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Page .1. 02-APR-2007
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THE BAINES FAMILY OF DENTON, TEXAS
Copyright (c) 1992-2006 by D La Pierre Ballard
BalCro, 02-APR-2007
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Please feel free to quote or copy from this webpage.
Also, feel free to link to this webpage.
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This webpage was created using the software program FIXRAN.TEA which
was written in the Teapro programming language. The programming
language Teapro uses the OpenTea technology for programming that is
simple, and solid.
In today's world, we need computer software that actually works.
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This webpage is about the Baines family of two men who were first
cousins and who were born and grew up in Denton, Denton Co, Texas.
It is about William Joseph Baines, who will be called Will Baines
here. He lived from 26-APR-1866 to 20-FEB-1938. And, it is about
Will's first cousin Charles Creth Smith who lived from 24-SEP-1872
until 30-JUN-1938. Both of these men grew up in Denton, Denton Co,
Texas and later lived in Oklahoma. They were good friends all of their
lives, and both have many descendants. Both of them were great great
grandsons of George Bains who was the earliest Bains/Baines known
ancestor of them.
Will Baines owned and operated the Star Mill and Elevator Company
of Hennessey, Kingfisher Co, Oklahoma. Charles Creth Smith
worked as a carpenter in Norman, Cleveland Co, Oklahoma.
Their Baines family came from North Carolina, moved to Georgia, then
to Alabama, then to both Louisiana and Arkansas, and finally from
those places to Texas.
Most early members of the Baines family have been strong Baptists. The
history of the Baines family in Texas is almost a history of the
Baptists of Texas because the members of the Baines family were often
prominent Baptists and often named their children after prominent
Texas Baptists.
Charles Creth Smith and his family have generally been Methodists
not only because he had a grandfather and a great grandfather who were
Methodist ministers but also because the Stone side of his wife's
family had been strong Methodists who had heard both Francis Asbury
and William McKendree preach in early day Sumner Co, Tennessee.
Many persons both relatives and non-relatives furnished information
for this webpage. The author is grateful to all of them. See the
bibliography for books that were consulted.
The person who furnished the most information was Leola May Smith
Ballard who was a daughter of Charles Creth Smith and who was the
author's mother. Charles Creth Smith was the author's grandfather.
Dixie Baines carefully collected an enormous amount of
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genealogical information on the family of Will Baines and his wife
Lillie. They were his grandparents. This information which he has so
graciously shared both benefits the Baines family of Hennessey,
Oklahoma now and will especially do so in the future.
Linda Clark furnished the letters which Will Baines wrote to
Lillie Haden who was soon to become his wife. This information
with the other Baines family information provided by Linda Clark
has been most helpful.
Linda Clark \GTWCWILL F. -
Bill Baines and his lovely wife Volita have helped tremendously.
William Jules Baines "Bill" merchant WW2 \GTWCWL M.1915-2001
Johan Enix has remembered many things that have really helped.
Johan Baines Enix F. -
Gary McNeill helped with the family of Robert Thomas Baines.
Gary McNeill M. -
Thelma Davis teacher \GTWBE F.1904-1979
Thelma was a daughter to Belle Baines. She left handwritten notes
listing her siblings with their birth and death dates.
Steve Spencer \GTWBCBS M. -
Steve helped tremendously with the family of Belle Baines.
D'Andrea Davis Mitchell "Dee Dee" \GTWBCCD F. -
Dee Dee Mitchell helped with the family of Belle Baines.
Harry Davis \GTWBCGH M. -
Harry Davis helped with the family of Belle Baines.
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CHAPTER: 001: Understanding the Charts
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The charts can be understood by looking at the following example of
how the author is descended from George Bains. George Bains
was the father of Thomas Baines who was the father of William
Creth Baines who was the father of Martha Julia Ann Baines
Smith who was the mother of Charles Creth Smith who was the father
of Leola May Smith Ballard who was the mother of the author.
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George Bains "George"'Baptist minister \G M.1741-1802
Thomas Baines "Thomas"'Baptist minister \GT M.1787-1836
William Creth Baines "William" merchant \GTW M.1814-1895
Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith "Mattie" \GTWA F.1851-1930
Charles Creth Smith "Creth" carpenter \GTWAC M.1872-1938
Leola May Smith Ballard "Leola" teacher \GTWACL F.1910-1996
D La Pierre Ballard "D" computer prog. \GTWACLD M. -
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Page .3. 02-APR-2007
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CHAPTER: 002: The Other Baines Family of Chowan County, North Carolina
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John Colson Baines M. -
Spouse: Katherine Wilkins F. -
Married: 29-MAR-1757 Chowan Co, North Carolina
Bondsman: Thomas Jones M. -
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George Baines,Jr M. -
Spouse: Sarah Charlton F. -
Married: 30-JUL-1789 Chowan Co, North Carolina
Bondsman: Henry Bond M. -
Minister: Joseph Blount M. -
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William Baines,Sr M. -
Spouse: Elizabeth Simpson F. -
Married: 16-MAY-1792 Chowan Co, North Carolina
Bondsman: William Baines,Jr M. -
Minister: Joseph Blount M. -
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Samuel Baines M. -
Spouse: Christain Lasiter F. -
Married: 08-NOV-1804 Chowan Co, North Carolina
Bondsman: Robert Beasley M. -
Minister: William E. Norfleet M. -
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John C. Baines M. -
Spouse: Nancy Everitte F. -
Married: 06-APR-1815 Chowan Co, North Carolina
Bondsman: Lemanue C. Baines M. -
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William Baines M. -
Spouse: Sophia Lane F. -
Married: 21-DEC-1816 Chowan Co, North Carolina
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Lemanel C. Baines M. -
Spouse: Mary Everitte F. -
Married: 24-APR-1817 Chowan Co, North Carolina
Bondsman: Mackay Gregory M. -
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Sarah Baines F. -
Spouse: Jeremiah Stacy M. -
Married: 14-JUL-1814 Chowan Co, North Carolina
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Catherine Baines F. -
Spouse: Joshua Johnson M. -
Married: 29-JAN-1791 Chowan Co, North Carolina
Bondsman: Thomas McNider M. -
Witness: Joseph Blount M. -
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Lavinia Baines F. -
Spouse: Myles Hassel M. -
Married: 08-APR-1805
Bondsman: Jesse Hassel M. -
Witness: William E. Norfleet M. -
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Rebecca Baines F. -
Father: George Baines M. -
Spouse: James Harrison McCabe M. -
Married: 11-MAY-1801 Chowan Co, North Carolina
Bondsman: Abel Miller M. -
Witness: William Norfleet M. -
Rebecca was a brother to Samuel Baines. Samuel and James both
served in the War of 1812 from Smith Co, Tennessee.
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Sarah Baines F. -
Spouse: Joshua Mewborn M. -
Married: 09-APR-1808 Chowan Co, North Carolina
Bondsman: Samuel Gregory M. -
Witness: William E. Norfleet M. -
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CHAPTER: 003: George Bains \G M.1741-1802
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George Bains,Sr \G M.1741-1802
Born: 25-JAN-1741 Scotland
Died: 19-MAY-1802 Edenton, Chowan Co, NC
Spouse: Mary Creecy F.1749-
Married: 28-MAY-1769
Born: 28-JAN-1749
Father: Levi Creecy,Jr M.1720-
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George Bains was born on 25-JAN-1741. Some sources say he was an
immigrant from either Scotland or Ireland. The current thought is that
he was Scottish but had lived in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland
was having the same troubles at that time that it is still having
today between the native Catholics and the English imported Scots who
were Protestants.
George Bains died on 19-MAY-1802 at Edenton in Chowan County
in North Carolina. Edenton is in the northeast part of North Carolina
and is on the Atlantic. His wife Mary Creecy was born on
28-JAN-1749. She was the daughter of Levi Creecy,Jr.
John Colson Bains M. -
It is likely but not certain that John Colson Bains who was also
of Edenton, North Carolina was an uncle of George Bains. John
Colson Bains had a son named George Bains who also lived in
Edenton, North Carolina. The last name was sometimes spelled in
different ways. Sometimes it was spelled as Bains, Bain or Bayne in
those earlier times.
George Bains and his wife Mary had eleven children of whom Thomas
Baines was next to the youngest. The youngest was Sarah Baines
born on 24-FEB-1790 who was with the Baines family later in
Carroll County, Arkansas.
George Bains was a Baptist minister and a farmer. Two of his sons
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became Baptist ministers too. One was James Baines who was born on
22-DEC-1778 and who died in Alabama in 1836. The other one was Thomas
Baines. The last name of Bains or Baines was spelled both ways by
the children of George Bains. Both James Baines and Thomas
Baines were ordained to the Baptist ministry on 22-AUG-1817 in
Clark County, Georgia.
The above information is mostly from the book by Rebekah Baines
Johnson which is listed in the bibliography.
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CHAPTER: 004: Thomas Baines \GT M.1787-1836
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Thomas Baines 'Baptist minister \GT M.1787-1836
Born: 04-JUL-1787 Edenton, Chowan Co, North Carolina
Died: DEC-1836 Mississippi
Father: George Bains,Sr \G M.1741-1802
Mother: Mary Creecy F.1749-
Spouse: Mary McCoy F.1794-1864
Married: 13-FEB-1808 Perquimans Co, North Carolina
Born: 1794 Perquimans Co, North Carolina
Died: 1864 Fairfield, Freestone Co, Texas
Buried: Fairfield Cemetery, unmarked
Father: William McCoy M. -1794
Mother: Julia ?? F. -1795
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Thomas Baines lived from 04-JUL-1787 until DEC-1836. It is
believed that he changed the spelling from Bains to Baines. Thomas
Baines was born in Edenton in Chowan County in North Carolina.
He married Mary McCoy in Perquimans County, North Carolina on
13-FEB-1808. Perquimans County is just north of Chowan County
and is also on the Atlantic.
