David Davenport Baker (1801 - 1890)

Born 9 Jan 1801 in Bakersville, Burke County, North Carolina, USA

Ancestors

Husband of Sena E (McGimsey) Baker — married 1832 in Burke, North Carolina, United States

Died 28 Mar 1890 at age 89 in Prosper, Collin, Texas, United States

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Biography

David Davenport Baker was born 9 Jan 1801 in Bakersville, Burke County, North Carolina, USA, the son of David Baker and Dorothy Wiseman. David married Sena E. McGimsey Nov 7, 1832 in North Carolina. ^[1] Together they had ten children:

1. Louisa Baker ^[2]
2. Harriet E Baker ^[2]
3. Susan E Baker ^[2]
4. Ally S Baker ^[2]
5. Martha Elizabeth Baker ^[2]
6. Mary A.d. Baker ^[2]
7. John Wakefield Baker ^[2]
8. William M Baker ^[2]
9. Junius L Baker ^[3]
10. Tressa Baker ^[3]

David died 28 Mar 1890 in Prosper, Collin, Texas, United States, and is buried in Walnut Grove Cemetery, Rhea Mills, Collin, Texas, United States of America.

Based on age and gender, David Davenport Baker was probably included as a free white male, under age 10, ^[4] in the household of his father, David Baker, on the 1810 U.S. census of Morganton, Burke County, NC.

Based on age and gender, David Davenport Baker was probably included as a free white male, age 16-26, ^[5] in the household of his father, David Baker, on the 1820 U.S. census of Burke County, NC.

According to J.P. Russell, David D. Baker became a Justice of the Peace and judge of the Burke County Court of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions in 1830. ^[6] You can read the story below in the reference notes or go to JP Russell's blog page.

On Nov 7, 1832, ^[1] a Marriage Notice was issued to David D. Baker and Sena E. McGimsey. John Wakefield was the bondsman and J. Erwin, was the witness and also the Deputy Clerk.

On January 26th, 1838, David's father, David Baker Senr, signed his final will ^[7] and ordained that David and his brother Josiah Baker were the sole Executors.

David Davenport Baker and Lena McGimsey Baker appeared on the 1850 U.S. census of Yancey County, NC enumerated 23 Aug 1850. David was shown as a 49-year-old farmer, born NC. Sena was shown as age 41, born NC. ^[2] Their children Louisa A., Harriet E., Susan E., Ally S., Martha Elizabeth, Mary A. D., John Wakefield and William M. were listed as living with them. All of the children -- Louisa, 16, Harriet, 15, Susan, 14, Ally, 12, Martha, 10, Mary, 7, John, 5, and William, 3 -- were shown as born NC. All of the girls were attending school. Living nearby in household 423 was David's 85-year-old widowed mother, Dorothy Wiseman Baker.

David Davenport Baker and Lena McGimsey Baker appeared on the 1860 U.S. census of Parker County, TX, enumerated 19 Jun 1860. David was shown as a 59-year-old farmer, born NC; Lena was shown as age 43, born NC. ^[3] Their children Louisa A., Harriet E., Martha Elizabeth, Mary A. D., John Wakefield, William M., Junius and Tressa (Teresa?) were listed as living with them. All of the children (shown by their first initials) -- Louisa, 17; Harriet, 16; Martha, 15; Mary, 14; John, 13; William,12 ; Junius, 4; and Trissa, 3 -- were shown as born NC. Daughter Susan may be recorded nearby as a domestic in the household of P. Wise.

David Davenport Baker and Lena E. McGimsey appeared on the 1870 U.S. census of Precinct No. 5, Plano, Collin County, TX, enumerated 25 Aug 1870. David was shown as a 69-year-old farm laborer, born NC; Lena was shown as age 61, born NC. ^[8] Their children Louisa A., Susan E., John Wakefield, Mary A. D., Junius and Tressa (Teresa?) were listed as living with them. All of the children living at home -- Louisa, 29; Susan, 27; John, 24; Mary, 22; Junius, 16; and Trissa, 15 -- were shown as born NC. Also enumerated with the family was Nathan Blackwell, age 8, born TX (apparently a grandson, as he was identified in 1880 as a nephew of Junius Baker).

David Davenport Baker appeared on the 1880 U.S. census of Collin County, TX, at Justice Precinct 5, enumerated 4 Jun 1880 in the household of Junius Baker and Emma [M?] Baker, his son and daughter in law. ^[9] He was shown as an 80-year-old widower, born NC, of a father born VA and mother born NC.

