaque there with his name on it to that effect.  His brother Don also went to Bowles Hall.  Jack had a picture of Bowles Hall hanging in his office.  He never graduated due, he says, to a bad case of dysentery, plus not being able to get credit from Berkeley for his studies at Harvard and MIT during the war.  Jack went on without BA in hand to have a satisfying career as an electronics manufacturer's representative, which makes him not much different from many contemporary computer CEOs.  Sometime in the 1980s he was invited back to Berkeley to give a talk about his career.  He saw that as a kind of vindication.  . 

Henry Longfellow School

Longfellow Elementary School, Pasadena,

 
Jack and Don attended Henry Longfellow School.   Check the link below for a picture from that time.

Henry Longfellow School, East Washington, Pasadena. 1926.
DATE: 10/22/1926
NOTES: Street view of Henry Longfellow School on East Washington. The school is a large, multistory building with a flagpole and trees on the lawn.
SOURCE: Harold A. Parker Studio Collection of Negatives
REPOSITORY: Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery

Leddy Ranch

Fire Sweeps Leddy Ranch.  [probably appeared in an L.A. paper sometime in the 1930s...clipping has no date or publication]

500 Acres of Timber Fall Before Flames, House Saved by Fighters

More than 500 acres of big timber, a saw mill and blacksmith shop of the Calaveras County ranch of Harold D. Leddy, Pasadena attorney were in smouldering ruins today in the wake of a forest fire.

At a loss estimated at more than $5,000, the fire swept over the ranch Sunday, eating through a stand of 3,000,000 feet of timber, Leddy learned today.  Back-firing saved the six-room ranch house and 50 acres of scrub land.

Leddy, who lives at 1175 Woodbury Road, said the ranch had been a hunting paradise.  It is near Railroad Flat, 10 miles from Calaveras Big Trees.


Jack always remembered time spent on the Leddy ranch with fondness as days in which he was a cowboy.  The family story is that Harold received the ranch in lieu of payment of attorney's fees.

Barnes and Murray Family Tombstone

Anthony Parone has also provided us with pictures of a Barnes and Murray family tombstone.  The second picture is of Anthony and his.Aunt Pat in the Cathedral Cemetery in Philadelphia.

What did his son (John Ford Barnes) do in New Orleans in the period before his death in 1846?

In a letter in a previous post Jack Leddy asked this question:  "What did his son (John Ford Barnes [son of Captain John Barnes]) do in New Orleans in the period before his death in 1846?"  We now know that answer to that.  He opened another hotel, and then another.  Anthony Parone, a fourth cousin also descended from John Ford Barnes, did the research on this. Here are two notices, one of the new Commercial Hotel in 1844, and one of the sale of another hotel, Notre Dame Hotel, upon the death of John Ford Barnes.  Anthony also provided a copy of his death certificate.   

"Mr. John F. Barnes has taken the “Commercial Hotel,” corner of Girod and New Levee streets which he opened last evening as a house of entertainment.  Mr Barnes knows how to do the thing in the handsome way, and he intends to make his terms reasonable.”  11/1/1844 Times-Picayune, New Orleans

":To Hotel and Tavern Keepers.  For Sale - A Bargain - The lease of the well known Notre Dame Hotel with the commodious Bar Room Fixtures and Household and Kitchen Furniture, with or without four House Servants.  For particulars apply on the premises, corner of Notre Dame and Tchoupatoulus Streets my 28 St."  May 30, 1847  Times Picayune

John Ford Barnes death certificate

Incidentally, two years later the Commercial Hotel was a stopping point for Californians heading to the gold rush.  “They are all stopping, previous to their departure, at the Commercial Hotel, corner of Girod and New Levee streets.”  This taken from "California Bound" S. F. Genealogy  New York Herald, New York, New York, Feb. 22, 1849. 

Captain John Barnes and George Washington?

Keep in mind that there were many John Barnes's and many Captain John Barnes too.  But, did our Captain John Barnes (see Jack's history of John Barnes in this blog) meet George Washington?  Jack Leddy would have been thrilled if this were true.  An account of the history of Trenton New Jersey in 1776-7 says "Captain John Barnes lived in the old stone house, torn down lately, just below Washington Market.  General Washington spent the night of Dec. 29, 1776, in this dwelling."  The account is found in

TRENTON

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

WILLIAM S. STRYKER,

ADJUTANT GENERAL OF NEW JERSEY.

PRINTED FOR PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION.

TRENTON. N. J.

                                                                                 1878

 See Trenton Historical Society New Jersey

Also, in the same document:   "Thomas, Mary and Sarah Barnes lived on the ground now occupied by the Third Presbyterian Church.  Mr. Barnes was a druggist, and his advertisement of salves, ointments, &c., appears in Isaac Collins’ Trenton Gazette."