Barnes writes his mother that he was Happy to hear that she had arrived “safe” at Oberlin, “after a pleasant journey”, he goes on to relate family and personal news. 

Almira Barnes was an unsung pioneer feminist of her day, using her personal fortune to support reform causes. Into middle age, she traveled alone throughout the northern United States, attending anti-slavery conventions, visiting a Canadian colony of fugitive slaves who had escaped via the underground railroad, and spending each summer at Oberlin College, of which she was a generous benefactor. Hosted by College President Asa Mahan and his wife, she informally attended classes in Theology, where she met student Antoinette Brown (Blackwell), whom she later assisted in becoming the first woman to be ordained a minister in the United States. Manuscript material by or about Barnes is very scarce.