David Davenport Baker died 28 Mar 1890 in Collin County, Texas, USA.^[10][11] He is buried in Walnut Grove Cemetery, Rhea Mills, Collin, Texas, United States of America.

Research Notes

Interesting Story concerning David Baker The constable and the J.P.

You never can tell where you’re going to get your next hint about your family’s history. Sometimes it’s in something you read. And sometimes, if you’re lucky, since — as the t-shirt says, there are “so many books, so little time” — it’s in something someone else reads and tells you about.

A little more than two weeks ago, I got an email from one of my dearest friends, Betty Clay of Texas, who was reading what she described as a fascinating murder mystery novel based on a true story. And, she said, when she read about one of the real people featured in the novel, “For some reason, the name of David Baker, along with Burke County, NC, came to my ears in your voice.”

Oh yeah. David Baker, the elder, was my fourth great grandfather. A Revolutionary War soldier from Virginia, he and most of his mother’s family settled in Burke County around 1778.1 He became a Justice of the Peace there in 1797, and at least two of his sons — Thomas Baker, his oldest son by his first wife, Mary Webb, and David Davenport Baker, his second son by his second wife, Dorothy Wiseman — became Justices of the Peace in Burke County in their turn.

And it was David the younger who showed up in the book Betty was reading… and oh, boy. Just plain oh boy.

The fact is, you just can’t have kin from western North Carolina, and particularly not from Old Burke County, and not know about Frankie Silver. She was born Frances Stewart (sometimes spelled Stuard) between 1810 and 1813, and lived in the area called Kona, in what’s now Mitchell County, North Carolina, about 7.5 miles as the crow flies from what’s now Bakersville, the county seat of Mitchell County, where the Baker family lived.

I’d heard the story, of course. It’s one of the enduring, folk-loric tales of western North Carolina. How she and the boy next door Charlie Silver were married as teenagers. How they’d had one baby daughter. How just before Christmas in 1831, Frankie took an axe and killed Charlie in their cabin. How she hacked the body into pieces and, eventually, with the help of her family, burned as much of the body as she could. How a conjurer called in from Tennessee found what pieces remained of Charlie. How what was left was buried under three stones. How Frankie was arrested, tried, convicted, briefly escaped, recaptured, and eventually hung in Morganton, the Burke County seat, on the 12th of July 1833.

The question of just what happened in December 1831 is clouded by time and, in part, by the quirk of the law that kept a defendant from testifying in his or her own behalf at the time. Was she, as some claim, the victim of spousal abuse who took up the axe only to defend herself and her baby daughter? Or was she a calculated killer? That question is explored in an able and very entertaining manner in the fiction book that my friend Betty was reading — Sharyn McCrumb’s The Ballad of Frankie Silver. Betty sent it on to me, and it’s good reading.

I knew much of the story, just as I knew that Frankie wasn’t the only woman hanged in Burke County, despite what her 20th century tombstone says, and just as I knew that Frankie actually didn’t say anything from the scaffold, despite the lengthy “Ballad of Frankie Silver” that she was supposed to have sung from the gallows (and that was printed as you see here in the Lenoir Topic in 1886).

And I knew there had been non-fiction books written about the case, as well — Perry Deane Young’s The Untold Story of Frankie Silver : Was She Unjustly Hanged? and Daniel W. Patterson’s A Tree Accurst: Bobby McMillon and Stories of Frankie Silver among them. There was even a documentary, The Ballad of Frankie Silver, by Tom Davenport, part of the American Traditional Culture Series of the University of North Carolina Curriculum in Folklore.

What I didn’t know, until spurred by Betty’s e-mail, was that my family played a not-insignificant role in the Frankie Silver case.

My third great grand-uncle David Davenport Baker was born 9 January 1801 in Burke County. He took the oath of office as a Justice of the Peace in Burke County in July of 1830.

And when Elijah Green swore out a complaint against Frankie Silver and her mother Barbara Stewart and her brother Blackstone Stewart on the 9th of January 1832, the Justice of the Peace who took the complaint was none other than David Davenport Baker. The complaint read:

This day came Elighe green before me D D Baker an acting Justice of said county and made oath in due form of law that Franky Silver and Barbara Stuard and Blackston Stuard is believed that they did murder Charles Silvers Contrary to law and against the dignity of the state worn to and subscribed to me this 9 day of January 1832.

