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Dr. Barnett was a missionary in Beirut, Damascus and Cairo from 1845-1875. He was born in Pennsylvania, but was raised in Ohio. He studied literature at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and graduated in 1839. Dr. Barnett then studied theology at the Associate Reformed Seminary at Oxford, under the Rev. Joseph Claybaugh, D.D. He was chosen missionary to Syria by the General Synod of the Associate Reformed Church in 1844, was ordained by his presbytery that year, and sailed from America in 1845, landing in Beirut, Syria, in February 1845. He studied the language and traveled in the country before settling down for mission work in Damascus in 1846. In 1854 he founded the American Mission in Cairo, Egypt with Rev. Thomas McCague, D.D. Dr. Barnett returned to America in 1861 for four years. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Monmouth College in 1863, and was married in 1865. In 1866 he returned to Egypt where he spent the rest of his missionary life until 1875.