Mary McCoy was born in Perquimans County, North Carolina in
1794 and died in Fairfield, Freestone Co, Texas in 1864. Her
parents were of Scotch descent. The dates in the above information are
from the book A FAMILY ALBUM published by McGraw-Hill in 1965 and
authored by Rebekah Baines Johnson. On page 131 of that book the
birthdate of 1794 is given for Mary McCoy while on page 110 that
book gives 1783. On the 1830 Census for Tuscaloosa Co, Alabama her
husband Thomas Baines has in his household himself age 40 to 49
and one female age 30 to 39. Most likely her birthdate of 1794 is more
likely to be correct even though she would have been barely fourteen
when she married. The family tradition from Martha Julia Ann
Baines Smith to her granddaughter Crethie Munro Smith was that
Mary McCoy was born in Scotland and could not speak English when
she came to this country. While it is believed that Martha Julia Ann
Baines Smith knew her grandmother, Mary McCoy Baines, it is
fairly certain that it was Mary McCoy's grandfather, James
McCoy, who came from Scotland.
Thomas Baines and Mary McCoy had four children together.
George Washington Baines was born on 29-DEC-1809 in Perquimans
County, North Carolina. Julia Ann Baines was born there in 1812.
William Creth Baines was born there on 09-MAR-1814. Joseph
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Benjamin Baines was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama on 27-SEP-1820.
The dates above are from the book by Rebekah Baines Johnson.
Thomas Baines and his wife Mary McCoy Baines are the great
grand parents of both Charles Creth Smith and Will Baines.
REVEREND THOMAS BAINES
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In the church record of Yeopim Baptist Church of Chowan Co, North
Carolina is a note about the meeting on 26-OCT-1816. At that meeting,
James Baines opened with a prayer. Frederick Creecy was the
moderator. Then Thomas Baines resigned his position as church
clerk at that meeting. A letter of dismission was given to James
Baines and his wife, to Thomas Baines and his wife, and to
Sarah Baines. These persons were planning to move west. They moved
west from North Carolina to Georgia. The Frederick Creecy was
probably a close kin to Mary Creecy Baines who was the mother of
Thomas Baines.
Frederick Creecy M. -
In 1817 Thomas Baines and his family moved to Clark County,
Georgia where he was ordained as a Baptist minister. In 1818 they
moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama where he was pastor of Ebenezer Baptist
Church which is now the First Baptist Church. He was moderator of the
Tuscaloosa Association of Baptist Churches which was organized on
29-MAR-1834.
In 1836 he, his wife and youngest son moved to Mississippi. It was
there that he died in DEC-1836.
The above information comes from the book by Rebekah Baines
Johnson.
The information from the family tradition which came to Crethie Munro
Smith from Martha Julia Ann Baines, her grandmother, indicated
that Thomas Baines lived in south Texas in his later days.
MARY MCCOY BAINES AFTER 1836
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After her husband, Thomas Baines, died in December of 1836 Mary
McCoy Baines moved to Crooked Creek, Arkansas with her daughter,
Julia Ann Baines Hill. Crooked Creek is now Harrison, Boone
Co, Arkansas. At that time her oldest son, George Washington
Baines also moved there under a commission from the Baptist Home
Mission Society of New York to evangelize. Joseph Benjamin Baines,
the youngest son of Mary McCoy Baines, also moved there. Sarah
Baines, the sister-in-law of Mary McCoy Baines, moved there
also. At that time it was in Carroll Co, Arkansas but today it is
in Boone Co. The Baines family lived about three miles south of
town and just west of what today is State Highway Seven.
The middle son of Mary McCoy Baines, William Creth Baines,
never lived at Crooked Creek. He and his beginning family moved from
Tuscaloosa, Alabama to eastern Texas about 1840. He and his wife
Catherine A. Turner Baines were the grandparents of both Will
Baines and Charles Creth Smith.
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After 1843 only the youngest son of Mary McCoy Baines, Joseph
Benjamin Baines, remained in Crooked Creek, Arkansas. Mary
McCoy Baines lived with him and his family until the bushwhacker
problem arose during the Civil War. Then to keep her away from those
renegades who were ravaging northern Arkansas, her oldest son, George
Washington Baines had her move to Texas to live with his family at
Fairfield in Freestone Co, Texas. It was there that she died in
1864 and was buried without a marker in the Fairfield Cemetery. The
only source of information for the last days of Mary McCoy Baines
is Rebekah Baines Johnson's book. None of the Baines family buried
in Fairfield have markers since they died during the War for Southern
Independence.
Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith knew her Grandmother Mary McCoy
Baines in Texas and often told her granddaughter Crethie Munro
Smith about her. Crethie was the author's aunt.
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CHAPTER: 005: William Creth Baines \GTW M.1814-1895
Updated 2006/09/17
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William Creth Baines was born on 09-MAR-1814 in North Carolina and
died on 01-APR-1895 in San Bernardino, California. His parents were
Thomas Baines and Mary McCoy.
Some researchers give his middle named spelled Creath rather than as
Creth.
In Tuscaloosa Co, Alabama on 07-NOV-1837 he married Catherine A.
Turner who was born in Tennessee. Her father was Judge Robert
Born: 1881
Died: 1925
Turner of Shelby Co, Texas. Catherine's mother was Nancy
Haines. She had a brother named Charles Turner and a sister named
Mary Ann Turner. The parents of Nancy Haines were Charles
Haines and Catherine Brandon.
Catherine A. Turner was born in Tennessee on 16-JUN-1822 and died
on 18-FEB-1882 in Denton, Denton Co, Texas. She is buried with
four of her children in Oakwood Cemetery in Denton.
William Creth Baines and his wife were the grandparents of Will
Baines and Charles Creth Smith.
The first child of William Creth Baines and his wife Catherine A.
Turner was Charles Silas Baines who was born in Tuscaloosa,
Alabama on 09-MAR-1839. It was shortly after this birth that the
family moved out of the United States to the Republic of Texas. They
lived in what is today Panola Co, Texas in far eastern Texas. They
are listed there on the 1850 Census under the name Barnes. The sister
of W. C. Baines, Julia Ann Baines Hill, and her family were
living in Carthage in Panola Co, Texas at that time.
IN DENTON COUNTY, TEXAS
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Shortly after the 1850 Census was taken the William Creth Baines
Page .8. 02-APR-2007
family moved from Panola Co, Texas to Denton Co, Texas.
The major two books on the history of Denton contain various
references to William Creth Baines. These books are listed in the
bibliography under Ed F. Bates and C. A. Bridges. In both of
these books and elsewhere too the name Baines is occasionally
misspelled as Bains or even as Bain. The book by James Newton
Rayzor on the Baptist churches of Denton County has several
references to W. C. Baines.
In the years 1848-1850 the legal county seat of Denton County was
a place now called Old Alton. The nearest building to this location
was the residence of the William Creth Baines family. The county
court was held sometimes in a room of the Baines house and sometimes
on the porch or in the yard depending upon the weather. Old Alton was
the second location of the county seat of Denton County. Old Alton was
located about four miles southeast of Denton. The first three
locations of the Denton County Seat were given up because of bad
location for one reason or another.
In 1857 when the actual town of Denton was set up, the W. C.
Baines family built the first residence in it. This was a two room
log house located on the south side of West Hickory Street. Hickory
Street runs east and west on the south side of the square. Their house
was the second house on that side from the town square. W. C.
Baines was the first postmaster in Denton, and that house served
as the first post office. The block in which that house was built was
called the W. C. Baines Addition. The water well for the house was one
of the best in town.
WILLIAM CRETH BAINES, MERCHANT IN DENTON
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Who: W. H. Mounts M. -
On the west side of the town square there was a store owned by W. C.
Baines and W. H. Mounts. On 08-JUL-1860 the west side of the
town square was mostly destroyed by fire. William Creth Baines and
his partner rebuilt the store after the fire. In 1870 two businesses
on the west side of the town square were partially owned by W. C.
Baines. One of these was the next to the farthest south on the
west side. The business farthest south was the J. C. Smith & Co. store
which was partially owned by Reverend John Calvin Smith, a
Methodist minister, who was the other grandfather of Charles Creth
Smith.
William Creth Baines and his wife Catherine A. Turner were among
the twelve charter members of the Baptist Church in Denton in 1858.
The first cotton gin in Denton was owned by William Creth Baines
in 1869.
On 03-NOV-1887 William Creth Baines was a member of the founding
presbytery of Sand Hill Baptist Church which later became Corinth
Baptist Church in Denton County southeast of Denton. His wife,
Catherine A. Turner Baines, had died five years previously and it
is believed that William had moved out of Denton to this small
community near where the family had previously lived. Sometime after
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this he moved to San Bernardino, California to live with his son
Robert Thomas Baines.
William Creth Baines of Denton was not the same person as William
C. Bain who was living at Honey Grove in Fannin County, Texas.
Who: William C. Bain M. -
CHILDREN OF W. C. AND CATHERINE BAINES
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Four of the children of William Creth Baines and his wife
Catherine are buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Denton beside their
mother.
Mary Elizabeth Baines lived to be almost twenty. She lived from
24-OCT-1841 until 06-AUG-1861.
John Mercer Baines lived from 18-JUL-1856 until 07-NOV-1881 which
was almost twenty-five years. He was named after the Baptist Jesse
Mercer who promoted the newspaper "The Texas Baptist" through his
publication "The Christian Advocate". "The Texas Baptist" was the
first Baptist newspaper in Texas and was started by George Washington
Baines who was the older brother of William Creth Baines.
Jesse Mercer M. -
Joseph C. Baines lived from 03-MAY-1859 until 03-APR-1861 which
was not quite two years.
William J. Baines lived from 30-JUN-1849 until 05-MAY-1866 which
was nearly seventeen years. He died in a flood near Decatur, Wise
Co, Texas that May as is described in the book by Ed F. Bates.
Some sources give his middle name as George even though on his grave
stone the "J" is apparent.
