The Baker family, along with many other families in Indiana county, Pennsylvania, pulled up stakes and moved in the wake of the Civil War in 1869.
James Baker served for the North during that war and I’m a bit surprised that he’d want to move South so soon afterwards. I can only imagine what the feelings would have been towards the groups of Northerners who were settling in the South during this time period. I don’t think that I’d have been brave enough to do it.
Here is an article I found in the Indiana Messenger from 1869. As you can see, the Baker family was only one of many families starting anew.
“The emigration from this county promises to be quite large this Spring. We give below the names of a few of those who have already left…..James S. Baker and family, of East Mahoning, have removed to Tennessee; postoffice, McMinnville….We wish our former fellow citizens, who have resolved to risk their fortunes in other sections of our country, abundant success and hope they may never regret the change they have made.”
I believe that part of the reason the family moved was for health reasons. James Baker was suffering from consumption {tuberculosis} and needed a change in weather.
Another article was found, giving the folks in PA an update on life in Tennessee:
From a private letter received from Mr. James Baker, who recently removed from this county to Warren county, Tennessee, we learn that the fruit prospect in that section has been much injured by frosts. The corn planting is completed, and the fall grain looks exceedingly well, especially that sown by northern men. Mr. B. and his family are well contented in their new home.
They must not have stayed so content though, because they ended up moving to Douglas County, Kansas 7 years later in 1876. I wonder what their experience was like, being a Northerner in the post-war South.
Do you have any Northern ancestors who headed South after the Civil War?
