Family, friends, community members and local firefighters gathered on March 20 to say their farewells to Daniel H. Barnes, Swan’s Island Fire Chief and a respected community member. Barnes died after a battle with lung cancer. He was 67 years old. He was remembered for doing beautiful masonry work, and being kind and caring person.
Betty Carlson, a Swan’s Island resident, said that the Swan’s Island community is grateful that Barnes worked relentlessly on improving the fire department by building a fire station, getting grants for equipment and getting training for the firefighters. Isaac Stinson, a volunteer firefighter who served under Barnes, said he got a lot done for the fire department, and that he was a good man to work for. “He was always doing things better, and if we needed things, he’d get it.”
Jud Cease, a Swan’s Island School student and a neighbor of Barnes’s remembered that he was a good neighbor, and that he made an amazing Santa Claus. Marion Stinson said that Barnes, who played the Santa Claus at the town Christmas party for more than 10 years, would wear giant black slippers instead of boots with his costume. “The kids loved him,” she said.
Barnes also did many kind deeds for the adults on Swan’s Island. Candis Joyce, the Director of the Swan’s Island Educational Society, said that Barnes was deeply dedicated to the Alcoholics Anonymous group he started and held at the library. Candi also said that he was one of the library’s “snow plowing angels.” Monica Cease, Jud’s mother, remembered him in a similar fashion. “He was the type of guy who would just plow your driveway for you, and never charge you. He was a just a great guy.”
As much as the community loved and respected Barnes he also loved Swan’s Island, Donna Wiegle, a Swan’s Island resident who visited with Barnes recently summed up his selflessness and commitment to his town. She recounted how she told him that he did so many important things for his community, to which Dan replied that he had done no more for Swan’s Island than Swan’s Island had done for him.