Joseph Thomas Barnum was born in 1832 in New York state, the son of Truman Barnum and Harriet Rich. Although he is said to have been a cousin of P.T. Barnum, the famous showman (Phineas was the son of Philo, while Joseph Thomas was the son of Truman), so far no proof has been found that Philo and Truman were brothers. By 1835, the Barnums were in Chicago, where Joseph Thomas's brother William E. was born.
The Barnums came to Arizona in 1864 and settled first in
Prescott, where Joseph Thomas met and married Jeanette Jane “Jenettie” Osborn,
daughter of John P. Osborn and Perlina Swetnam, on May 10, 1865. He was
33, almost 17 years older than his teenage bride.
When Barnum, who usually went by his middle name of Thomas, moved his family to the Salt River Valley in 1868, Barnum was quick to see the Valley's potential and went into partnership with J. W. Swilling in digging irrigation ditches.
Barnum was a personal friend of John T. Alsap; in fact, the two families were sharing a household in 1870. Barnum was one of the signers of the original Salt River Valley Town Association pact on October 20, 1870 and is believed to have helped William Augustus Hancock lay out the original Phoenix town site,
When Maricopa County was created in 1871 from Yavapai County, it became necessary to elect county officials for the first time. After one candidate for sheriff, a man named Chenoweth, shot and killed another candidate, J. Favorite, in a gunfight, Barnum became the front runner for the office. He was elected and served from May until August, 1871.
Besides enforcing the law, Barnum's duties included developing a tax roll and collecting taxes for the new county. He also had to take convicted felons to the state prison in Yuma and transport the insane to the nearest mental hospital which was in California.
For more information on Joseph Barnum, who was a fascinating man, come down to the PMMP. -adapted from a story by Donna Carr
