Dr. Charles H. Barnes

DR. CHARLES H. BARNES was born in 1867 in the District of Columbia.  He married Mirian Iva who was 23 years younger.  They had a daughter Miriam in 1927.
I was the medical doctor for Smith River and was called the Indian Doctor because of all the calls I made to them.   My family lived in a house in Smith River which I also used as a hospital.  It burned down in 1929.  We then moved to Harbor, OR.
At the time of his death, his famiy was back living in  a home in Smith River.  He had built a house close by what was known at that time as the Hospital  Miriam continued living in our house until her death in 1978.  He died in 1948 at the age of 81.

Taken about 1926, this old photograph shows Dr. Charles Hall Barnes, one of the first physicians to practice medicine in Smith River, and his "Indian doctor" assistant.  According to Dr. Barnes\' daughter, Merian Carson of Ben Lomonds, Calif., who made the photo available, her father was often called upon to treat the Indians residing in the Smith River area.  Whenever he would visit an Indian patient, the "Indian doctor" would go along to check up on the treatment and would usually prescribe an extra dose of herbs and roots.  Dr. Barnes lived with his wife, Miriam Barnes, in Smith River from 1921 until 1929 when their house and hospital burned to the ground and they moved to Harbor, Ore.  They resided in Harbor until Barnes\' death in 1948.  A long-time resident of Del Norte and Curry Counties, Mariam Barnes died May 1, 1978, at the age of 87.