David then issued an order “to command some lawful officer to take the Bodies of the above named … to ansur the above charge and to be further delt with … as the law directs…” And the lawful officer who took custody of Frankie? Charles Baker, then a constable in Burke County.

Yup. David’s youngest brother Charles, born in Burke County on 2 December 1806, another of my third great grand-uncles.

David then certified that the defendants were to be “committed to jail on the oath of Thomas Howeland, William Hutchins, Nancy Wilson, Elander Silver, Margaret Silver and Apon the word of the Jury.” Charles ended up serving the summonses to the various witnesses and, most likely, ended up taking the defendants to the County Jail in Morganton. David ended up testifying before the Grand Jury which indicted Frankie.

There, the record of their involvement ends. None of the Bakers testified at trial, and none of them appear to have signed any of the many petitions sent in vain to the North Carolina Governors of the day for clemency. There’s no indication of any Baker involvement at all in the hanging — the moment when time ran out for Frankie Silver.

But life went on for my third great grand-uncles. In 1850, David was shown as a 49-year-old farmer, with his wife Lena (McGimsey) Baker, and their eight children — six daughters and two sons ranging in age from 3 to 16 — living in Yancey County, North Carolina, a child county to Burke and parent to Mitchell. Charles was shown as the 43-year-old High Sheriff of Yancey County, with his wife Mary (Keener) Baker and their six children — three sons and three daughters ranging in age from 4 to 19.

By 1857, Charles was in Parker County, Texas, living near his older brother, my third great grandfather Martin Baker. He filed a land claim for 160 acres on Long Creek in Parker County on 21 October 1857, and Martin was one of the chain carriers for Charles’ survey. By 1860, David had joined them in Parker County,19 though he moved on to Collin County by 1870.20

The story of their involvement in the Silver case wasn’t passed down to their Texas-born-and-bred descendants and kin.

But we know about it now…

Census

1810 "United States Census," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XH26-63V : accessed 15 February 2021), David Baker, Burke, North Carolina, United States; citing p. 322, NARA microfilm publication M252 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 39; FHL microfilm 337,912.

David Baker

Dorothy Baker

Susanna Baker

Martin Baker

Dorothy Baker

David Baker

Josiah Baker

Sophia Baker

Charles Baker

1820 "United States Census," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHLX-7CS : accessed 15 February 2021), David Baker, Esquire, Burke, North Carolina, United States; citing p. 55, NARA microfilm publication M33, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 83; FHL microfilm 162,799.

David Baker, Esquire

Dorothy Baker

Dorothy Baker

David Baker

Josiah Baker

Sophia Baker

Charles Baker

1850 "United States Census," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M4BG-9Q9 : 21 December 2020), David D Baker, Yancey, North Carolina, United States; citing family , NARA microfilm publication (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

David D Baker: Male 49 North Carolina

John W Baker: Male 5 North Carolina

William M Baker: Male 3 North Carolina

Sena E Baker: Female 41 North Carolina

Louisa A Baker: Female 16 North Carolina

Harriet E Baker: Female 15 North Carolina

Susan E Baker: Female 14 North Carolina

Ally S Baker: Female 12 North Carolina

Martha E Baker: Female 10 North Carolina

Mary A D Baker: Female 7 North Carolina

1860 "United States Census,", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MXFT-5Q5 : 11 November 2020), D Baker, 1860.

D Baker: Male 59 North Carolina

S Baker: Female 43 North Carolina

S Baker: Female 17 North Carolina

H Baker: Female 16 North Carolina

M Baker: Female 15 North Carolina

M Baker: Female 14 North Carolina

J Baker: Male 13 North Carolina

W Baker: Male 12 North Carolina

J Baker: Male 4 North Carolina

H Baker: Female 3 North Carolina

1870 "United States Census,", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MXGP-KSN : 4 January 2021), David Baker, 1870.

David Baker: Male 69 North Carolina

Lena Baker: Female 61 North Carolina

Louisa Baker: Female 29 North Carolina

Susan Baker: Female 27 North Carolina

John Baker: Male 24 North Carolina

Mary Baker: Female 22 North Carolina

Janius Baker: Male 16 North Carolina

Trissa Baker: Female 15 North Carolina

Nathan Blackwell: Male 8 North Carolina

1880 "United States Census," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFF1-9MG : 14 November 2020), David D. Baker in household of Junius Baker, Collin, Texas, United States; citing enumeration district ED 27, sheet 238A, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm 1,255,296.