Charles Silas Baines was born on 09-MAR-1839 in Alabama before the
W. C. Baines family came to Texas. His first wife was Harriett E.
Hoffman who died in 1868 after giving birth to William Joseph
Baines on 26-APR-1866 who, of course, was Will Baines, one of
the two subjects of this webpage. See the Chapter and the Chart on
Charles Silas Baines for more information.
Robert Thomas Baines was a farmer in Denton County. He was
born on 10-APR-1844. His wife was Sabina Perrin. They had two
children, Samuel and Elenora, who were both born before 1870. During
the Civil War Bob Baines was a private in the Samuel F.
Mains's Company in the First Regiment of Mounted Volunteers
commanded by Colonel M. T. Johnson of the Confederate Army.
Who: Samuel F. Mains CSA M. -
Who: Colonel M. T. Johnson CSA M. -
James Henry Baines was born on 10-DEC-1853, and it is believed
that he lived until 26-JUN-1920. His wife was named Cora, and they had
four children: Mercer, Neta (or Leda), William Marcus and Catherine.
They lived in in Palo-Pinto County in 1900. They lived next door
to his sister, Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith, and her family. See
the Chart on James Henry Baines.
Page .10. 02-APR-2007
Nancy Sophronia Baines was born on 24-AUG-1846. She married Dr.
John H. Collins of Denton prior to 1870. See the Chapter and the
Chart on her.
Edwin Porter Baines who was always called "Doc" was born on
09-AUG-1861 in Denton and died on 08-MAY-1934 in Novice in Coleman
County, Texas. In the Granbury College Directory for 1880-1882 Doc
Baines is listed as a student. Granbury is the county seat of
Hood County, Texas. in 1900 his wife was Cora A. McLemore and
they had two sons, the older of whom was named Edwin G. Baines. At
that time they were still living in Hood County, Texas.
Martha Julia Ann Baines was born on 16-SEP-1851 and was the mother
of Charles Creth Smith. She died on 12-MAR-1930 in Vernon,
Wilbarger Co, Texas. See the Chapters and the Chart on her and her
husband James Calvin Smith.
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CHAPTER: 006: George Washington Baines \GTG M.1809-1882
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On the north side of the First Baptist Church in Fairfield in
Freestone County, Texas is a historical marker about George
Washington Baines which was erected in 1965. He was a great uncle
to both Will Baines and Charles Creth Smith. The text of this
marker provides an excellent introduction to George Washington
Baines. It is as follows.
REVEREND GEORGE WASHINGTON BAINES (1809-1882)
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Noted Texas religious leader. Pastor, 1850, to Gen. and Mrs. Sam
Houston. Founded first Baptist paper in state, 1855. In difficult
Civil War years, served as president of Baylor University, 1861-1863,
and pastor of the First Baptist Church in Fairfield, 1864-1866.
A North Carolinian. Uneducated, at 21 he cut and rafted timber to pay
for schooling. Received A.M. degree, University of Alabama. Moved to
Arkansas. Founded 7 churches. Served in Arkansas legislature,
1843-1844. Lived and preached in Louisiana, 1845-1849.
He had 10 children. His wife Melissa Ann (Butler) died here in
wartime. He made her coffin with his own hands. One of their
Great-Grandsons, Lyndon Baines Johnson, became 36th president of the
United States. The first Texan to receive this high honor.
Churches were vital to military and civilian morale in Confederate
Texas. Rev. Baines and other ministers led their congregations in
prayer days, soldier relief work, aid to families, distribution of
Bibles. They also inspired numerous conversions.
Later Rev. Baines served as agent for the Baptist State Convention and
it's Education Commission.
WORKING FOR AN EDUCATION IN ALABAMA
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George Washington Baines was the first child of Reverend Thomas
Baines and his wife Mary McCoy Baines. George was born on
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29-DEC-1809 close to the Atlantic Coast in Perquimans County,
North Carolina. He had the medium to small stature, the dark hair and
the deep blue eyes which very often characterized the Baines family.
In 1817 the Thomas Baines family moved to Georgia, and in the next
year to Alabama. While living near Tuscaloosa, Alabama George earned
money by cutting timber to attend the University of Alabama. He had to
drop out in his senior year because of the stomach trouble which
plagued him all his life. He was later awarded an honorary A.M. degree
by that school for his accomplishments. He began teaching school in
Alabama in the fall of 1832.
On 07-AUG-1836 he was ordained a Baptist minister. His father,
Reverend Thomas Baines was one of the signers of his ordination
papers.
CONTROVERSY IN CROOKED CREEK, ARKANSAS
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In 1837 George W. Baines moved to Crooked Creek, Arkansas which
today is Harrison, Arkansas in Boone County. The Baptist Home
Mission Society of New York commissioned him to evangelize there. He
hoped to have better health from his stomach problems there. His
mother, Mary McCoy Baines, and his sister, Julia Ann Baines
Hill, with his sister's family moved there about the same time.
In January of 1838 George became the minister of the Crooked Creek
Baptist Church. He baptized many persons and started three new
churches there. In 1842 and 1843 he served a term as a representative
in the Arkansas Legislature.
On 20-OCT-1840 George married Melissa Ann Butler who had been born
in North Carolina on 02-JUN-1824.
In March of 1844 the Hardshell Baptists gained control of the Crooked
Creek Baptist Church. George Baines and all of the Baines family
who were members of that church were very decidedly Missionary
Baptists. Reverend George Washington Baines and the entire Baines
family with a number of other members were ousted from that church.
George and Melissa Baines with their family moved to Mt. Lebanon,
Louisiana in July of 1844. There he was superintendant of schools and
founded some more Baptist churches.
Some of the following information comes from HISTORY OF THE NORTH
ARKANSAS BAPTIST ASSOCIATION by Roger V. Logan,Jr who is an
attorney and historian in Harrison, Arkansas.
Crooked Creek Baptist Church was formed on 03-JUL-1834 in the Crooked
Creek community which was just south of what is today Harrison,
Arkansas.
Among the early members of this church were the following Baines
relatives.
Abraham Marshall Hill M.1812-1865
Julia Ann Baines Hill \GTJ F.1812-1855
George Washington Baines \GTG M.1809-1882
Page .12. 02-APR-2007
Melissa Ann Butler Baines F.1824-1865
Mary McCoy Baines F.1794-1864
Sarah Baines \GS F.1790-
Abraham Marshall Hill was the husband of Julia Ann Baines Hill
who was the sister of George Washington Baines. Melissa Ann
Butler Baines was the wife of G. W. Baines. Mary McCoy
Baines was the mother of G. W. Baines. Sarah Baines was the
aunt of G. W. Baines.
While they were not listed as early members it is certain that Joseph
Benjamin Baines and his wife Mary Frances Beller were in the
Crooked Creek community at least. Joseph Benjamin Baines was the
youngest brother of George W. Baines.
At this time there is no evidence to show that William Creth
Baines and his family were in the Crooked Creek community. William
Creth Baines was the other brother of George Washington
Baines.
HARDSHELL BAPTISTS VERSUS MISSIONARY BAPTISTS
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The Baptists of the 1840's tended to fall into one of two groups.
Either they were Missionary Baptists or Hardshell Baptists. The
Missionary Baptists were strongly evangelical. They often held
revivals and were constantly preaching the gospel. The Hardshell
Baptists believed very decidedly in the doctrine of predestination
which said that some persons were predestined to be saved as
Christians and that some were not. The Hardshell Baptists or Primitive
Baptists as they were sometimes called did not hold revivals or preach
to the unsaved nearly to the extent that the Missionary Baptists did.
These two groups did not get along either in Northern Arkansas or in
Texas in the 1840's.
All of the Baines family fell into the Missionary Baptist group.
In March of 1844 the hardshell members gained control of the Crooked
Creek Baptist Church and excluded from membership all of the members
who were missionary members. A number of members including all of the
Baines family were tossed out.
George Washington Baines and his family went to Louisiana and of
course later to Texas. His sister Julia Ann Baines Hill and her
family went to Carthage in Panola Co, Texas. It is not known what
happened to Sarah Baines. Mary McCoy Baines stayed in the
Crooked Creek community with her youngest son Joseph Benjamin
Baines and his family.
Mary McCoy Baines was to stay in northern Arkansas until about
1863 when the Union and Confederate forces had withdrawn from each
other in northern Arkansas. This created a gap from the Missouri state
line down to the Arkansas River in which bands of bushwhackers reigned
supreme. These outlaws robbed, burned and killed without respect for
any persons, man or woman, North or South. At this time George
Washington Baines arranged for his mother, Mary McCoy Baines,
to move to his home in Fairfield in Freestone County, Texas where
Page .13. 02-APR-2007
she died in 1864.
The Crooked Creek Baptist Church continued as a Hardshell Baptist
church until it went out of business in 1900. In 1906 it was revived
as a missionary Baptist church and continues today under the name
Union Baptist Church.
IN LOUISIANA
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In Louisiana George Washington Baines, in addition to preaching in
various Baptist churches, worked as superintendent of schools in the
Bienville Parish.
He was the first pastor at the Minden Baptist Church of Minden,
Louisiana. That church celebrated it's 125th anniversary on
26-OCT-1969. A copy of the church bulletin was furnished to the author
by his third cousin H. Marland Minton who is a grandson of Will
Baines and who is a great great great nephew of George Washington
Baines. The church bulletin has George Washington Baines on
its front cover and the following about him inside.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
On Sunday, January 19, 1845, the Reverend George Washington
Baines, pastor of the Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church, was called to
serve as the first pastor, to serve on a quarter-time basis.
The Reverend Baines was a man of rare ability, a spiritual giant
of his day, described by those who knew him as being a man of deep
conviction, profoundly learned in the Bible, gentle, quiet, soft in
speech, and modest in everything. By the time he became pastor of
Minden Baptist Church at the age of thirty-five, he had already been
the organizer of a dozen churches in Arkansas and North Louisiana.
