Ashbel Hinman Barney (1876-1945)
Ashbel H. Barney, of "Château des Thons" Upper Brookville, L.I., New York
He was born in New York City and was educated at Groton and Yale. He attended the New York Law School (1898-99) before embarking on a career in real estate as President of the Barney Estate Company and Vice-President of the Wallaston Realty Company. In WWI, he was the American Representative to the International Red Cross at Geneva, Switzerland, and in Italy. Between 1924 and 1926, having been granted special dispensation from the French government, Barney deconstructed the right wing (known as Le Petit Thons, started in 1768) and part of the central block of the Château des Thons (built 1603) in the Vosges region of France, which he then rebuilt on Long Island. Each stone, brick, tile, wooden panel, and even the green moss-covered flagstone pavers, were individually marked and numbered before being loaded onto a private steamship for America along with all the château's furniture, sculptures, and interior decorations.
There is of course a romantic - and quite untrue - story attached to how Barney's French castle came to life in America: During WWI, the village of Thons welcomed American soldiers from 1917, and the old castle served as quarters for the officers. It is said that one of the officers seduced a woman from the village while her husband was still serving on the Front. Returning home on leave, the cuckolded husband learned of his wife's infidelity and took his revenge by shooting her lover dead in the castle. The news was then relayed to the officer's parents on Long Island, who were led to believe that their son had died in battle. After the war, the chateau was sold to property dealers when the father ("Ashbel Barney") of the dead officer decided to buy back the place where his son had been killed. As wonderful a story as that makes, (1) Ashbel Barney was not killed in the war, (2) his father was Charles Barney, and (3) his father died long before the war. His brother did spend time in France during the war, and he may have seen the chateau then, but another simpler version explains that Barney himself found it, when it was apparently abandoned.
Another faux connection to the original chateau involves Voltaire, the great 17th Century French philosopher, who some claimed had lived there. He categorically did not, but the chateau's original right wing was once owned by Voltaire's lover's cousin by marriage, Jean du Châtelet, and the owner's estranged wife, Mme. du Châtelet, lived in that wing.
In 1927, when the steamship carrying the chateau and its contents arrived in the States, the French architect, Charpentier, was commissioned (although other sources have mentioned that it was reconstructed under the supervision of Hall Pleasants Pennington) to rebuild a "French-style manor house" on Long Island with the help of around one hundred master craftsmen and stonemasons from all over France. It was named Château des Thons, like the rest of its twin that remains in France. Once resurrected, decoration was added by Smyth, Urquhart & Marckwald with landscaping by Innocenti & Webel. Ashbel Barney - who like his brother never married - lived here until his death in 1945 when it was sold to Mrs. Coster Morris, and after her death in 1978 to Lily Auchincloss.
There is of course a romantic - and quite untrue - story attached to how Barney's French castle came to life in America: During WWI, the village of Thons welcomed American soldiers from 1917, and the old castle served as quarters for the officers. It is said that one of the officers seduced a woman from the village while her husband was still serving on the Front. Returning home on leave, the cuckolded husband learned of his wife's infidelity and took his revenge by shooting her lover dead in the castle. The news was then relayed to the officer's parents on Long Island, who were led to believe that their son had died in battle. After the war, the chateau was sold to property dealers when the father ("Ashbel Barney") of the dead officer decided to buy back the place where his son had been killed. As wonderful a story as that makes, (1) Ashbel Barney was not killed in the war, (2) his father was Charles Barney, and (3) his father died long before the war. His brother did spend time in France during the war, and he may have seen the chateau then, but another simpler version explains that Barney himself found it, when it was apparently abandoned.
Another faux connection to the original chateau involves Voltaire, the great 17th Century French philosopher, who some claimed had lived there. He categorically did not, but the chateau's original right wing was once owned by Voltaire's lover's cousin by marriage, Jean du Châtelet, and the owner's estranged wife, Mme. du Châtelet, lived in that wing.
In 1927, when the steamship carrying the chateau and its contents arrived in the States, the French architect, Charpentier, was commissioned (although other sources have mentioned that it was reconstructed under the supervision of Hall Pleasants Pennington) to rebuild a "French-style manor house" on Long Island with the help of around one hundred master craftsmen and stonemasons from all over France. It was named Château des Thons, like the rest of its twin that remains in France. Once resurrected, decoration was added by Smyth, Urquhart & Marckwald with landscaping by Innocenti & Webel. Ashbel Barney - who like his brother never married - lived here until his death in 1945 when it was sold to Mrs. Coster Morris, and after her death in 1978 to Lily Auchincloss.
