Philo Barnum (1778 - 1828)

Born 4 Apr 1778 in Windham, Windham, Connecticut, United States

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 7 Sep 1828 at age 50 in Danbury, Fairfield, Connecticut, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Matt Sanders [send private message]

Biography

This profile is part of the Barnum Name Study.

Philo Barnum was a sometime farmer, tailor, tavern-keeper, livery-stable proprietor, and country-store merchant. He also operated a small express company, and his son P. T. Barnum wrote that "with greater opportunities and a larger field for his efforts and energies, he might have been a man of mark and means." He never did a profitable business in any of those capacities.

Philo Barnum was a man of many enterprises and few successes. Besides being the proprietor of a hotel he owned a livery-stable, ran a sort of an express, and kept a country store. His son Phineas was his confidential clerk, and, if he did not reap much financial benefit from his position, he at least obtained a good business education. On the 7th of September, 1825 the father died at the age of forty-eight after a six months' illness, leaving a wife and five children and an insolvent estate. There was literally nothing left for the family; the creditors seized everything. Even the small sum which Phineas had loaned his father was held to be the property of a minor, and therefore belonging to the estate. The boy was obliged to borrow money to buy the shoes he wore to the funeral. At fifteen he began the world not only penniless but barefooted.

The Barnum Family, 1517-1904 gives his death date as Sep 1825, as does his son, P. T. Barnum, in the latter's autobiography.

From Struggles and Triumphs or, Forty Years' Recollections of P. T. Barnum, written by himself. The Courier Co.: Buffalo, NY, 1882. "On the 7th of September, 1825, my father, who had been sick since the month of March, died at the age of 48 years."

Birth

04 APR 1778 Windham, Windham, Connecticut, USA^[1][2]

Marriage

Philo's first wife died in 1808

AFT 1808^[2]

Employment

Farmer^[1]

Tailor^[1]

Hotel Keeper^[1]

Death

07 SEP 1825 Bethel, Fairfield, Connecticut, USA^[2]

Notes

• He had 5 children with Polly Fairchild
• He had 5 children with Irene Taylor

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3}
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2}

• Commemorative Biographical Record of Fairfield County, (Higginson Book Co., 1899) Page 1.
• Hill, Susan Benedict. History of Danbury, Conn. 1684-1896 (Burr Printing House, New York, 1896) Page 538-539
• Cutter, William Richard. Genealogical and Family History of the State of Connecticut (Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1911) Vol. 1, Page 443
• Find A Grave: Memorial #21148926 Retrieved December 07, 2017.
• The Connecticut Quarterly (Hartford, Conn., 1897) Vol. 3, Page 237
• DAR Lineage Book (Daughters of the American Revolution, 1915) Vol. 47, Page 51: #46113
• The Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Vital Records - White, Lorraine Cook, ed. (Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, MD, 1994-2002) Vol. Danbury, Page 12