Week 18: Road Trip #52 Ancestors

This week’s prompt is “Road Trip” and I have been wracking my brain trying to come up with a good/funny story to tell about one of my ancestors. My immediate family was never one to take family road trips. I know a lot of folks in the Mid-West took road trips as kids to some of our many national parks out west. The best my family could muster was the less-than-two-hour drive to the Jersey Shore every other year. And even then, it was a harrowing experience. First, my dad and mom were smokers. If you didn’t suffer from car sickness before they lit up, you were sure to get queasy once they started (sadly, I was in the car-sickness camp even without the smoke). Second, even with a large station wagon, there was not nearly enough room for us five kids. Between “he’s touching me” and “she’s looking at me” we couldn’t get far enough away from each other. To make matters worse, our dad refused to pay the 25¢ toll on the Garden State Parkway. For him, his toll-less route was great and saved him money! For us, it was 30 minutes more of pure hell. As soon as he made the turn to go onto Route 9, there was a shared groan from all of us (including mom). Ugh. 

I’ve done a little traveling for my genealogy work, mostly to conferences and institutes. In fact, I am writing this blog from St. Charles, Missouri (just west of St. Louis for the geographically-challenged of us) as I am attending the National Genealogical Society’s annual conference. The theme this year is “Journey of Discovery” and features lots of interesting topics presented by the top people in the field. A typical day consists of one or two session in the morning and one or two in the afternoon, with lunch-time presentations, dinner-time presentations and an Exhibit Hall filled with vendors of various goods and services. The NGS has nine different “tracks” including DNA, Methodology, Migration, African American, Military, etc. One can follow one track the entire time or mix it up, like I intend to do. My biggest problem is that I usually have two or more lectures I want to attend and it’s super hard to choose.

One genealogically-related road trip I took was several years ago when I did a deep dive into my husband’s 2nd great-grandparents, George Washington and Mary Elizabeth (Elliott) Baty. Specifically, I was working on a paper for a class I was taking and researched where they lived in Neosho County, Kansas. George was born in Ohio[1] and Mary was born in Kentucky.[2] They were married in 1846 in Effingham, Illinois, and George served in the Civil War as a Sergeant with Company D of the Illinois Infantry.[3] A few years after the war, the family moved to Ozark County, Missouri, and then finally settled in Neosho County.[4] Talk about a road-trip!

 My little road trip to Neosho took me first to the county courthouse where the wonderful staff there showed me how to find the appropriate land records and copied for me everything I asked for. Even though there is a wealth of genealogical material available on-line, there really is no substitute for going to the repositories in the town or county where your ancestors lived. Universally, I have found the folks in these places to be friendly, helpful, and especially kind. The woman at the Register of Deeds office who did the copying, told me that she recognized the names of the people on the deeds. Cool! It turns out, she and some friends tend to abandoned graveyards in Neosho County and one of them is the Earlton Cemetery where George, Mary, and other family members are buried. She had her own map of the headstones at the cemetery and made a copy for me. What a lovely woman!

 In addition to visiting the cemetery, I was able to drive past the last farmhouse that George and Mary lived in. This was the third piece of property they bought after moving to Kansas.[5] In 1883, when he was 58, George acquired a forty-acre farm for $500.[6] Two years later, George and Mary reported on the Kansas census that they had planted 9-acres of corn, ½-acre of potatoes, and 2-acres of millet and had cut 1-ton of hay and 2-tons of prairie grass. They owned $12 worth of chickens and one milk cow, from whom they produced 150 pounds of butter. They also had 2 horses and 3 pigs. And, lest we forget, they had one dog.[7]

George died in 1890 at 65 years old, allegedly due to the lung illness he caught during his Civil War service.[8] Mary lived on the farm until she sold the property in 1902.[9] She died in 1909 at 80.[10] Someday, If I take another road trip to Neosho, I’ll have knock on the door of that house and introduce myself.

[1]Find A Grave, database with images (http://www.findagrave.com: accessed 2 September 2017), memorial 25889585, Sgt. George Washington Baty (1825-1890), Earlton Cemetery, Earlton, Neosho County, Kansas; gravestone photograph by TiogaRose.

[2]Find A Grave, database with images (http://www.findagrave.com: accessed 2 September 2017), memorial 25855648, Mary Elizabeth Elliott Baty (1829-1909), Earlton Cemetery, Earlton, Neosho County, Kansas; gravestone photograph by TiogaRose.

[3]Effingham County, Illinois, County Clerk, Register of Marriage Licenses, vol. A-B, 1839-1877, p. 73, no. 61 (1846) Baty-Elliott; digital image, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939J-KS95-JW?i=41&cc=1803970&cat=267606 : accessed 17 July 2017); FHL microfilm 1,010,047, image 42 of 210. 

[4]1870 U.S. census, Lawrence County, Missouri, population schedule, Ozark Township, p. 10 (penned), dwelling 72, family 72, George W. Baty; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://wwww.ancestry.com: accessed 4 May 2017); citing NARA microfilm publication M593, roll [not noted]. 1880 U.S. census, Neosho County, Kansas, population schedule, Canville Township, enumeration district (ED) 163, p. 4 (penned), dwelling 37, family 38, George Baty; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://wwww.ancestry.com: accessed 4 May 2017); citing NARA microfilm publication T9, roll 390.

[5]Neosho County, Kansas, Deed Book J: 614, Jacob Plyborn and wife to G.W. Baty, 17 May 1875; Office of the Register of Deeds, Erie, Kansas. 

[6]Neosho County, Kansas, Deed Book Z: 495, Henry and Catherine Ocker to George W. Baty, 8 September 1883; Office of the Register of Deeds, Erie, Kansas.

[7]1885 Kansas state census, Neosho County, population schedule, Canville township, p. 11 (penned), dwelling 53, family 57, G. W. Baty; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://wwww.ancestry.com: accessed 4 May 2017); citing Kansas State Historical Society, 1885 Kansas State Census, microfilm reel KS1885_96.

[8]“Obituary,” Chanute Weekly Times, 20 March 1890 [page unknown; copy provided by family member without citation]. Find A Grave, database with images (http://www.findagrave.com: accessed 2 September 2017), memorial 25889585, Sgt. George Washington Baty (1825-1890), Earlton Cemetery, Earlton, Neosho County, Kansas; gravestone photograph by TiogaRose.

[9]1895 Kansas state census, Neosho County, population schedule, Canville township, p. 12, dwelling 70, family 73, M.E. Baty; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://wwww.ancestry.com: accessed 4 May 2017); citing Kansas State Historical Society, 1895 Kansas state census, microfilm reel v115_105. Neosho County, Kansas, Deed Book 56: 537, Mary E. Baty, et al., to John Golobay, 14 November 1902; Office of the Register of Deeds, Erie, Kansas.

[10]Find A Grave, database with images (http://www.findagrave.com: accessed 2 September 2017), memorial 25855648, Mary Elizabeth Elliott Baty (1829-1909), Earlton Cemetery, Earlton, Neosho County, Kansas; gravestone photograph by TiogaRose.

Mary E. (Elliott) Baty photograph, ca. 1890; digital image, privately held by Tamara Cullison [address for private use]. Photographer was W.T. Dole/D'Ole who had a studio in Kansas City, Missouri, from approx 1888 to 1908. Helso had a studio in Ft. Scott, KS in 1890. The back of the photo says "Kansas City," but Ft. Scott much closer to where Mary lived in Neosho Co., KS. Dole was known for painting his photographs.