copyright © Susan Taylor Aldridge

Saturday, March 24, 2007

John Baker WILL 3 May 1823 Abbeville District SC and probation in April 1824

My interpretation of the will is this:
John Baker was the father of Faithy V. (later Knight), Mary Wallace, Keziah McClennon, Rosannah Wallace, John Baker, William Baker, Joseph Baker, and maybe Elizabeth Baker but am not sure if he meant his wife or a daughter in that part of the will. John´s wife was Elizabeth. Mary, Keziah and Rosannah were already married and had been given large doweries and therefore received only one dollar each in the will. John Baker his son should be executor but a Josiah Patterson Jr. signs a probate statement April 1824. Because I have several pages and I am not sure which page is which- I have put them all here lest I leave something out. They may not be in the right order.
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John Baker Will
Abbeville District SC
3 May 1823




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Letter from a descendant-
Susan,
When I first began researching and read the 1890 publication about Noel Baker in De Soto Parish, La., I surmised that the father of Joseph Cannon Baker was William Baker and that the father of Rebecca Knight was Enoch Knight. With further research I found that Richard Lee Knight was Rebecca's father and that Enoch Asbury was her brother; however, until your revelation that John Baker was father of both Joseph and Faithy and that Faithy was Baker and not Parker, I was searching for William Baker as father of Joseph.

From the one page of John Baker's will I find two siblings other than Joseph and Faithy, viz., William and John. John must be the eldest child as he is given 1/2 the property and then named again with Elizabeth (wife or daughter)? and the other children to be given an equal share of the remaining property. Elizabeth had been named earlier as wife.

I am unsure who the Mary Wallice, Rosannah Wallice and Heziah (sp?) McClennon are. They were each give one dollar.

Here I am going to quote from the Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana, The Southern Publishing Company, 1890.

"Noel P.(Peyton) Baker is the present efficient justice of the peace in Ward 3, DeSoto Parish, La., and is also engaged in tilling the soil, his plantation, which is seven miles southwest of Mansfield consisting of 160 acres, all of which he has obtained by his own unaided efforts. He was born in Coosa County, Ala., in 1848, and is a son of Joseph Cannon and Rebecca (Knight) Baker, who were born in South Carolina in 1804 and 1807, respectively, their marriage taking place in 1825. They first removed from their native State to Georgia and thence to Alabama, thence, in 1866, to De Soto Parish, La. Mr. Baker died here the following year, having been a member of the Methodist Church, and his widow, who survives him, is also a member. He was a wheelwright and blacksmith and socially was a member of the A. F. & A. M. His father, William Baker, the grandfather of Noel Peyton was born in England and died in South Carolina. Enoch Knight, the mother's father, spent his life in Georgia and died in Alabama. Noel P. Baker is the tenth of eleven children, four sons and two daughters living, and was reared on a farm, receiving a common-school education. He came with his parents to De Soto Parish, and was here married in 1873 to Miss Martha B., daughter of Thomas and Dorinda Lawrence, the former of whom was born in South Carolina and the latter in Alabama. About the year 1857 they came to De Soto Parish, and here Mr. Lawrence passed from life in 1872, his widow dying in 1889, she being an earnest member of the Presbyterian Church. He was a soldier in the Confederate army for four years. Mrs. Baker was born in Alabama in 1856 and her marriage with Mr. Baker has resulted in the birth of five children, two sons and two daughters living. They have resided on their present farm since 1873. Mr. Baker held the office of constable from 1879 to 1883, and since 1883 he has been justice of the peace; is also road and bridge commissioner and was one of the census enumerators of DeSoto Parish, La., for the United States in June, 1890. He is a Methodist and his wife is a Cumberland Presbyterian. "

Noel and my grandfather Julius were the youngest children of Joseph Cannon and Rebecca and probably had heard the names William Baker and Enoch Knight and gave those names in error. Of course the biographical writings are not always accurate (above), but at least, it gives clues for further research.
Joan Troegel
joantroe@sbcglobal.net