THE AMALGAMATED BAKERS
Compiled by Mary Ellen Gifford

Published in the OZAR KIN Vol. XV, No. 2 - Summer 1993 - Pages 45 and 46

This is not an account of a labor union for bakers of bread, but a heartwarming story of a man and a woman who survived great hardships to merge two families into one. Soon after John Baker lost his wife he married widowed Martha Bailey, providing a home for their eleven half--orphan children. The remarkable thing is that these two groups of children grew into a family unit so strong that affectionate ties remained for several generations.

MISSISSIPPI ROOTS

Tennessee born Martha McCord Hastings, called "Mattie" by her family, married Methodist minister Isham Bailey in 1834. They settled in Yalobusha County, Mississippi (they called it "yellowbush") where their five children were born: Sarah, Deipha, Franklin, Mary and Isa . Rev. Bailey died in July 1845, three months before Martha gave birth to their daughter Isa.

John Baker married in Alabama in 1837 Nancy Margaret Isbell, a Tennessee girl. They migrated to Chickasaw County, Mississippi where their six children were born: William, Zachariah, John, Sarah Abigail, Margaret and Louisa. Soon after baby Louisas birth Margaret Baker died (December 1846).

John Baker and Martha Bailey did what was necessary to survive in a frontier society -- they remarried very quickly. A prolonged time of mourning for their deceased mates was a luxury they could not afford. Family legend is that Martha weaned little daughter Isa Bailey so she could nurse newly orphaned Louisa Baker.

The first child of the new union was born in 1848, a son named Isham, and a new daughter, Missouri Ann, arrived in 1850. Her name commemorated the familys move to Missouri, and some family members say that she was born in a covered wagon on the way.

A NEW HOME IN MISSOURI

Like so many migrating families the Bakers packed their possessions into two ox drawn canvas covered wagons. Clara Baker Cook, a granddaughter, remembered hearing her Aunt Mary Bailey tell of the journey:

"It was leisurely done. . . the children played along on foot much of the time, carrying some of their 'traps. Cows trudged along behind the wagons."

The new Missouri home was in northern Lawrence County (315 acres in Lincoln Township, Section 26, Township 29, Range 26). Young and old pitched in to clear and improve the land and build buildings. And more children were born: Harriet, twins James Monroe and Thomas Jefferson (Jim and Tom), Minerva and, lastly in 1861, Andrew.

By all accounts this was a harmonious household. However, there was one area of "irreconcilable difference" -- religion. John and some of the children were staunch Baptists, while Martha and the others, including some of her step-children, were devout Methodists. Eventually, when churches were established, John belonged to Red Oak Baptist and Martha chose Shiloh Methodist across the line in Dade County.

THE IRBY CONNECTION

Family ties were further strengthened by four marriages between Bailey - Baker daughters and Irby men. Wylie and Mary (Chandler) Irby may have been Baker neighbors in Mississippi who had preceded them to Missouri in 1846.

According to the Greene County, Missouri census for 1850, the Irby family consisted of Wylie (43,TN), Mary (33,TN), William (16,TN), Joseph (15,Th), Permilia (12,TN), James C. (l0,TN), Robert (8,MS), Elizabeth (6,MS), Alfred H.(4,MO), and John P. (6/12,MO).

Sarah Ann Bailey married William E. Irby in 1853 (Greene Co. MO. Bk.A, p.264) and within that same year Delpha T. Bailey married Joseph Irby. In 1860 Abigail Baker married James Carter Irby (Lawrence Co MO, Bk. 1, p. 220) James C. Irby was a casualty of the Civil War, and in 1868 Abigail married his younger brother, John Patrick Irby (Dade Co MO, Bk. 4, p. 71). At least one Irby marriage in the next generation further enmeshed the families. In 1880 James F. Irby, son of Joseph and Delpha (Bailey) Irby, married Martha Clara Withrow, whose mother was Margaret Baker.

CIVIL WAR. THE GREAT DIVIDE

The greatest strains on family solidarity came with the outbreak of the Civil War, for the Baker--Baileys were sharply divided. Those rallying to the Confederate cause were William J. and John W. Baker and sons-in-law Joseph, William B. and James C. Irby. Those serving in the Union ranks were Zachariah T. and Isham P. Baker and Franklin K. Bailey. Isham was too young to serve, but lied about his age and volunteered. Four of these young men were casualties of the war: William J. and John W. Baker, Franklin K. Bailey and James C. Irby.

The end of the war brought a flurry of marriages as veterans, both Union and Confederate, returned to civilian life. Isa Bailey married James Literal (Confederate) and Mary Bailey married Zebulon P. Craig (Union). Union Veteran Zachariah Baker married Samantha Jane Withrow, daughter of a Confederate soldier, and Zachs sister Margaret Baker married Bonaparte Withrow, also a Confederate. And when Harriet Baker was married a year or so later her husband was a Union veteran, George W. Smith.

THE LATER YEARS

Somehow this great extended family was able to lay aside their agonizing differences, and mend and strengthen their ties. They remained a closely knit, homogenous group, always ready to help one another and to share hospitality.

It was about 1870 when John and Martha moved across the line to a farm in Dade County (Section 26, Township 30, Range 26). There they lived for many years surrounded by married children and grandchildren. These two people had done a magnificent job, welding two bereaved and broken families into a strong affectionate unit. Today their descendants can walk among the gravestones in two peaceful country cemeteries and see their final resting places -- John in Sycamore Baptist and Martha in Shiloh Methodist.

Their Religious difference even extended in death!