Through his wisdom in leadership, this church established its roots in
doctrine and conservatism for which it has been known through the
years.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
On the back of that church bulletin was a message from a great
grandson of George Washington Baines. That great grandson was able
to attend that church that day also. His message is as follows:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
November 16, 1968
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF MINDEN
I fully share your pride as you commemorate the 125th anniversary of
your Church. You look back on a history that is rich in service to God
and to your community. And it gives me special satisfaction to know
that my great-grandfather, George Washington Baines, was part of
the sacred tradition you honor.
I have always believed that we cannot look forward to prosperity if we
do not first look back to our ancestors. We have much to learn from
their courage and adversity and their perseverance in carrying forward
God's holy word and work. It humbles us to share the lasting memories
Page .14. 02-APR-2007
of the good they did. And it heartens us as we bear our own burdens
and seek, as they did, a better, more meaningful life.
I am wholeheartedly with you in the spirit of your observance, and I
wish your congregation every success in the challenging years ahead.
Lyndon B. Johnson
INTO TEXAS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In 1847 George W. Baines visited Texas to help begin a Baptist
church in the town of Marshall in Panola Co. About three years
later George W. Baines moved with his family to Huntsville, Texas
where he ministered for a year. In 1851 he and his family moved to the
town of Independence in Washington County, Texas for a year. He
was the minister in the Independence Baptist Church which included
General Sam Houston and his wife as members.
Who: Sam Houston M.1793-1863
Who: Margaret Lea Houston F.1819-1867
GEORGE WASHINGTON BAINES AND THE TEXAS BAPTISTS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Union Baptist Association was the first Baptist organization in
the state of Texas. The Union Baptist Association formed the Texas
Baptist Education Society which promoted the founding of Baylor
University in 1845 in the Republic of Texas.
The Union Baptist Association was a Baptist group formed in 1840 which
took in the Baptist churches of south central and southeastern Texas.
George Washington Baines was moderator of this group for the years
1851, 1852, 1853, 1854, 1855, 1857, 1862. George W. Baines preached
the introductory sermon at the 1851 meeting in Washington, Texas. He
preached the missionary sermon at the 1860 meeting in Bellville.
The Union Baptist Association was the first of many such regional
associations which worked under the Texas Baptist State Convention.
THE TEXAS BAPTIST: THE FIRST BAPTIST NEWSPAPER IN TEXAS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In 1852 George Washington Baines and his family moved to Anderson,
Texas which was about thirty miles northeast of Independence, Texas.
He was the minister of the Baptist church in Anderson. The Texas
Baptist State Convention began a Baptist newspaper at Anderson, Texas
in January 1855 with George W. Baines as founding editor. This was
the first Baptist newspaper in the state of Texas.
George W. Baines remained as editor until shortly after the Civil
War started when the paper folded due to the shortages caused by the
war.
Most of the issues of this paper are available to be seen on microfilm
at the Carroll Library on the Baylor University campus in Waco, Texas.
There were four large pages with fine print to each monthly issue.
BAYLOR UNIVERSITY
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Anson Jones b.Massachusetts M.1789-1858
Page .15. 02-APR-2007
Robert Emmett Bledsoe Baylor b.Kentucky M.1793-1873
Rufus C. Burleson b.Alabama M.1823-1901
William Carey Crane b.Virginia M.1816-1885
Henry Lee Graves M.1813-
On 01-FEB-1845 Anson Jones, President of the Republic of Texas,
signed into law the charter for a Baptist university which was to be
named Baylor University after the prominent Baptist and Texas Judge R.
E. B. Baylor. The Union Baptist Association sponsored Baylor
University and controlled it through the Baptist Education Society.
Until 1886 Baylor University was at Independence, Texas which was in
Washington County and which had been settled in 1824. In 1886
Baylor University was merged with Waco University and moved to Waco,
Texas. Starting in 1850 the Texas Baptist State Convention controlled
the university by appointing the board of trustee members.
George Washington Baines served on the board of trustees of Baylor
University from 17-JUN-1851 until 01-FEB-1859. On 17-JUL-1861 he was
named president of Baylor University and professor of natural science.
The university was going through an extremely difficult period because
the previous president, R. C. Burleson, had resigned along with
many faculty members due to a controversy.
This controversy, which consisted of a severe disagreement among
Baptists regarding female education, came to a head in May of 1861
when R. C. Burleson resigned. Many Texas Baptists of that time did
not favor higher education for women. Higher education at that time
meant education above the eighth grade.
George W. Baines and his wife Melissa ran a boarding house in
their home for women students of Baylor University when they lived at
Independence, Texas. He was a strong advocate of education for women.
In addition to these difficulties at Baylor University, it must be
kept in mind that by this time Texas had seceded from the United
States and was part of the Confederate States of America.
George W. Baines agreed to serve as president of Baylor University
for one calendar year at a salary of not less than sixteen hundred
dollars per year. On 24-JUN-1862 he gave to the board of trustees his
letter of resignation in spite of the fact that the board wanted him
to stay on as president. He had always been in ill health and the load
on him was too much since he not only was president but also taught
the younger boys who were in preparation for college as well as
teaching a full load of college classes.
At that time education at Baylor University included every thing above
sixth grade. Because of extremely difficult circumstances George W.
Baines was the teacher for the grades seven through twelve for
seven to eight hours each day in addition to preparing for and
teaching in the college level courses and in addition to being
president of the university as a whole.
George W. Baines considered himself to be a preacher and not a
university president. The board of trustees procured another teacher
to take part of the load off of President Baines. He then stayed on
until William Carey Crane took over on 29-AUG-1863.
Page .16. 02-APR-2007
After the Civil War George W. Baines became president of the board
of trustees of Baylor Female College which became separate from Baylor
University in 1866. Today this college is Mary Hardin-Baylor
University and is located in Belton, Texas.
His strong support of higher education for women has continued down
through the Baines family. Two of the nieces of George Washington
Baines were the first women in the state of Texas to have teaching
certificates. They were Nancy Sophronia Baines Collins and Martha
Julia Ann Baines Smith.
TEXAS BAPTISTS AND SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The year 1879 brought a tremendous controversy to the Texas Baptists.
There were strong forces in favor of the Baptists uniting with several
other major denominations to seek large amounts of free land from the
state for the purpose of furthering the higher educational
institutions of those denominations. The amount of land being
discussed was forty thousand acres to be given to each denomination.
The major backer of this proposal was the highly regarded Dr. William
Carey Crane who was president of Baylor University at that time.
In an article in the TEXAS BAPTIST HERALD for 08-MAR-1879 George
Washington Baines discussed this issue and told of the resolution
of the dilemma before the Texas Baptist Convention. He wrote that it
seemed that the convention would definitely follow the renowned Dr.
William Carey Crane, when one man stood up and faced the
convention. That one man related that the land grant proposal was very
much against the well known Baptist platform of true religious
liberty. That one man explained to the convention delegates how that
proposal violated the principle of separation of church and state
which had been so important to Baptists. George Washington Baines
wrote that when the issue then came to a vote nine voted in favor of
the proposal while ninety voted against it. Reverend Baines wrote
that he knew what happened at the convention because he himself was
there.
The conclusion of the story is that it was George Washington
Baines, himself, who was the opposition speaker at the Texas
Baptist Convention who alone convinced the delegates to defeat the
land grant proposal.
LATER YEARS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In 1864 George W. Baines moved his family to Fairfield, Texas in
Freestone County southeast of Dallas to minister at the
Baptist Church there. Additionally, in 1864-1866 he ministered at
Butler Baptist Church near Fairfield, Texas.
He and his family lived two and one half miles west of Fairfield. His
mother, Mary McCoy Baines lived there with them until her death in
1864. His wife Melissa Ann Butler Baines died on 21-JAN-1865. She
is buried in the Fairfield Cemetery in an unmarked grave.
George W. Baines married Miss Cynthia W. Williams on
Page .17. 02-APR-2007
13-JUN-1865 in Fairfield, Texas. She was born on 12-OCT-1831 in
Chatham County, North Carolina and died in Salado, Texas on
04-FEB-1878. Henry L. Graves who had been the first president of
Baylor University officiated at the wedding in Fairfield in
Freestone County, Texas.
In his later years, George Washington Baines lived in Belton and
in Salado. Both of these small towns are southwest of Waco in Bell
Co, Texas. He lived with his daughter Annie Melissa Baines until
his death. He is buried at Salado, Texas.
CARROLL LIBRARY AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In Waco, Texas at Baylor University in the Carroll Library is the
Texas Collection which is a collection of books, documents and
artifacts pertinent to Texas history. On display are two paintings of
George Washington Baines. On of these is by the foremost early
Texas artist Henry Arthur McArdle who taught at Baylor Female
College starting in 1869. McArdle was born in Belfast, Ireland and
lived from 09-JUN-1836 until 16-FEB-1908. This painting in 1957 was
valued at five thousand dollars.
Who: Henry Arthur McArdle b.Ireland M.1836-1908
Other pictures of George W. Baines are in the possession of that
library. The Carroll Library has many of the personal effects of
President Baines including his original ordination papers which were
signed by his father, Reverend Thomas Baines.
In the summer of 1957 three of the daughters of Charles Creth
Smith and the author visited the Carroll Library on the Baylor
University Campus. After carefully viewing the two paintings of George
Washington Baines, it was the opinion of those three ladies that
without his beard George Washington Baines looked remarkably like
their father, Charles Creth Smith, who was a great nephew to
George W. Baines. The ladies were Neva Eugene Smith, Crethie
Munro Smith Mashburn and Leola May Smith Ballard.
SAM HOUSTON
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Who was Sam Houston? Here is a list of positions he held.
1. U.S. Representative from Tennessee.
2. Governor of Tennessee.
3. Ambassador for the Cherokee Nation to the United States.
4. General of the Army for Texas Independence.
5. President of the Republic of Texas.
6. U.S Senator from Texas.
7. Governor of Texas.
In many books about Sam Houston there are references to his
friendship with George Washington Baines who for a time was the
minister to the Sam Houston family at Independence, Texas after 1851.
