Thomas Jefferson and Minerva Rosetta (Bryan) Baker
By Lillie Dale Baker Smith
I will give you a history of one farmer among the many in the Grants Lick precinct. Thomas Jefferson Baker was born April 13, 1832, on Pond Creek Road in Grants Lick, the son of James Baker and Charlotte Sturgess Harris. He was married March 18, 1858, to Minerva Rosetta Bryan, who was born December 5, 1839, the daughter of Hampton Bryan and Margaret Gosney. They bought a farm of 200 acres August 28, 1867 from Minerva's brother Daniel Boone Bryan. They reared to manhood and womanhood two sons and nine daughters, one of them Miles Beamer Baker who was born 18 May 1880 and who married Zola Florine Keene 28 June 1906. She was a great great-granddaughter of Benjamin Beall.
Thomas wore white shirts and red flannel underwear the year round. They lived on a farm in the Grants Lick precinct and were typical of most all farmers at that time and had their living off the farm. They had normal horses to work, several head of cattle to milk and make butter, what wasn't eaten was sold at 10 cents per pound. They kept chickens and sold eggs at 10 cents per dozen. They raised wheat and had their own flour and corn, also their own meal. They had apples, peaches, pears, plums, quinces and berries canned in various kinds of containers also dried all they could by the bushel.
They also made their own vinegar and sorghum by the barrel. They also made a barrel of kraut and put up a barrel of pickles each fall. They kept sheep and raised lambs. Sheared the sheep and took the wool to Falmouth and had it made into yarn which they spun on their own spinning wheel at home and knitted their own socks and hose for the winter. They butchered eight to ten hogs each fall weighing between three and four hundred pounds each.
I don't remember ever buying a pound of meat and always had plenty of lard. They made an apple house each fall and covered it with cane stalks out of which we had ground the juice to make sorghum, and they had fresh apples all winter. They also buried cabbage, turnips and potatoes and dug them out as they needed them.
So you see they didn't have to buy much except
sugar, coffee, soda, etc. We had no bikes then and our mode of travel was
via spring wagon or horse back. In later years when we got our first buggy
we felt rich. They had two fire places and burned wood, saved the ashes
from which they made lye and made their own soap.
The following information comes from the family
files at the Campbell County Historical Society in Alexandria.
Children of Thomas Jefferson Baker and Minerva Rosetta Bryan
1. Henry Lafayette Baker b-15 Apr 1859
m-Margaret Barry 1 Oct 1880; d-26 May 1947
2. Margaret Augusta Baker m-Jesse Napoleon Stephens 26 Dec 1888 in Campbell Co
3. Martha Jane Baker b-7 Oct 1862 m-Nelson Woodford Gosney 27 Feb 1884; d-21 Jan
1943
4. George Baker b-1864 d-1865
5. Minerva Baker b-11 Oct 1866; m-Warren Wright
5. Tina Baker b-22 Mar 1868; m-Simon Oetzel 12 May 1910; d-24 Apr 1951
6. Ina Baker b-17 Jan 1870 d-8 Sep 1888
7. Nancy Minerva Baker b-14 Nov 1871 m-Thomas Warren Smith 14 Nov 1894; d-1 May
1911
8. Mary Pearl Baker b-1874 d-1951
9. Lillie Dale Baker b-12 Mar 1876 m-Jesse Beagle Smith 11 May 1913 d-19 May
1966
10. Miles Beamer Baker b-18 May 1880 m-Zola Flourine Sprague 25 June 1906
11. Infant daughter b&d 16 Apr 1882
12. Ebert Baker b-16 Feb 1884 d-11 Dec 1884
Children of Henry Lafayette Baker and Margaret Barry
1. Maggie Baker b-30 Aug 1891
2. Inez Baker b-11 May 1894
3. Threnos Baker b-1900
Children of Margaret Augusta Baker and Jesse Napoleon Stephens
1. Frances M Stephens b-Nov 1889 Kenton Co
2. Bennison Bryon Stephens b-Aug 1892 Kenton Co
3. Alma A Stephens b-April 1894 Kenton Co
4. Thomas Jefferson Stephens b-21 Sep 1895 Kenton Co
5. Flora Stephens b-Apr 1900 Kenton Co
6. Margaret E Stephens
7. Mary A Stephens
8. Jesse A Stephens
Children of Martha Jane Baker and Nelson Woodford Gosney
1. Elva Gosney b-1884
2. Verner B Gosney b-5 Oct 1886
3. Warren Woodford Gosney b-14 May 1890
4. Julius Gosney b-11 July 1892
5. Edna Gosney b-1894
6. Martha Susan Gosney b-10 Oct 1897; m-John Louis Rice; d-23 Dec 1982
Children of Nancy Minerva Baker and Thomas Warren Smith
1. Vestal Tilson Smith b-10 Feb 1896
2. Jesse William Wayne Smith m-Pauline Sine
Children of Minerva Baker and Warren Wright
1. Mary Wright
2. Chester Arthur Wright b-18 Sep 1889
3. Jesse Warren Beamer Wright b-11 Dec 1898
Children of Miles Beamer Baker and Zola Flourine Sprague
1. Miles Bryan Baker b-29 Jan 1915
2. Dorman S Baker b-6 June 1917
3. Aubrey B Baker b-20 Jan 1920
4.
Ivan Keene Baker
b-16 Mar 1923; d-30 Oct 2008