Today is the anniversary of Kansas statehood, so I thought I would check to see if I had ancestors living in Kansas at that time. I knew that I had several branches of my family that were early settlers in Kansas.

Kansas was granted statehood on January 29, 1861.

I checked my Cochran family and they did not move to Norton, Kansas until much later, so decided to check my Baker family.

I tried to find my 3rd Great Grandfather David Baker in the 1860 Federal Census, but could not find him.

However, I did find him on an 1856 Iowa Census living in Decatur County, Iowa.

David was living with three of his children. His wife Eva had passed away sometime after the birth of Anna in 1860.

In 1857 David married my 3rd Great Grandmother Sarah Jane Sellers.

I next found David in an 1865  Kansas Census. He was living in Washington Township, Doniphan County, Kansas.

Washington Township, Doniphan County is just across the river from St Joseph, Missouri.

I then tackled the next question which was whether he was living there in January 1861 when Kansas became a state.

Here we can see the family of David Baker and Sarah J.

David and Ann are the children of Eva and were both born in Iowa.

Henry was the first child of David and Sarah and was born in Iowa in 1857.

Catherine and Frances are shown to be born in Kansas. Catherine was born in September 1861 which was after Kansas became a state.

What is not shown in the record above are two daughters Clara and Minnie who died young.

Clara was born on August 4, 1860 in Washington Township so the family was living there before Kansas became a state. Minnie was born in February 1863.

I also found David Baker in an 1868 directory of Doniphan County. He is shown as a shingle-maker. I tried to find the intersection of Wathena and Palermo roads, but the roads must have changed names since then. Palermo was a small town south of Wathena, so perhaps the road leading south out of town was Palermo road. I need to see if I can find a plat map from when David lived there.

I of course have much more research to do, but that is what makes genealogy so interesting 🙂 There is always more to find out.

Steven