Tombstone Tuesday - Rebecca Clark Baldridge Boggs

My readers never cease to amaze me. Yesterday, I received an mail from a new Baldridge cousin who lives in California. This cousin had found posts on Mississippi Memories about John Baldridge and Rebecca Clark Baldridge, my fifth great-grandparents, who were married in Colerain, Londonderry, Ireland and immigrated to Pennsylvania shortly thereafter. I am descended through John T. Baldridge, one of their grandsons, a veteran of the War of 1812 who lived and died in Carroll County, Mississippi. A photo of John Baldridge's grave stone in Enon Methodist Church Cemetery in Carroll County can be seen here.

In his email, my new cousin told me where Rebecca Clark Baldridge is buried. I already knew that John Baldridge was buried in Little Britain Township near Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, near where he had died. And I also knew that after John's death, Rebecca, who still had minor children, moved with an older son and his family to Orange County, North Carolina. Although much of my research told me that Rebecca had re-married in North Carolina and had later died there, I had been unsuccessful in finding her married name or her burial location. Thanks to this email from another Baldridge descendant, I now have both Rebecca's name after she remarried and the name of the cemetery where she is buried.

My contact wrote in his email to me that Rebecca is buried in the cemetery at Knob Creek United Methodist Church in North Carolina. With that information in hand, I soon located photos on www.findagrave.com of the grave stone (see below) that marks the final resting place of Rebecca Clark Baldridge Boggs. According to her marker, Rebecca was born in 1723 and died in 1823, having lived almost a century. By most accounts, Rebecca was perhaps the mother of 21 children.

Photo by Sharon

Grave stone of Rebecca Clark Baldridge Boggs

Knob Creek United Methodist Church Cemetery

Cleveland County, North Carolina

Photo by Sharon

A more recent grave stone placed at the foot of Rebecca's original marker shows her date of birth and date of death.

Tombstone Tuesday - John Baldridge, Veteran of the War of 1812

John Baldridge, my paternal great-great-greatgrandfather, was born in North Carolina and died in Carroll County, Mississippi. Buried in Enon Cemetery in Carroll County, John's grave stone states that he served in McMath's Company of New York during the War of 1812.

John Baldridge, War of 1812 Veteran

Several months ago, I wrote a series of posts on Attala County Memories about the Baldridge family. In those posts, I discussed this family's migration from its native Ireland to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and later into Mississippi. After John Baldridge (the immigrant) died in the late 1700's, his widow and children began their migration through the colonies, living first in Orange County, North Carolina, then in Tennessee, and later, in Mississippi. Family legend has it that a few Baldridge men married women of Native American heritage during their migrations from Pennsylvania into the Mississippi Territory. Other stories about Baldridge men say they fought side by side with Native Americans during some of the Indian wars in Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. After The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was signed, some of these Mississippi families moved to Indian Territory. But before leaving the state for what later became Oklahoma, many members of this family had lived in an area that eventually became Carroll County, Mississippi. My great-great-great-grandparents, Daniel Baldridge and Harriett Atwood, were among those who stayed behind. Today, very few Baldridges remain in Mississippi, while large numbers of the descendants of those who went to Indian Territory now reside in the State of Oklahoma.

The tombstone pictured above is that of my great-great-great-great-grandfather, John Baldridge, grandson of John Baldridge, the Irish immigrant who lived in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and father of Daniel Baldridge. John Baldridge was born on February 8, 1780, in Orange County, North Carolina. He married Jane Owens, his first wife, on September 20, 1804, in what later became Jefferson County, a few years after he arrived in the Mississippi Territory. The couple became the parents of 11 children. Jane died on May 14, 1830 in Yazoo County, Mississippi. On June 1, 1836, John married again, this time to Nancy Cheek Marble, in Grenada, Mississippi. Nine children were born during John's second marriage to Nancy. My Baldridge line descends from John's marriage to Nancy.

John died on February 18, 1860 in Carroll County and is buried in Enon Methodist Church Cemetery, south of Carrollton, near Coila, in Carroll County, Mississippi. As his grave stone states, John Baldridge was a veteran of the War of 1812, having served in McMath's Company of the NY Militia. Although it seems odd at first glance that someone who lived in the Mississippi Territory would have served in the New York Militia, the reason is a logical one: the Baldridge and McMath families had been related for many years through marriages that occurred in Pennsylvia, and John Baldridge simply answered a call to service from one of these relatives.

After John Baldridge's death in 1860, Nancy Cheek Marble Baldridge outlived her husband by 52 years. She died on March 7, 1908 and is buried in Madison County, Mississippi.