Visscher Vere Barnes (1851-1924)

From the Leaves of Healing, May 1902.

  The career of Visscher Vere Barnes is examined today, and it is indeed a career filled with colorful characters. A resident of Wisconsin, the Dakotas, and Illinois, Barnes was a native New Yorker who taught school in Wisconsin prior to his resettlement in the Dakota Territory. After establishing roots in that region, Barnes was elected as Probate Judge of Kingsbury County and later won a term in the territorial legislature. He continued his political career after relocating to Illinois in the late 1890s, being an unsuccessful candidate for Congress and Governor on the Prohibition Party ticket. Barnes's life took a curious turn in the early 1900s when he removed to Zion City, Illinois, a fundamentalist community established by Scottish-born faith healer and evangelist John Alexander Dowie. Barnes would be named by Dowie as Solicitor General of the Zion Law Department and later was selected as Judge of the Court of Arbitration of Zion City. 

  Born in Greenbush, Rensselaer County, New York on February 11, 1852, Visscher Vere Barnes was the son of Samuel (1827-1887) and Katherine Vere (Hole) Barnes (1827-1900). The Barnes family removed to Deerfield, Illinois when their son was three, and during his youth he attended the Kenosha, Wisconsin high school. Barnes continued study at the Oshkosh State Normal School and briefly enrolled at Oberlin College in Ohio. Barnes began a teaching career in 1871 as an assistant at the Kenosha High School. From 1873-75 he was principal at the New Lisbon High and Public School and during this same period was a mathematics professor at the LaCrosse Business College. Focusing his attention on law studies in the mid-1870s, Barnes read law under U.S. Senator Angus Cameron of Wisconsin for three years and was admitted to the bar around 1879. Visscher Vere Barnes married in Juneau County, Wisconsin in January 1876 to Mary LaBelle Evans. The couple were wed until Mary's death in 1895 and had two children, Mary Vere (born 1879) and Evans Paul (born 1883). 

  In 1879 Barnes and his wife removed to the Dakota Territory where he would establish a law practice. Settling in DeSmet in Kingsbury County, Barnes quickly advanced to the front rank in that community, serving as DeSmet city attorney for a time. In 1880 he entered into his first term as county judge of probate. He served in that capacity until 1883, and in 1880, 1882, 1884 was a delegate to the Dakota Territorial Republican Convention from that county. In the early 1880s, he would be appointed as a U.S. Commissioner for the Dakota Territory and continued his political rise in 1884 with his election to the Territorial House of Representatives. Taking his seat at the start of the 1885-86 session, Barnes chaired the committees on Elections and Printing and held seats on the committees on the Federal Relations, Judiciary, Railroads, and Rules. Period documents on Barnes's life also denote him as a member of the provisional senate (or council) in 1886, but this appears to be incorrect. While he was a candidate for that body in 1885, he is not listed as an elected council member in either 1886 or 1887 (see editions of the North Dakota State Blue Book.)

   Visscher Vere Barnes left the Dakota Territory in 1886 to further his law studies at Yale University in Connecticut. He would graduate in 1887, and in May of that year had been a candidate for the Townsend Oration Prize. Following his graduation, Barnes and his family removed to Yankton, South Dakota Territory where he was a member of the local school board from 1887-88. Barnes's residency here saw him become a leader in the temperance movement. A steadfast Prohibition advocate, Barnes was appointed to the territory Prohibition Central Committee in March 1889 and that July chaired a prohibition convention held in Huron that lobbied for a prohibition clause to be added to the state constitution. After the Dakotas were admitted as states in November 1889, both would adopt prohibition clauses in their constitutions, though South Dakota would repeal it in 1897.

   In 1895 V.V. Barnes and his family left South Dakota and removed to Lake County, Illinois. He established a law practice in Chicago and in September of that year lost his wife of nearly twenty years, Mary. Two years later Barnes remarried to Anna M. Chamberlain (birthdate unknown) who survived him upon his death in 1924.

  Like in the Dakota Territory, Barnes made a quick move into politics in the "Land of Lincoln". He would serve on the board of trustees for the village of Lake Bluff from 1896-97 and later had a short stint as village attorney. In 1897 he was an unsuccessful candidate on the Prohibition ticket for state's attorney for Lake County, and in the following year set his sights on a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Again the candidate of the prohibitionists, Barnes hoped to represent Illinois's 7th Congressional district and was one of five candidates that year. On election day that November Barnes polled just 309 votes, with victory going to incumbent Republican George Edmund Foss, who garnered over 30,000 votes. 

