Ancestors
John T. Baker
1872-1922 · Kentucky
Born 1872, Kentucky
Died 1922
Father: Samuel L. Baker
Mother: Frances Jane Spears
Children include Margaret
John T. Baker was born in Kentucky in September 1872, the son of Samuel Baker and Frances Jane Spears. In 1880, as John W., aged 10, he was living with his parents and five brothers on Upper Elkhorn Creek in Pike County, Kentucky, with his grandparents Cornelius and Socia Baker in the next house. On 17 June 1889, in Dickenson County, Virginia, he married Frances Vanover. He gave his age as eighteen and she gave hers as seventeen. She was the daughter of John R. Vanover. She went by Frankie all her life.
In June 1900 the Bakers lived in Clintwood town, the county seat: John, 28, Francis, 25, married ten years, and Sarah C., 11, Joseph R., 8, Flory J., 6, Tildy, 4, and a baby under a year. Sarah and Flory had been born in Kentucky and the others in Virginia, so the young couple had gone back and forth across the line. Their daughter Margaret was born at Clintwood on 6 May 1899. More children followed: Elbert on 7 October 1907, William Brice, Cally and Vickuna among them.
Frankie died at Burdine, the Consolidation Coal Company camp in Letcher County, Kentucky, in 1925. Several of their children went the same way over Pine Mountain. Margaret married Meredith Reed of Freeling in 1917 and raised thirteen children at Burdine and Jenkins; Flora, who married a Reed, and Cally, who married a Bryant, died in Kentucky; Elbert died at Pound, Wise County, Virginia, in 1963; William Brice died in Ohio. Their death certificates name their parents John Baker and Frankie Vanover. When Margaret died at Troy, Ohio, in 1980, her obituary named her parents "John and Frances (Vanover) Baker". John died in Pike County, Kentucky, on 28 September 1922, and was buried in the Shelby Gap Cemetery at Shelbiana, near the head of Upper Elkhorn Creek where he had grown up. His Kentucky death certificate names his parents Sam Baker and Jane Spears. Frankie was buried beside him three years later.
Sources
Virginia, County Marriage Records, 1771 to 1989, Dickenson County, 11 January 1917; FamilySearch arks 1:1:6Z9Y-9ZTQ (groom) and 1:1:6Z9Y-9ZTH (bride).
Newspaper clipping, Troy, Ohio, about 16 May 1980 (paper not named; the Troy Daily News is the likely one), posted on Find a Grave memorial 82061836, Margaret Baker Reed, Riverside Cemetery, Troy, 2025.
Virginia county marriage records, Dickenson County, 17 June 1889; FamilySearch ark 1:1:6Z9B-JJBZ.
United States census 1900, Clintwood district, Clintwood town, ED 13, sheet 4B, dwelling 66, Dickenson County, Virginia; FamilySearch ark 1:1:MMFT-74V.
Virginia death certificates 1912 to 1987, certificate 36090, registered 20 December 1963; FamilySearch ark 1:1:QVRZ-CDRF.
United States census 1880, Upper Elkhorn Creek, ED 102, sheet 688A, Pike County, Kentucky; NARA T9, film 439; FamilySearch ark 61903/1:1:MCZP-S7X.
Kentucky vital records, death of John Baker, Pike County, 28 September 1922, FamilySearch ark 61903/1:1:QKH1-13V6; Find a Grave memorials 263174989 (John Baker) and 263175133 (Frances Vanover Baker), Shelby Gap Cemetery, Shelbiana, created by Melba Goines Colca, 2024.
Virginia county marriage records, Dickenson County, 17 June 1889, FamilySearch ark 1:1:6Z9B-JJBZ, and 11 January 1917, ark 1:1:6Z9Y-9ZTH; United States census 1900, Clintwood district, ark 1:1:MMFT-74V; Virginia death certificate of Elbert Baker, 1963, ark 1:1:QVRZ-CDRF; Kentucky death certificates of Flora Reed, ark 1:1:NSRM-QD8, and Cally Bryant, ark 1:1:6N2M-9RJ9; Ohio death record of William Brice Baker, ark 1:1:XZB6-JLL; Virginia county marriage records of Tilda Baker, ark 1:1:6Z94-LLR5, and Vickuna Baker, ark 1:1:6Z89-6ZGY; Kentucky death record of Frankie Baker, 1925, ark 1:1:N9KZ-RF9; obituary of Margaret B. Reed, Troy, May 1980, on Find a Grave memorial 82061836. Kentucky vital records, death of John Baker, Pike County, 28 September 1922, FamilySearch ark 1:1:QKH1-13V6; Find a Grave memorial 263174989, John Baker, Shelby Gap Cemetery, giving Kentucky death certificate 23113; United States census 1880, Upper Elkhorn Creek, Pike County, ark 1:1:MCZP-S7X.
If John T. Baker is in your family, start your own tree.
Cite: Heirology, "John T. Baker (1872-1922)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/john-t-baker-1872-1922-23b816.