The best account regarding this friendship is in the book SAM
HOUSTON'S WIFE, A BIOGRAPHY OF MARGARET LEA HOUSTON by William
Seale which is listed in the bibliography.
The most amazing event regarding Sam Houston and George W.
Page .18. 02-APR-2007
Baines is well worth retelling. It occurred after the Baines
family had moved from Independence, Texas about thirty miles northeast
to Anderson, Texas. Those who believe in the Providence of God may
find additional meaning here. Margaret Lea Houston had for many
years been trying to get her husband, Sam Houston, to be baptized.
Finally, one evening in November of 1854, in a discussion with his
wife Sam Houston expressed his Christian faith. Upon her asking if
he would be baptized, Sam Houston put her off with the remark that
he would think about it. At that very moment Margaret Lea Houston
glanced out the window and saw Reverend George Washington Baines
ambling by on horseback. She immediately ran out of the house and
caught his attention. He agreed to stop and spend the night at the
Houston house. The next morning after breakfast Sam Houston
accompanied George W. Baines on his way on business to Brenham,
Texas. Sam Houston had very serious doubts about whether he should
be baptized. Reverend Baines was able to reassure him that baptism
would be proper in view of Sam Houston's Christian faith.
Consequently, on the 19-NOV-1854 Sam Houston was baptized, not by
George Washington Baines, but rather by Rufus C. Burleson who
was then the minister at the Independence Baptist Church.
Several years prior to the Civil War George Washington Baines
bought a young man who was a Slave from Sam Houston. George W.
Baines gave Sam Houston a note that he would pay the money out
by installments. After the Civil War was over and slavery was
abolished, at a time when Mrs. Houston who was then a widow, since
Sam Houston had died in 1863, was having severe financial
problems, George W. Baines paid her one hundred dollars on his
note.
CHILDREN OF GEORGE WASHINGTON BAINES
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The following are the children of George Washington Baines and his
first wife Melissa Ann Butler. He did not have children by his
second wife.
Thomas Nealy Baines CSA \GTGT M.1841-1861
William Martin Baines CSA \GTGW M.1842-1912
Mary Elizabeth Baines \GTGM F.1845-1845
Joseph Wilson Baines CSA \GTGJ M.1846-1906
George Washington Baines, II \GTGG M.1848-1923
James O'Neal Baines \GTGE M.1852-1852
Annie Melissa Baines \GTGA F.1854-1897
Taliaferro Baines \GTGL M.1859-1870
Johnnie Paxton Baines \GTGO M.1863-1865
The middle name of Thomas Nealy Baines came from the first name of
his mother's father, Nealy Butler who lived from 1796 until 1880.
Nealy Butler M.1796-1880
Who: Daniel Wilson M. -
Who: Joseph Baines Wilson M.1852-1940
Who: Willard Wilson M. -
James E. Paxton 'Baptist minister M.1820-1876
Robert H. Taliaferro 'Baptist minister M.1824-1875
In Crooked Creek, Arkansas George Washington Baines was a good
friend of Daniel Wilson who during the Civil War was murdered by
Page .19. 02-APR-2007
bushwhackers. Daniel Wilson named one of his sons Joseph Baines
Wilson whereas George Washington Baines named one of his sons
Joseph Wilson Baines. Joseph Baines Wilson lived from 1852
until 1940. Willard Wilson of the Boone County Historical
Society is the grandson of Joseph Baines Wilson. When Willard
Wilson was a boy in Harrison, Boone Co, Arkansas he attended
the Baines School located south of there on State Highway Seven. This
school was named for the Baines family which lived nearby.
Johnnie Paxton Baines was named after James E. Paxton who
lived from 05-OCT-1820 until 09-MAY-1876 and was a notable Baptist
minister in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas.
Taliaferro Baines was named after the very prominent early Texas
Baptist minister, Robert H. Taliaferro. Robert H. Taliaferro
was born on 19-OCT-1824 in Kentucky and died on 19-NOV-1875 in Austin.
He came to Texas in 1847 and was one of the major forces among the
early Texas Baptists.
**********************************************************************
CHAPTER: 007: Joseph Benjamin Baines CSA \GTO M.1820-1903
**********************************************************************
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Joseph Benjamin Baines postmaster CSA \GTO M.1820-1903
Born: 27-SEP-1820 Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa Co, Alabama
Died: 05-DEC-1903 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Buried: Fairlawn Cemetery, Oklahoma City, unmarked
Father: Thomas Baines \GT M.1787-1836
Mother: Mary McCoy F.1794-1864
Spouse: Mary Frances Beller F.1823-1912
Married: 01-JAN-1840 Carroll Co, AR
Born: 29-DEC-1823 Huntsville, Alabama
Died: 1912
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Joseph Benjamin Baines was the youngest son of Thomas Baines
and Mary McCoy. He was the younger brother of William Creth
Baines who was the grandfather of both Will Baines and Charles
Creth Smith. Joseph Benjamin Baines was born in Tuscaloosa,
Tuscaloosa Co, Alabama on 27-SEP-1820 and died in Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma Co, Oklahoma on 05-DEC-1903 at the home of his daughter
Pinkie S. Baines Sanders and her husband John R. Sanders
located at 1221 Northwest Tenth Street.
The wife of Joseph Benjamin Baines was Mary Frances Beller who
lived from 29-DEC-1822 until 1912. The book by Rebekah Baines
Johnson provided the above two dates.
Joseph Benjamin Baines and his wife moved to Oklahoma City in 1900
from Harrison, Boone Co, Arkansas. They attended the First Baptist
Church in Oklahoma City.
IN ARKANSAS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Joseph Benjamin Baines moved from Tuscaloosa, Alabama to
Carroll County, Arkansas in 1837 probably at the time his older
brother George Washington Baines moved there. G. W. Baines
Page .20. 02-APR-2007
only stayed there about seven years even though in 1841 he served in
the Arkansas House of Representatives. Joseph Benjamin Baines
stayed in Arkansas until he moved to Oklahoma City in 1900.
Joseph Benjamin Baines was postmaster of Crooked Creek, Arkansas
which today is Harrison, Arkansas in far north central Arkansas from
1852 until 1867. At the time this was in Carroll County. In 1869
the eastern part of Carroll County was made into Boone County
with Harrison as the county seat. In 1869 Joseph Benjamin Baines
joined Ashley Lodge of the Masons in Harrison, Arkansas.
THE CIVIL WAR
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In the War for Southern Independence Joseph B. Baines and three of
his sons served in the Confederate Army. They were in Company D of the
Sixteenth Arkansas Infantry (Mounted) which was organized in
Carroll County, Arkansas. The three sons who served with Joseph
Baines were Thomas Baines, Benjamin Baines and George
Marshall Baines. On 07-MAR-1862 the Sixteenth Arkansas fought
valiantly on the far west side at the Battle of Pea Ridge which took
place in the northwestern corner of Arkansas.
In this battle the Sixteenth Arkansas Infantry recovered the body of
General Ben McCulloch who died in this battle. Ben McCulloch
had been a pioneer Texan who had fought at the Battle of San Jacinto
in 1836 at which Texas won independence from Mexico.
Who: General Ben McCulloch b.TN CSA M.1811-1862
Who: General Ulysses S. Grant USA M.1822-1885
In 1863 the Sixteenth Arkansas was at Port Hudson fifty miles south of
Vicksburg, Mississippi when General Ulysses S. Grant laid siege to
both strongholds. On 09-JUL-1863 Port Hudson surrendered to General
Grant two days after Vicksburg surrendered. Very likely this ended
the participation of Joseph Baines and his three sons in the War
for Southern Independence.
Back home in Crooked Creek which today is Harrison, Arkansas things
got really bad when the Confederates in northern Arkansas had to
withdraw south to the Arkansas River during 1863. Union soldiers and
renegade bushwhackers ran amok in northern Arkansas. Union soldiers
burned Berryville, Huntsville, Crooked Creek and other towns. Hardly a
house was left standing in all of what is today southern Boone
County. Most likely the Baines family moved south at this time. It is
known that Mary McCoy Baines, the mother of Joseph Benjamin
Baines, was moved to Fairfield, Texas by her oldest son, George
Washington Baines.
HUNTING THE BAINES FAMILY IN HARRISON, ARKANSAS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr Henry Vance Kirby M. -
Virginia Phillips F. -
Much of the information for this section was provided by Henry Vance
Kirby who is a retired medical doctor. He was eighty-three years
old when he provided this information and had been retired for three
years from fifty-four years of practice in the town of Harrison as a
Page .21. 02-APR-2007
family physician. He was working as a volunteer for the Boone
County Historical Museum located at Central and Cherry in Harrison.
Virginia Phillips of the Boone County Historical Society
provided much information also.
The Baines family lived just south of what is today Harrison, Arkansas
just to the west of Arkansas Highway Seven. There was a school house
called the Baines School. Not far west from the Baines School was the
Baines Community. The Baines School was located on the southwest
corner of the intersection of Harnness Road and Arkansas Highway
Seven. This location is now occupied by a residence. The Baines
Community was west on Harnness Road on the north side of the road just
west of North Tommy Street.
It is believed that all of the Baines family in the area used the
Adriholt Cemetery which is located just north of the intersection of
Cooper Street and Unwer Street. To get to this location from Harnness
Road go north on Tommy Street to Cooper Street and turn right towards
the east. Then go until Unwer Street comes up on the south. The
cemetery is located under the house just to the north of this
intersection. The monuments in the cemetery were broken up and the
area was turned into a residential neighborhood probably in the
sixties. There seems at this time no way to know for sure who is
buried in this cemetery since no known catalog of it exists. It is
most unfortunate that this cemetery was allowed to be desecrated in
this fashion and that it remains so today.
FAIRLAWN CEMETERY IN OKLAHOMA CITY
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Joseph Benjamin Baines is buried in an unmarked grave at Fairlawn
Cemetery in Oklahoma City on the same half lot with three of his
children and one of his grandsons.