A Barnes for Illinois Governor button from the campaign of 1900.

From the Sycamore, Illinois True Republican, August 22, 1900.

 Undeterred by defeat, Barnes remained true to his temperance beliefs and in 1900 was a delegate to the National Prohibition Convention in Chicago. In August of that year, the Illinois prohibitionists nominated Barnes for Governor and after accepting the nomination hit the stump. Throughout the campaign season Barnes delivered addresses touting his party's platform, and on August 16 gave an oration at the Colchester Miner's Friendly Aide Society. In this address, Barnes made light of President McKinley's stance on temperance, remarking "From the standpoint of the prohibitionist the action of the president on the canteen is wrong and cannot be indorsed." Barnes further related that:

"We must not lose sight of the fact that the sovereignty resides with the people and not with the governor and president. To the people let us charge the political evils of the time and on them place the primarily the responsibility. If the license of the liquor traffic calling for the young women as well as the young men of the country for the sake of votes and money is not wrong, then nothing is wrong."

 When voters went to the polls on November 6, 1900, 15,643 citizens cast their vote for Visscher Vere Barnes. Though his candidacy fared better than it had two years previous, he was still dealt a loss, polling third in a field of seven candidates, with victory going to Republican candidate Richard Yates Jr. While Barnes's gubernatorial dreams may have been dashed, a curious figure would soon enter his life. That man was John Alexander Dowie (1847-1907).

John Alexander Dowie (left) and Wilbur Glenn Voliva. Leaders of Zion City.

   Depending on one's point of view, John Alexander Dowie can be viewed as a leader in utopian ideals or a humbug and charlatan. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1847, John Alexander Dowie was the son of a preacher. Early in his life he removed with his family to Australia and was admitted as a Congregationalist minister in 1872. He held pastorates in New South Wales, and after leaving the Congregationalist fold, began a career as an independent evangelist. His eccentricities having become more pronounced by the early 1880s, Dowie relocated to Melbourne, where he claimed powers as a faith healer and subsequently spent time in jail for "organizing unauthorized processions" with his followers.

  By 1888 Dowie had immigrated to the United States, and after settling in San Francisco, began a career as a supposed faith healer, founding the International Divine Healing Association. Dowie attracted a number of followers, who, while promised to be freed from their ills, were also expected to provide payment to Dowie's association for his services. Dowie subsequently encountered hostility to his work, and prior to leaving California was successfully sued by two female followers that he had bilked.

  Dowie continued his career in Chicago, arriving there in 1890. During the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, he constructed a wooden tabernacle near the entranceway. Dowie's actions in Chicago drew more followers to his teachings and in 1894 he founded the Zion Tabernacle Church. Two years later the International Divine Healing Association was reborn as the Christian Catholic Church in Zion, and after drawing the ire of Chicago authorities, Dowie looked elsewhere for a place to further his work.

  In 1899, Dowie founded the Zion Land and Investment Association and purchased land and real estate forty miles from Chicago, where he planned to remove with his followers. Here he established Zion City in 1900, a theocratic society that would be governed "by the will of God." Despite this proclamation, every building and piece of property in the city was personally owed by Dowie. The peculiarity of Zion didn't end with Dowie's monopoly on the city infrastructure, however. His followers had to adhere to a strict set of rules, amongst which were the banning of smoking, swearing, and alcohol. Saloons and gambling establishments met with Dowie's veto, as well as drug stores, theaters, fraternal groups, and medical practices. Dowie's eccentricities also led him to ban the consumption of pork. In addition to those rules, every Zion citizen was "required to tithe 10 percent of their income" to Dowie.

  Within a year of Zion City's establishment, Dowie (now titled "Grand Overseer") could boast of over 5,000 followers, a wide range of business activities, and a newsletter entitled Leaves of Healing. With Zion City becoming a well-known entity in Illinois, one of the men attracted to Dowie's proclaimed utopia was Visscher Vere Barnes. By early 1902 he had become a firm friend of Dowie and in March of that year, Barnes and his wife were "received into fellowship" in the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church (as it became known in 1903.) Dowie would designate Barnes as Solicitor General of the Zion Law Department, and one month later he was elected as Zion City attorney. In addition to that office's duties, Barnes received the title "Judge of Arbitration in Zion City." 

