This post is about ancestors and relatives of the descendants of Dessie Kimsey Anderson. I’ve been working on understanding their migrations. The Anderson/Kimsey families’ American story begins in Virginia. From there they moved to Georgia or North Carolina or Kentucky or Tennessee. Then they went to Missouri. The early ones went to Howard County, on the Missouri River, about in the middle of the state. Then after the Platte Purchase (1836), to that part of Missouri. Not our ancestors, but many of their relatives moved on to Oregon or California. Our ancestors tended to be on the early wave of such migrations, often traveling and living on the dangerous frontier.
Today I’m focusing on a story about Robert Baber, as told in The History of Clay and Platte Counties, Missouri. Our ancestors John and Delila (Davis) Baber traveled from Kentucky to Platte County, Missouri, between 1830 and 1839, with their three children (at the time) Elizabeth, Martha (our ancestor), and the Robert of this story. I’ve included a part of our family tree, which includes Robert Baber (born around 1766), his son John Baber (born in 1795) and John’s children Robert (of this story) and our Martha. Another child, John, was born in Missouri.
Three Baber children married three children of Thomas Kimsey and Martha Morris. Martha Baber married Samuel Crowley Kimsey (my ancestors), Robert Baber married Emma Kimsey and Elizabeth Baber married Wade Hampton Kimsey. The Kimsey family was already in Howard County, Missouri, by about 1823. By 1847 they were in Platte County where three Kimsey children married three Baber children.
Note, in this story the Kimsey name is spelled Kimsly. Spelling during history was usually “sounds like”, or in this case possibly a mis-reading of an e.
The story says our ancestor Robert Baber (b ca 1766) was born in Virginia. We do not know if the trip to Kentucky was made when he was a child or an adult. We do know he married in Kentucky. The trip to Kentucky would most likely have been through the Cumberland Gap on the Wilderness Road.
It is not clear how they made the journey to Missouri. The Ohio and Mississippi and Missouri rivers are obvious possible paths, but the Mississippi and Missouri sections would have been upstream. It seems that many of these journeys were made before there were steamboats on the Mississippi. Flatboats do not go upstream. Keelboats can, but would probably need a professional guide. Daniel Boone went to Missouri (near St. Louis) before Missouri was a state and it is said part of his party went by foot and some by dugout canoes. My guess is that most went by land in order to be able to take more property with them. The stories that I do see told about our family that mention how they got there talk about going by land. If you want to see travel downstream by flatboat, watch the old movie How The West Was Won (1962) (which also includes a segment on wagon train to California).
So here is the story about Robert Baber from The History of Clay and Platte Counties, Missouri. 1 It includes four generations: Robert Baber (b ca 1766) -> John Baber (b 1795) -> Robert Baber (b 1825) -> the children. I put some comments in square brackets to help clarify.
“ROBERT BABER – (Farmer, Section 12, Post-office, Ridgely).
“Mr. Baber, for many years a farmer in comfortable circumstances in Preston township, and a man with an extensive acquaintance among the people of this county, was born in Pulaski county, Ky., on the 22d of August, 1825, and was the son of John Baber, a Kentuckian by birth, whose father, Robert Baber, was originally from Virginia.
“During the journey of the latter [Robert Baber b ca 1766] with his family from that State to Kentucky, John, his son, was born. After reaching manhood he was married to Miss Delila Davis, of the same State as himself. During the War of 1812 he was a gallant soldier in defense of this country against the invasion of foreign troops, and was an active participant in the engagement at New Orleans. In the fall of 1841 the family [John Baber and Delila Davis] removed to Missouri, taking up their location in Platte county, where they lived for eight years. In 1849 they went to Texas, but the fall of the next year found them once again residents of Platte. Here, or on the place which our subject now occupies, Robert’s father [John] died, in 1872, aged 72 years, having been born in 1800. His widow is still living, at the age of 81. Robert Baber accompanied the family on their removal to this State, and also to Texas, returning with them and settling where he now lives in 1850, as above mentioned. February 28, 1856, he was married in this county to Miss Emma R. Kimsly, whose parents were Thomas and Martha (Morris) Kimsly. Mr. K. came to Missouri from Tennessee when a young man [to Howard County first], and his wife from Kentucky . Mrs. Baber [Emma Kimsey] was born in Howard county, Mo.
“They have a family of seven boys and four girls : John T., married and a resident of this county; Landon D. and Thomas J., twins; James M., married and in this county ; Andrew J., George W., married and in the county ; David F., Martha J., Delila Ann, Lucy E. and Marietta. Mr. and Mrs. Baber are members of the Missionary Baptist Church. Mr. B. has a farm of 238 acres, all fenced, about 100 acres of which are in cultivation. His orchard is a good one and in fine bearing condition. “
Note the names of the children. My ancestor John Baber married Delilah Davis. Delilah Davis is the great great great granddaughter of the possible American Indian ancestor that I wrote about in the blog post “Do We Have an American Indian Ancestor?“. So we have one daughter named after her grandmother Delila Davis, one son named after his great grandfather Landon Davis. We also have several presidents (Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, George Washington). Martha probably for the maternal grandmother. Thomas for the maternal grandfather but with the middle name Jefferson also becomes a president’s name. The John T is John Tyler, another President, and the family believes their Tyler ancestor is related to President Tyler. The Tyler connection is Landon Davis (1775-1854) married Priscilla Tyler (1782-?). I’ve not yet found a connection to President Tyler.
Some of that is not correct, or I can’t tell who they mean. Thomas Kimsey was born in Georgia and Martha Morris in North Carolina. They married in Howard County, Missouri. John Baber and Delilah Davis Baber went directly from Kentucky to Platte County, arriving before 1839.
Also of interest is a story dictated by Elizabeth Falby (Lutes) Kimsey to a grandchild about their trip from Georgia to Missouri. It is hand written but very easy to read. This one is entitled Wagon Train from Georgia. Elizabeth was the second wife of Wade Hampton Kimsey mentioned above whose first wife was Elizabeth Baber. Their plan was to go on to Oregon, but they did not. Read to the end to learn what happened to those who continued to Oregon.
I wrote about how such trips might have been made in my blog post about the Kimsey migrations in my blog post “Migrations“. This post includes maps of routes they might have taken.
Additional materials:
Migration to Missouri by Patti Lee Hobbs
https://stlgs.org/media/pdf/migration-to-mo-hobbs-2021.pdf
- History of Clay and Platte Counties, Missouri. (1885). United States: National Historical Company, page 896. History of Clay and Platte Counties, Missouri
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