Buried on the same half lot is Joseph's son Wellman McCoy Baines
who lived from 24-DEC-1860 until 11-JAN-1914. He always went by
"McCoy" or "Coy". McCoy Baines lived in Oklahoma City at 1221
Northwest Tenth. Also buried there is Joseph's daughter Anna
Baines Clanton who lived in Lawton and who died on 01-JUN-1914 at
age fifty-six. Also there is Blount W. Baines who lived in Lawton
and who died on 02-AUG-1926 at age sixty. Blount Baines was living
in Oklahoma City when his father, Joseph Baines died on
05-DEC-1903.
Finally there is a son of Wellman McCoy Baines named Marshall
McCoy Baines who lived from 06-JAN-1907 until 27-FEB-1976.
Marshall Baines is the only one to have a gravestone.
Also buried in Fairlawn is Pinkie S. Baines Sanders with her
husband John R. Sanders and son J. Noble Sanders. Only the
graves of the husband and son are marked. Pinkie S. Baines was a
daughter of Joseph Benjamin Baines.
Page .22. 02-APR-2007
**********************************************************************
CHAPTER: 008: Charles Silas Baines CSA \GTWC M.1839-1910
**********************************************************************
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Silas Baines "Charles or Silas" CSA \GTWC M.1839-1910
Born: 09-MAR-1839 Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa Co, Alabama
Died: 25-SEP-1910 Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches Co, Texas
Father: William Creth Baines \GTW M.1814-1895
Mother: Catherine A. Turner F.1822-1882
Spouse1: Harriett E. Hoffman "Harriett" F.1843-1868
Born: 1843 Tennessee
Died: OCT-1868 Denton, Denton Co, Texas
Father: Joseph H. Hoffman b.Tennessee M.1812-
Mother: Sarah M. Richardson b.Tennessee F.1814-
Spouse2: Georgia ?? F.1848-
Married: before 1870
Born: 1848
Spouse3: Augusta Bryan F.1847-1937
Married: 1874
Born: 16-OCT-1847 Alabama
Died: 09-JAN-1937
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Silas Baines was the oldest of the children of William
Creth Baines and his wife Catherine A. Turner. He was the
father of Will Baines. He was a brother to Martha Julia Ann
Baines and, thereby, was an uncle to Charles Creth Smith.
According to Rebekah Baines Johnson in her book A FAMILY ALBUM
Charles Silas Baines was born in Alabama on 09-MAR-1839 and died
in Denton, Texas on 25-SEP-1910. It is believed that Charles Silas
Baines actually died in Nacogdoches, Texas since he is listed as
living there on the 1910 Census.
Charles Silas Baines was a private in Captain T. W. Daugherty's
Company A, 29th Texas Cavalry which was organized in Denton County
in 1862 in support of the Confederacy.
When the Civil War was over in 1865 Charles Silas Baines returned
to Denton, Texas and married Harriett E. Hoffman. On 26-APR-1866
their son, William Joseph Baines, was born. Through out his life
William Joseph Baines nearly always went by Will Baines. In
1868 when Will was still a baby, his mother, Harriett E. Hoffman
Baines, died.
Charles Silas Baines remarried after the death of his first wife.
His second wife's name according to the 1870 Census was Georgia ??
and they lived in Shelby County, Texas. He worked as a merchant in
Shelby County which is in east Texas next to Louisiana. The second
wife of Charles Silas Baines died between 1870 and 1874.
AUGUSTA BRYAN AND LATER
----------------------------------------------------------------------
After his second wife died Charles Silas Baines remarried again.
His third wife was named Augusta Bryan. According to the book by
Rebekah Baines Johnson, Augusta Bryan lived from 16-OCT-1847
until 09-JAN-1937. The father of Augusta Bryan was born in Alabama
and her mother was born in South Carolina.
Page .23. 02-APR-2007
On the 1910 Census for Nacogdoches County, Texas Charles Silas
Baines, his wife Augusta and their daughter Maude Baines are
listed as living in the town of Nacogdoches on the east side of the
Douglas-Henderson Road.
Charles Silas Baines and his third wife, Augusta, had two
children. The first was Link Hayden Baines who worked as a
pharmacist in Houston. Link had a daughter who lived in the Dallas
area.
Link Hayden Baines was named after two very prominent Texas
Baptists. J. B. Link was for twenty years editor of "The Texas
Baptist Herald" a notable successor to "The Texas Baptist" which was
published by George Washington Baines. J. B. Link was very
strong on education among Texas Baptists. He died in 1894. Dr. S. A.
Hayden became the publisher of the later version of "The Texas
Baptist" which George Washington Baines had started in 1856.
Who: J. B. Link M. -1894
Who: Dr. S. A. Hayden M. -1918
The second child of C. S. Baines and his wife Augusta was Maude
Baines who was born in 1882.
Rebekah Baines Johnson gives 25-SEP-1910 as the date that Charles
Silas Baines died.
**********************************************************************
CHAPTER: 009: Nancy S. Baines Collins \GTWN F.1846-
**********************************************************************
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Nancy Sophronia Baines "Nannie" teacher \GTWN F.1846-
Born: 24-AUG-1846 Panola Co, Texas
Father: William Creth Baines \GTW M.1814-1895
Mother: Catherine A. Turner F.1822-1882
Spouse: Dr. John H. Collins physician M.1844-
Married: before 1870
Born: 1844 Tennessee
Nancy was still living in 1895.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Nancy Sophronia Baines was born on 24-AUG-1846. She went by the
name Nannie. Her parents were William Creth Baines and Catherine
A. Turner Baines. She was an aunt to Will Baines and to
Charles Creth Smith. She married Dr. John H. Collins of Denton
prior to 1870. He was born about 1844 in Tennessee. She and her
husband had two children, a boy and a girl. The boy was William D.
Collins who was born about 1871. The girl was Virginia Collins
who was born about 1875. Sometime after 1875 and before 1880 the
husband, Dr. John H. Collins, died leaving Nancy Sophronia
Baines Collins a widow with two children to raise.
She is listed on the 1880 Census as a seamstress living in Denton next
door to her parents, William Creth Baines and Catherine A.
Turner Baines. Nancy Sophronia Baines Collins lived at least
until 1895 because she is listed as an heir on her father's will which
Page .24. 02-APR-2007
was written then. It is not known where she lived at that time.
Her nephew William Joseph Baines, who went by the name Will
Baines, lived with her when he was growing up. In his later years
he lived in Hennessey, Kingfisher Co, Oklahoma and owned the Star
Mill and Elevator Company there. His mother, Harriett E. Hoffman
Baines, had died in 1868 when he was eighteen months old. His father,
Charles Silas Baines, had remarried and had moved to Shelby
County in eastern Texas. On the 1880 Census Will Baines is listed
as living with his Aunt Nancy S. Collins. His last name is mistakenly
given on that Census as Collins. In later years Will Baines
occasionally mentioned that he had lived with his Aunt Nanny.
Apparently he did not like living in her family because it is known
that he would "run away" to his Grandmother's house when his
grandmother was still living. She, of course, was Catherine A.
Turner Baines who died in 1882. He often mentioned his Aunt Mattie
too, but he liked her. She, of course, was Martha Julia Ann Baines
Smith who was the mother of Charles Creth Smith.
Nancy Sophronia Baines and her sister, Martha Julia Ann
Baines, were the first women in the state of Texas to have
teacher's certificates.
**********************************************************************
CHAPTER: 010: Martha Julia A. Baines Smith \GTWA F.1851-1930
Updated 2004/07/18
**********************************************************************
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Martha Julia Ann Baines "Mattie" \GTWA F.1851-1930
Born: 16-SEP-1851 Denton County, Texas
Died: 12-MAR-1930 Vernon, Wilbarger Co, Texas
Buried: Eastview Mem Pk, Vernon, Wilbarger Co, TX,marked
Father: William Creth Baines \GTW M.1814-1895
Mother: Catherine A. Turner F.1822-1882
Spouse: James Calvin Smith "Jim" grocer, drayman M.1850-1929
Born: 24-MAR-1850 Cannon County, Tennessee
Died: 12-MAY-1929 Vernon, Wilbarger Co, Texas
Buried: Eastview Mem Pk, Vernon, Wilbarger Co, TX,marked
Father: John Calvin Smith M.1830-1901
Mother: Elizabeth Caroline Fagan F.1831-1863
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Martha Julia Baines, who always went by Mattie, was the daughter
of William Creth Baines and his wife Catherine A. Turner
Baines. Mattie was born on 16-SEP-1851 most likely at Old Alton which
was the second attempted location for the county seat for Denton
County, Texas. Old Alton was about five miles south and some east of
the location of Denton. She was an aunt to Will Baines and was the
mother of Charles Creth Smith.
There is some doubt about her middle initial which most sources give
as a "J" while some give "A". If her middle name was Julia Ann from
her Aunt Julia Ann Baines Hill then both letters would have
justification. The birth date of 16-SEP-1851 fits the 1900 and 1910
Censuses best out of the various birthdates for her.
HOW MARTHA JULIA ANN BAINES GOT TO KNOW JAMES CALVIN SMITH
Page .25. 02-APR-2007
----------------------------------------------------------------------
One of the most interesting stories which Martha Julia Ann Baines
Smith told was the following.
When she was a girl the Methodist minister's house burned down. She
talked her parents into inviting the Methodist minister and his family
to stay with them until the Methodist minister and his family could
find another place to stay. She had her eye on the Methodist
minister's older son who was tall and thin and very good looking. He
was also very polite. She and her mother walked over to the burned
down house and invited the Methodist minister and his family to bring
what was left and come and stay with them until another house could be
located.
Martha Julia Ann Baines' father William Creth Baines, was a
founding elder of the Denton Baptist Church which today is the First
Baptist Church of Denton, Texas. Of course the rest of the story is
that the Methodist minister's son was James Calvin Smith who
became Martha Julia Ann Baines husband. The Methodist minister was
the minister of what is today the First Methodist Church of Denton,
Texas.
