John H. Baker, son of John Stanley Baker and Martha Meanor Palmer was born 9 July 1871 and died 30 Dec 1933. He is buried, along with his parents, in Mount Washington Cemetery, outside of Kansas City, MO.
James Baker was my husband’s 3rd great-grandfather. He spent the majority of his life in Indiana County, PA but eventually moved with his family to the Lawrence, Kansas area, where he died in 1885.
I didn’t find a full-up detailed obituary about him, but I found two small death announcements.
One was in the Indiana Democrat in Indiana, PA where he used to live. (Dated 11/26/1885)
James Baker, formerly of Marion, this county, recently died in Kansas.
Not a lot of info in that one, was there?
Unfortunately, there isn’t much in the local Lawrence, Kansas paper – where he had lived for about 6 yrs before his death:
Jas. Baker, a farmer living near Sibley, died yesterday afternoon at 4 o’clock, of consumption. The deceased has been a resident of Kansas for the past six years, and was universally respected by all who knew him. He will be buried to-day in Oak Hill cemetery.
Whenever I’m searching through old newspapers for my relatives, I find myself reading all of the interesting and sometimes hilarious articles and ads of the time.
Here is one I found in the Indiana Messenger, Indiana, PA from 1884. It sounds like it belongs in the National Enquirer. 🙂
Last summer Miss Lucy Shepherd, of Farmingdale, N.J., lost a valuable earring. The house was thoroughly searched, and the yard swept and the ash pile screened, but no ring. About three weeks ago Miss Shepherd died, and the day after the funeral a chicken was killed for dinner, inside of which was found the missing ring.
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?
Amy F. Baker was a distant relative of my husband’s. She was the daughter of my husband’s 3rd great-grandfather’s (James Baker) brother, John Stanley Baker.
I found her gravestone while in Kansas City, MO. She is buried in Mount Washington Cemetery.
