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Cora Barnes (1858–1911)

Cora ("Kora") Fanny Barnes was born on September 29, 1858, the daughter of Demas Barnes and his first wife, Mary Hyde (1832–1875). After the death of his wife from diphtheria on December 23, 1875, Demas Barnes married Anna Dorinda Blaksley on April 25, 1878. With the birth of Mildred Barnes on September 9, 1879, she and Cora Barnes became stepsisters. When Demas Barnes died in 1888, he left Cora Barnes his entire holding of stock in the Centaur Company, the manufacturer of Fletcher’s Castoria, although she offered to share the dividends with her stepmother and stepsister. Cora Barnes died from a fall (possibly a suicide) from the fourth floor of her residence at 6 East Sixty-Fifth Street in New York City on her birthday in 1911. She left jewelry, cash, securities, and realty valued at $4,536,487 to Mildred Barnes Bliss; personal property valued at $42,823 and realty valued at $223,823 to Anna Barnes Bliss; a painting by James Abbott McNeill Whistler valued at $5,000 to her stepfather, William Henry Bliss; and Whistler etchings valued at $700 to her stepbrother, Robert Woods Bliss.


"Miss Barnes Killed By Fall on Birthday; Suicide the Police Say, but Coroner Feinberg Says 70-Foot Drop Was Accidental; Recently Recovered from a Nervous Breakdown, and Just Returned from an Auto Tour of New England," New York Times, September 30, 1911.

"Miss C. F. Barnes Left $4,952,195; Mrs. Robert W. Bliss, Her Half Sister, Inherits Nearly All of the Estate; Fortune Built on $25,000; Testatrix, Who Was Killed by Fall from Window, Was Daughter of Castoria Maker," New York Times, August 8, 1914.

"Miss Barnes Left $5,196,596 Estate; Stepsister of Woman Killed in Fall from Window Receives $4,536,487; Stepmother Gets $42,823; New York School of Applied Design for Women and Kindergarten Association are Beneficiaries," New York Times, February 4, 1915.