This event happened in Denton, Denton Co, Texas about 1868. Martha
Julia Ann Baines Smith related this story to her grand daughter
Leola May Smith Ballard many times, with great relish each time,
in the summer of 1925 when Leola May Smith stayed two months with
her Grandparents Smith.
Today, it is known that the William Creth Baines family lived on
the south side of West Hickory Street a block or so from the town
square. It is also known that the John Calvin Smith family lived a
block or so south on Elm Street on the west side. The walk from the
Baines house to the Smith house must have been only six to eight
hundred feet which was nothing to folks in 1868. Later, the Smith
family found another house on East Sycamore Street.
James Calvin Smith, who was the father of Charles Creth Smith,
was born on 24-MAR-1850 in Cannon County, Tennessee. His father
was John Calvin Smith who was born in Tennessee and who was a
minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. His mother was
Elizabeth Caroline Fagan Smith who was born in Rutherford
County, Tennessee on 23-DEC-1831. Her father, Robert Lanier Fagan, was
a War of 1812 veteran and was also a minister in the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South. His father was John S. Fagan who was wounded
at the Battle of King's Mountain on 07-OCT-1780 fighting against the
British.
About 1851 the John Calvin Smith family moved to Huntsville,
Arkansas which is just south of Eureka Springs about twenty-six miles.
James Calvin Smith lived in Arkansas until about 1862 when his
family moved to Denton, Texas most likely to get out of the way of the
Civil War which was raging furiously in northwestern Arkansas at that
time.
James Calvin Smith and his wife, Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith
lived in Denton, Denton Co, Texas until sometime after 1895 when
Page .26. 02-APR-2007
they moved to the town of Gordon in south Palo-Pinto County. They
were listed in Palo-Pinto County on the 1900 Census. Living next
door to them was Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith's brother James
Henry Baines and his family. Sometime before 1910 and after 1900
the Smith family moved to Vernon, Texas which is the county seat of
Wilbarger County.
James Calvin Smith worked all of his life in the grocery business
and in the delivery business.
RELATIVES OF MARTHA JULIA ANN BAINES SMITH
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Leola May Smith remembered her grandmother, Martha Julia Ann
Baines Smith, telling about her Uncle George Washington Baines
who had been president of Baylor University from 1861 to 1863. She was
very proud of the fact that her Uncle George had been such a
distinguished Texas Baptist. Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith
remembered her Uncle George very well even though he had died
forty-three years previously. Her side of the family was well educated
for those times. Now it is known that Martha Julia Ann Baines
Smith's other uncle, Joseph Benjamin Baines, who lived in
Harrison, Boone Co, Arkansas had a distinguished family too. Her
father William Creth Baines and her mother Catherine A. Turner
Baines with their children had the first residence in Denton.
It is apparent that Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith knew her
Grandmother Mary McCoy Baines because she told her grandchildren
so much about her grandmother. Most likely during the Civil War Mary
McCoy Baines visited in Denton when she moved from Crooked Creek,
Arkansas to Fairfield, Texas. Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith and
her sister, Nancy Sophronia Baines Collins, were the first women
in the state of Texas to have teacher's certificates.
Martha Julia Baines Smith kept up with her family diligently by
correspondence. She always signed her name as Mattie Baines Smith.
Martha Julia Baines was considered by her grand daughters to be
unusually kind. She and her husband raised an orphaned Black girl in
addition to their own three sons and the three daughters of their
youngest son. Crethie Munro Smith Mashburn kept up with this Black
lady into the 1920s.
**********************************************************************
CHAPTER: 011: Belle Baines Davis \GTWB F.1859-1937
Updated 2006/10/15, 2006/09/13, 2004/07/18
**********************************************************************
It is believed that Belle Baines was an illegitimate daughter of
William Creth Baines and a woman who was one of his Slaves. On the
Census 1870, Belle is listed as eleven years old, born in Texas,
illiterate, working as a housekeeper, a mulatto, and living with Nancy
Sophronia Baines Collins and her children. A mulatto was generally
considered to be a person who was part Black and part white.
Nancy Sophronia Baines Collins, of course, was a daughter
of William Creth Baines. She had been with her sister, Martha
Julia Ann Baines Smith, the first two women in the State of
Page .27. 02-APR-2007
Texas to have teaching certificates.
Belle's daughter, Thelma Davis, in her later years told Steve
Spencer that Belle Baines was from Denton, Texas, was
descended from the Baines family, and was related to Lyndon Baines
Johnson. Thelma Davis was the family historian for the
descendants of Belle Baines and Joseph Davis. Thelma related
that Belle was the daughter of the man who owned her mother. At this
time, nothing is known about Belle's mother except that she had a
one other daughter, Jane Baines.
Jane Baines b.Alabama \GTWF F.1852-
Jane Baines was listed on the 1870 Census as being Black,
eighteen years old, born in Alabama, illiterate, and working as a
washer woman. Jane was living at the time with the Albert Williams
family. They were a Black family living just outside the town of
Denton, Texas. Since the William Creth Baines family moved from
Alabama to the Republic of Texas about 1840, it seems almost certain
that Jane was born in the State of Texas. Texas became a state in
1845. It appears very likely at this time that Jane Baines was
also a daughter of William Creth Baines. A photo exists of the
sister of Belle Baines which was mailed from Wellington,
Collingsworth Co, Texas to Belle at Vinita, Craig Co,
Oklahoma. It seems almost certain that this photo is of Jane
Baines. Wellington is straight west fifty miles of Mangum,
Oklahoma which is in far southwest Oklahoma.
Belle Baines married Joseph Davis on 03-AUG-1876 in
Denton Co, Texas. Joseph Davis was a Cherokee Freedman.
His Cherokee Freeman roll number was 3389. This means that he
was part Black and part Cherokee and had been a Slave of the
Cherokee Indians.
Joseph Davis was listed on the 1880 Census as a mulatto who
worked as a barber. He was born in Missouri in 1850. His father was
born in Virginia. His mother was born in Missouri. Joseph Davis is
listed with his wife Belle Baines Davis on the 1880 Census living
in Denton, Denton Co, Texas with their two children of that time.
Belle Baines and her husband Joseph Davis had eleven
children. Their children were also eligible for Cherokee Freedman roll
numbers. Joseph died in 1911 and Belle in 1937. They met and married
in Denton, Denton Co, Texas, and lived there until at least 1880.
It is believed that they lived in Vinita, Craig Co, Oklahoma in
1910. In fact, it is believed that Joseph Davis was from Vinita,
Oklahoma. Also, it is believed that the last nine of their children
were born there. In 1910 Belle Baines Davis lived at 223 South,
Vinita, Oklahoma.
Much of the information about Belle Baines Davis and her family
was provided by her great grandson, Steve Spencer.
Page .28. 02-APR-2007
**********************************************************************
CHAPTER: 012: Will Baines of Hennessey, OK \GTWCW M.1866-1938
Updated 2004/07/18
**********************************************************************
----------------------------------------------------------------------
William Joseph Baines "Will" miller \GTWCW M.1866-1938
Born: 26-APR-1866 Denton, Denton Co, Texas
Died: 20-FEB-1938 Hennessey, Kingfisher Co, Oklahoma
Buried: Hennessey Cemetery, Kingfisher Co, OK, marked
Mother: Harriett E. Hoffman F.1843-1868
Father: Charles Silas Baines CSA \GTWC M.1839-1910
Spouse: Lillie Imogene Haden "Lillie" F.1872-1950
Married: 24-DEC-1889 Ft. Worth, Tarrant Co, Texas
Born: 11-NOV-1872 Jacksonville, Cherokee Co, Texas
Died: 19-MAR-1950 Enid, Garfield Co, Oklahoma
Buried: Hennessey Cemetery, Kingfisher Co, OK, marked
Father: William Alex Haden CSA M.1841-1900
Mother: Sue Turner F. -
----------------------------------------------------------------------
William Joseph Baines of Hennessey, Kingfisher Co, Oklahoma
was a first cousin to Charles Creth Smith. He went by Will
Baines. His father was Charles Silas Baines, who was a brother
of Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith, who was the mother of Charles
Creth Smith. The mother of Will Baines was Harriett
Hoffman. Will Baines was born in Denton, Denton Co, Texas
on 26-APR-1866 and died on the 20-FEB-1938 in Hennessey,
Kingfisher Co, Oklahoma. His wife was Lillie Imogene Haden and
she lived from 11-NOV-1872 until 19-MAR-1950. The Hennessey Cemetery
located on a hill northwest of Hennessey provided many of the dates
regarding Will's family.
WILL BAINES WHEN HE WAS A YOUNG BOY
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Will was born in Denton, Denton Co, Texas on 26-APR-1866 which was
about one year after the Civil War was over. Will's father Charles
Silas Baines fought in the Civil War as a private in Company A,
29th Texas Cavalry.
When Will was eighteen months old his mother Harriett E. Hoffman
Baines died. She had been born in Tennessee She had blond hair and
blue eyes. She is probably buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Denton. Her
parents were Joseph H. Hoffman and Sarah M. Richardson who had
come to Fannin Co, Texas from White Co, Tennessee about 1853.
See the chart about her father's family.
Will Baines was sent to live with his Aunt Nannie who was Nancy
Sophronia Baines Collins. Sometime prior to 1870 she married Dr.
John H. Collins. John and Nancy Collins had two children: William
D. Collins who was born in 1871 and Virginia Collins who was
born in 1875. She and her sister, Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith,
were the first women in the state of Texas to have teaching
certificates.
Little Will did not like living with his aunt Nanny so he kept running
away to live with his grandmother. His grandmother was Catherine A.
Turner Baines who was also the grandmother of Charles Creth
Page .29. 02-APR-2007
Smith. It is believed that Little Will's grandmother lived very
close if not next door. In later years he sometimes mentioned his
other aunt, Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith whom he called Aunt
Mattie. All of this happened in Denton, Denton Co Texas.
