Hon. Edmund M. Barnard   Hon Edmund M. Barnard, of East Grand Rapids, Kent county, Mich., and ex-state senator, was born in Hudson, N.Y., May 28, 1860, and came to Michigan with his parents at the close of the Civil war, locating on a farm in Kent county, of which he is now most prominent citizen. Mr. Barnard is a son of Dr. Stephen P. and Martha (Mellen) Barnard. His father and paternal grandfather, Robert A., were born in the same house that the subject was, at Hudson, N.Y., and Robert A. Barnard, his grandfather, born in 1785, was a judge, and president of the Hudson River National Bank for fifty years.The father, born April 18, 1831, was educated at Rutgers college and at Albany Medical college, completing his medical studies in Paris, France, in 1851-52, and was a surgeon in the United States army during the Civil war. He purchased the home where the subject now lives, which also included a large farm fronting Reed’s Lake, and lived retired until his death, May 5, 1875, and the mother died at the same place in 1879. She was a native of Hudson, N.Y., born in 1835, and of a family of eight children there are but three in Grand Rapids. Hon. Edmund M. Barnard has been engaged in real estate and insurance business all his lifetime, except what time was spent in politics, and has been a successful business man, always interested in the prosperity and growth of Grand Rapids He was married December 24, 1895, in Grand Rapids, to Miss Adelaide Grandger, a native of this city and daughter of Francis Granger, deceased. She was educated and always lived in Grand Rapids. Mr. Barnard has been quite a traveler, spending portions of winter in the south and on the Pacific slope. Fraternally, he was a charter member of York lodge, F.&A.M. and its First senior warden; he is also a knight templer Mason, and belongs to the Mystic Shrine. He is a member of the B.P.O.E., having joined the order in 1887, the year of the organization of Daisy lodge, No. 48. Politically, a working, active republican, he is influential in the councils of the party, as may be inferred from the prominent position he has held. He was elected to the house of representatives from the Second district of this county in 1890, and served in the sessions of 1891-92; was a member of the senate during the sessions of 1893-95, and 1897-98 and at the last election, in 1896, received a majority of nearly 3,500. He has taken an important part in matters of legislation; was author of the joint resolution committing this state to the election of United States senators by popular vote; was instrumental in restoring to the members of the Michigan Soldiers’ Home the right of franchise through a constitutional amendment, after it had been denied them by the courts; was the author of the vestibule bill, requiring the vestibule of all street cars in the state, and he was identified with several measures affecting the purification of conventions and elections; was chairman of the committee on banks and corporations during the session of 1895, also chairman of railroads in the session of 1897-98, at the time when much important railroad legislation was pending. Mr. Barnard is a believer in the Episcopal doctrine, in which faith he was reared. He occupies a beautiful suburban home, with ample grounds and natural forest trees adorning and offering cool shade to the traveler in hot weather, and tempering blasts in winter. The Barnard home was erected more than fifty years ago, of coursed stone with ornamental devices and capacious verandas, making one of the pleasantest of suburban homes. The standard of Mr. Barnard before the people of Kent county is too deservedly high and marked to need any comment in a sketch as brief as this, his long and useful life in the community and his pre-eminent official work telling their own story.