Junius Baker: Self Male 27 North Carolina, United States

Emma Baker: Wife Female 18 Georgia, United States

Alphus Baker: Son Male 0 Texas, United States

David D. Baker: Father Male 80 North Carolina, United States

Louisia Baker: Sister Female 44 North Carolina, United States

Martha Sulivan: Sister Female 29 North Carolina, United States

Nathan Sulivan: Nephew Male 9 Texas, United States

Emma Sulivan: Niece Female 7 Texas, United States

Nathan Blackwell: Nephew Male 17 Texas, United States

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} "North Carolina Marriages, 1759-1979", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q29D-1WJ5 : 14 February 2020), David D. Baker, 1832.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8} "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M4BG-9Q9 : 21 December 2020), David D Baker, Yancey, North Carolina, United States; citing family , NARA microfilm publication (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MXFT-5Q5 : 11 November 2020), D Baker, 1860.
4. ↑ "United States Census, 1810," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XH26-63V : accessed 15 February 2021), David Baker, Burke, North Carolina, United States; citing p. 322, NARA microfilm publication M252 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 39; FHL microfilm 337,912.
5. ↑ "United States Census, 1820," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHLX-7CS : accessed 15 February 2021), David Baker, Esquire, Burke, North Carolina, United States; citing p. 55, NARA microfilm publication M33, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 83; FHL microfilm 162,799.
6. ↑ http://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog/2012/09/08/silver-threads-to-the-baker-family - Interesting Story concerning David Baker
7. ↑ Mentioned in Will:

   Wife Dorothy
   

   Children who received bequests: Susannah, Martin, David, Dorothy, Josiah, Sophia and Charles
   

   Children who had already received their inheritances: Elizabeth Baley, Thomas, William, Nancy Davenport, Critenden and Mary McKinney
   

   Executors David D. Baker and Josiah Baker
   

   Witness Thomas Wilson

   "Last Will of David Baker, senr., 1838
   "In the Name of God Amen
   "I David Baker Senr. of the County of Yancey and State of N. Carolina (farmer). Being weak in Body but Perfect in Mind and Memory. Thanks be given unto God.
   "Calling to Mind the Mortality of my Body and knowing that it is Appointed for all Men once to die, do make and ordain this My Last Will and Testament, that is to say principally and first of all I give and Recommend my Soul into the Hand of Almighty God that gave it and My Body I Recommend to the Earth to be buried in a decent Christian Burial at the Discretion of my Executors. Nothing Doubting but at the General Resurrection I shall receive the same again by the Mighty Power of God.
   "And as touches such Worldly Estate wherewith it has pleased God to Bless me in this life, I give devise and dispose of in the following manner & form, "viz
   First I give and Bequeath to Dorothy My Dearly Beloved Wife all my Estate Both Real and Personal by her freely to be possessed of and Enjoyed during her Natural life and at her decease to be equally Divided between my Beloved Children (viz) Susannah, Martin, David, Dorothy, Josiah, Sophia and Charles.
   "To the rest of my children (viz) Elizabeth Baley, Thomas, William, Nancy Davenport, Critenden and Mary McKinney I give Nothing in consequence of having given them a Reasonable Portion of my Estate heretofore.
   "I likewise constitute make and ordain David D. Baker and Josiah Baker the sole Executors of this my last will & Testament and I hereby disallow revoke and disannul every other former Testaments, wills, Legacies, Bequeaths and Executors by me in any wise before named willed and bequeathed.
   "Ratifying & confirming this and no other to be my Last Will and Testament, In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand & Seal this 26th Day of January AD 1838, Signd David Baker
   "Test [witnessed] Thomas Wilson"
8. ↑ "United States Census, 1870", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MXGP-KSN : 4 January 2021), David Baker, 1870.
9. ↑ "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFF1-9MG : 14 November 2020), David D. Baker in household of Junius Baker, Collin, Texas, United States; citing enumeration district ED 27, sheet 238A, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm 1,255,296.
10. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #6485167
11. ↑ "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVV4-1R2X : 6 August 2020), David Davenport Baker, 1890; Burial, Rhea Mills, Collin, Texas, United States of America, Walnut Grove Cemetery; citing record ID 6485167, Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6485167/ David Davenport Baker