  As in years past, Barnes had quickly achieved distinction in public office, with the Leaves of Healing remarking:

"During the very few months in which Judge Barnes has been engaged in these duties his ability and high character have won for him the confidence of the many people with whom he has come into business and personal relations. His advice and counsel were especially invaluable in the launching of the Theocratic Party, in the election of the first mayor, officers, and aldermen in the City of Zion, and in the first steps of the complete organization of the municipal government."

Visscher V. Barnes, from the Northwestern Christian Advocate.

  In the year following his election as Zion City attorney, Barnes was elected as judge of the Zion City court, being the first municipal judge in the city's history. He resigned as city attorney and continued to be a loyal advocate for Dowie's message even after the latter's disastrous trip to New York City in 1903. In a bid to spread his message and gain more followers, Dowie and a "crusading army" of 3,000 church members chartered several special train cars to take them to New York, where they would preach their gospel. The trip proved to be a catastrophe with many Dowieites being shouted down during their street-corner sermons, and Dowie himself was jeered and hooted from Madison Square Garden during an address.

  After returning to Zion City Dowie's fortunes continued to unravel, as the junket to New York cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Upon an order from Dowie, all Zion churchgoers were required to deposit their money in Dowie's personal bank. Allegations of financial impropriety were leveled at Dowie and in 1905 he suffered a stroke. With Zion City teetering on the brink of economic despair, Illinois federal judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis intervened and appointed a receiver (John C. Hately) to oversee the city's finances in 1906.

  Dowie's power was further depleted when he gave power of attorney to his trusted second-in-command, Wilbur Glenn Voliva (1870-1942). Voliva, though given temporary power, usurped Dowie while the latter was visiting Mexico,  and after Dowie's return, a court battle over Zion's leadership ensued. During this fracas, Visscher Vere Barnes remained in Zion with Voliva, and though directed by Dowie to terminate Voliva's power of attorney, Barnes refused, noting that he "would not act on your instructions." As court proceedings loomed, the Bureau County Tribune detailed that Barnes would:

"Stand by Voliva at every stage of the litigation that must ensue unless the threats of exposing the skeletons in Dowie's family closet have their effect."

From the Bureau County Tribune, April 6, 1906.

  While court proceedings and mudslinging between rival factions carried on into the latter part of 1906 and 1907, leadership of Zion was no longer in doubt when John Alexander Dowie died in 1907. Visscher Barnes is recorded as having reconciled with Dowie in his last weeks and was at his bedside when he died on March 9, 1907, at age 60. Barnes is noted as having broken with the Zion leadership after Wilbur Glenn Voliva became General Overseer, but continued his residency in the city, where he practiced law. Voliva's leadership of Zion City extended until his death in 1942, a long period marked by bizarre behavior and eccentricities. A firm adherent to the flat earth theory, Voliva became known as the "King of the Flat Earthers", going as far as to take out ads in Chicago and Milwaukee newspapers offering up a $5,000 prize to anyone that provided proof that the world wasn't flat. He continued in the Dowie mold by banning oysters, whistling on Sunday, and found tan-colored shoes particularly repugnant. Voliva involved himself in further quackery with his supposed secret of living to 120, a diet consisting of buttermilk and brazil nuts. 

  After a long career that took him from humble origins in New York to Wisconsin, to the Dakota Territory, and finally Illinois, Visscher Vere Barnes died at a Waukegan, Illinois hospital on September 25, 1924, a few days after being admitted for a "major operation." He was survived by his wife Annie and two children and was removed to Wisconsin for burial at the Green Ridge Cemetery in Kenosha. 

From the Kenosha News, September 27, 1924.

***While the life of Visscher Vere Barnes is of particular note, and one that I couldn't wait to chronicle here, the lives of his contemporaries John Alexander Dowie and Wilbur Glenn Voliva are worth extensive mention. Biographical information and character assessments of both men are to be found in many places online. The following works may be of interest to you should you decide to explore their lives further.

• Great American  Eccentrics (1984), by Carl Sifakis. Contains biographies of both Dowie and Voliva.
• John Alexander Dowie and Zion City, Illinois--Stephanie Wolfe (via publications.newberry.org)
• John Alexander Dowie and the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church in Zion (1906), by Rolvix Harlan.
• Atlas Obscura's overview of Dowie's life by Matthew Algeo (2017)
• Wilbur Voliva and Zion biography via www.cantab.net