Alfred F. Barnett was born in Mercer County, Kentucky, November 23,1816, and lived there two years, when his parents, Zacharius and Nancy Burnett, migrated to Missouri and settled near Fayette, Howard County. There he was reared, and lived until 1847, when he removed to Daviess county and settled on a farm in Jefferson township, continuing in agricultural pursuits for two years. In 1849 he came to Gallatin and engaged in the mercantile business with R. S. Owings, under the firm name of Barnett & Owings, and continued in the business until the summer of 1851, when he retired from the firm, and, for a short time, again engaged in farming. He next went to Smithton, Kansas, and was the manager of a store at that place for the firm of Holt, Tipton & Co., of Savannah, Missouri, remaining there until 1857, when he returned to Gallatin and was appointed deputy sheriff by James J. Minor, holding the position four years.
In 1861 he joined the Confederate army, enlisting in General Sterling Price’s brigade as a private, and served during the war, returning to Gallatin after the declaration of peace in 1865. His first employment was the running of a steam flouring-mill for R. T. West, in which business he was engaged up to 1874, when he was elected treasurer of Daviess county, reelected in 1876, serving both terms and going out of office in 1878. Establishing himself in the lumber trade, he carried on that business alone until 1880, when he formed a partnership with T. J. Crain, under the firm name of Crain & Barnett, and they continue to deal extensively in lumber.
Mr. Barnett was joined in marriage to Miss Pennetia Owings, in 1837, and she was taken from him by death in 1860. In 1864 he married Miss Elizabeth Terrentine, of Arkansas, and after journeying eleven years in life’s pathway together, she died in 1875. Miss M. J. McCartney, of Clinton county, became his third wife, in 1878. He is the father of two children, one by his first wife, James B., now a physician of Gentry ville, Gentry county; and one by his second wife, Charles N., a student at the high school at Gallatin. Mr. and Mrs. Barnett and both sons are members of the Baptist Church. He is a member of Gallatin Lodge No. 106, A. F. & A. M., and of Gallatin Chapter No. 11, R. A. M.