Barrett Ames (b.c.1795)
Cotton Broker, of New York City & Craigville, Orange Co., N.Y.
He is mentioned in Old Merchants of New York City (1862) as, "the great cotton merchant... an enormous cotton shipper to all parts of Europe, as also to the North. He retired many years since from his extensive cotton operations in Mobile, came North, and now lives at Craigsville, up back of Newburgh, where he owns a large cotton manufactory". His wife, Mary, was the daughter of U.S. Congressman Hector Craig who founded Craigsville. Their daughter, Sarah, married Irving Van Wart, nephew of the author Washington Irving (described as Barrett's "longtime friend") and parents of the sculptor Ames Van Wart. One of Washington Irving's last trips from Sunnyside was to the Ames house at Craigville where Barrett lived with his daughter and son-in-law (Van Wart). The journey to the Ames house from Sunnyside then (1859) entailed, "riding about twenty miles north along the east bank of the Hudson River to Fishkill, crossing the river, riding about fifteen miles southwesterly from Newburgh, opposite Fishkill, and finally riding (or in this instance, walking) from Craigville to the Ames estate." Barrett's son, Hector Craig Ames, was one of Washington Irving's attachés at the embassy in Madrid.