Caleb Paul Barns (January 12, 1812 – October 29, 1866) was an American lawyer, businessman, and Wisconsin pioneer.

Local history sources claim that he journeyed to Wisconsin prior to 1840, returning to New York to marry his future wife.

[1][2] David L. Wells of Utica, New York brought his wife, the former Cornelia Eddy,[4] to Burlington at about the same time.

Elizabeth had been a student at the Emma Willard School for Girls in Troy, New York, a pioneering institution in women's education.

[7] Strang was a recent convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and would soon move to Michigan with his followers.

[3] Years later, a short obituary published by the State Bar Association of Wisconsin credited Barns' "great success" as a lawyer to the following characteristics that he exemplified: complete self reliance, untiring industry, a vigorous and unclouded intellect, a good scholastic and legal education, quick perceptive faculties, and especially a profound knowledge of human nature and character, which latter greatly enabled him to conduct the examination of witnesses with remarkable success.

Although his mind was so constituted that he seemed to grasp almost intuitively the principles involved in a case, yet he was never satisfied with this, but with patient industry he investigated it to its most minute details, and was therefore able to predict with reasonable certainty the results of the trial.

[9] Barns switched parties, and in 1848, the year of Wisconsin's statehood, ran as a Democrat for the Assembly from the district of Yorkville, Rochester and Burlington.

A colleague described the transition, Admonished by his failing health that he was no longer equal to the demands of active professional life, he several years ago gave up the practice of law, and entered into financial business.

[17] After less than two decades of marriage, in February 1864 Elizabeth Eddy Barns died from tuberculosis,[3] a disease that had taken her sister eight years previously.

The household stayed together, although Cornelia Barns lived much of the next decade with a grand aunt in Long Island, New York.

[18] Following the death of his wife, Caleb Barns' health rapidly declined, and he died in October, 1866.

After traveling in India, China and Japan, He returned to Flushing, New York and published short stories, poetry, and drama-novels.