Finally the family gave up and let Will live with his Grandparents
William Creth Baines and Catherine A. Turner Baines. Will
lived with them until he was fourteen when most likely his
grandmother's health declined. She died just two years later.
WILL WAS A COWBOY
----------------------------------------------------------------------
After his grandmother died Will was packed up and sent off to live
with his dad, Charles Silas Baines, who was living in east Texas
and had remarried. Will did not like this arrangement so he went to
the western part of Texas and worked as a cook on the cattle drives
which were still being made in the eighteen eighties. For a while he
lived and worked in Coleman County, Texas. He joined the Baptist
Church at Alvarado, Texas which was south of Fort Worth about this
time.
In the years just before 1890 he worked for L. J. Warren and Company
in Hillsboro in Hill County, Texas. This company was in the meat
processing and barbecue business. Hillsboro is north of Waco along the
road from Fort Worth. Will Baines was working for this company
when he began courting Lillie Imogene Haden whom he married on
24-DEC-1889. Later he worked for the Cameron Milling Co. in Denton.
This is how he entered his lifelong profession of milling at which he
was so successful in later years.
WILL AND LILLIE BAINES
----------------------------------------------------------------------
On 24-DEC-1889 Will married Lillie Imogene Haden in Fort Worth,
Texas. Will Baines and his wife Lillie had a number of children
who are discussed later in this chapter.
Will worked for the Cameron Milling Co. in Denton. This company bought
the flour mill in Kingfisher, Oklahoma Territory and sent Will up to
manage it in 1900. Kingfisher was on the old Chisholm Trail.
There were a lot of Indians who farmed around Kingfisher in those
early days. When they took their wheat to one of the other mills the
amount of the wheat would be estimated. When they took their wheat to
the mill run by Will their wheat would be weighed. It did not take
long for the Indians to realize that they got more money from the mill
managed by Will. It was in this fashion that Will prospered at the
milling business.
Will and Lillie had a Black lady who worked for them as their
housekeeper for many years. They regarded her very highly. When she
died Will and Lillie were the only non-Black persons at her funeral.
In 1905 Will and another man bought the mill in Hennessey which was
just eighteen miles north of Kingfisher also along the old Chisholm
Trail. Hennessey had been part of the Unassigned Lands which was
opened by the famous Oklahoma Land Run on 22-APR-1889 to settlement.
Page .30. 02-APR-2007
About 1925 Will bought out the other man's interest in the flour mill.
ROY BAINES AND HIS WIFE NANNIE
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The oldest of the children of Will and Lillie Baines was Roy Dixie
Baines who was born on 14-SEP-1891 and who died on 21-JUN-1963.
The wife of Roy Baines was Nannie E. Taggart who was born on
05-OCT-1894 and who died on 17-SEP-1982. Roy Baines ran the large
flour mill in Hennessey.
In 1958 when the Baines family held the family reunion to which
Crethie Munro Smith Mashburn, Neva Smith, and Leola May
Smith Ballard went, their Cousin Nina Lee Smith Rogers attended
also. While Nina was not kin to the Baines family she had known them
when she was a girl in Denton, Denton Co, Texas. Roy Baines
remembered her and she remembered him. They had known each other when
they were in school together.
Nannie E. Taggart Baines was the artist of the Baines family. She
painted beautifully with oil paint and on china. She had a houseful of
beautiful things she had done.
SUE BAINES
----------------------------------------------------------------------
One of the daughters of Will Baines was Willey Sue Baines who
lived from 25-JAN-1894 until OCT-1918. She was always called "Sue".
She died while a student at the University of Oklahoma during the
influenza epidemic of 1918. She is the one that Leola May Smith
resembled so much that Will and Lillie wanted Leola May Smith to
visit them in the Fall of 1930.
RITA BAINES AND HER HUSBAND HARRY MINTON
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Another daughter of Will and Lillie was Rita Louise Baines. Rita
lived SEP-1895 until 1956. Her husband Harry Wallace Minton lived
1895 to 1960. Her husband ran the flour mill in Bison, Oklahoma just
north of Hennessey. Rita and her husband Harry Wallace Minton had
six boys and one girl. Their daughter was named Louise. Rita was
famous for her chocolate cakes. At the family reunion in 1958 her
daughter Louise brought a chocolate cake made from Rita's recipe.
JOE BAINES AND HIS WIFE LILLIAN
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Another son of Will Baines was Joseph Haden Baines. He was
born in Denton, Texas. Joseph Haden Baines was born on 18-FEB-1898
and died on 07-DEC-1967. His wife was Lillian A. St-Dizier who was
born on 27-NOV-1898 in Louisiana and who died on 26-MAY-1969. Joe and
Lillian Baines were the farmers. They ran the farms out east of
Hennessey and were not involved in the flour mill.
ANNIE OLA BAINES AND HER HUSBAND ALBERT ELLIOT
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Another daughter of Will Baines was Annie Ola Baines. Her
husband was named Albert A. Elliot. Annie Ola was born on
06-DEC-1903 and died on 25-NOV-1969. Her husband, Albert, was born on
13-NOV-1901 and died on 17-DEC-1968.
Page .31. 02-APR-2007
Albert worked at the flour mill in Hennessey. They lived in the small
white house just to the west of the house that Will and Lillie lived
in on Arapaho Street west of the flour mill in Hennessey. Annie Ola
for many years played the piano at the Baptist Church in Hennessey and
taught a Sunday School class for children.
HARRIETT BAINES AND HER HUSBAND BILL BREEDLOVE
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Another daughter of Will Baines was Harriett Elizabeth Baines.
She married an attorney, William Otway Breedlove, and lived in
Brownwood, Brown Co, Texas until her death. She lived from
03-NOV-1911 until 1979. She was the youngest of the daughters.
Harriett went to school at Edmund and later to the University of
Oklahoma. She joined a sorority there.
**********************************************************************
CHAPTER: 013: Visiting the Will Baines Family in Hennessey in 1930
**********************************************************************
This chapter was written after extensive discussions beginning in 1991
with Leola May Smith Ballard who related these events to the
author, who is her son. She was the only still living child of Charles
Creth Smith. She lived from 1910 to 1996.
LEOLA MAY SMITH MEETS WILL AND LILLIE BAINES
----------------------------------------------------------------------
One of the most fascinating stories concerning the Baines family of
Hennessey has to do with Leola May Smith in the fall of 1930. Will
Baines of Hennessey was a first cousin of Charles Creth Smith.
The father of Will Baines was Charles Silas Baines who was an
older brother to Martha Julia Ann Baines who was the mother of
Charles Creth Smith. Charles Creth Smith always referred to
Will Baines of Hennessey as Cousin Will and to Lillie Haden
Baines as Cousin Lillie. Prior to 1930 Leola May Smith and her
sisters had never met Will and Lillie.
Leola May Smith was back living in Norman doing substitute
teaching in the Norman schools that Fall of 1930. She had taught
school at Camargo, Oklahoma for two years and was twenty years old.
Leola was home one day in the Smith house at 126 South Flood because
she did not have to substitute that day. Her sister, Neva Eugene
Smith, was there too that day.
Will Baines and his wife Lillie were in Norman that day because
they had taken their nineteen year old daughter Harriett Baines to
school at the University of Oklahoma. Harriett had gone to college in
Edmund, Oklahoma, to the teacher's college there, but then had decided
to go to the University of Oklahoma. Will and Lillie stopped by the
house at 126 South Flood to visit their cousin, Charles Creth
Smith. He was at work, but Neva let them in and sat visiting with
them in the parlor.
MEETING WILL AND LILLIE BAINES
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Will and Lillie had never met Leola May Smith before. Leola May
Smith walked into the living room where Will and Lillie were
Page .32. 02-APR-2007
sitting talking to Neva. When Will and Lillie saw Leola they both
stood up, looked at each other and said, "Sue".
Leola May Smith looked just like their daughter Sue who had died
twelve years before in the great influenza epidemic of 1918. Leola May
Smith was the same size as Sue and had the same voice and
mannerisms as Sue.
Nothing would do but that Will and Lillie had to have Leola come and
visit them. They wanted her to pack a bag and go with them right then.
Leola and Neva had never met Will Baines and his wife Lillie
before. Their father Charles Creth Smith had not even come home
from work to positively identify this couple as Will and Lillie.
Will and Lillie liked to go to Mineral Wells, Palo-Pinto Co, Texas
to take the mineral baths and had been wanting to go. They needed
someone to tend their house while they were gone. They had a fifteen
year old son, Bill Baines, and a nine year old grandson, Glen
Edward Minton, who lived at their home. Sometimes, their
granddaughter Johan Baines who was attending school in Hennessey
stayed with them too. She was eleven years old. They asked Leola May
Smith if she would come up to Hennessey to visit them and then to
stay on while they went to Mineral Wells, Texas. They offered to pay
her for running their household while they were gone.
Leola May Smith was quite a gadabout so she decided to take them
up on their offer. Her sister, Neva Eugene Smith, said that she
would not mind. Leola May Smith packed her bag and went with them
in their car up to Hennessey on that very day. They left before her
dad, Charles Creth Smith got home from work. Leola stayed with
them about three months that Fall of 1930.
LEOLA MAY SMITH WAS UNLIKE SUE BAINES IN SOME WAYS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Will and Lillie still had some of Sue's clothes. They fit Leola May
Smith. They found out that while Leola looked like their daughter
that she was a far cry from Sue. Sue had been very talented in music.
Sue could sing and could play the piano. Sue had been very artistic in
many ways. Leola May Smith's talent was swimming.
THE HOUSE AT 102 NORTH ARAPAHO IN HENNESSEY, OKLAHOMA
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Will Baines and his wife Lillie lived in a large two storey white
house on the northwest corner of Arapaho and Oklahoma Streets in
Hennessey, Kingfisher Co, Oklahoma. This house at 102 North
Arapaho was just west of the railroad tracks on the west side of
downtown. The Star Mill and Elevator Company which Will Baines
owned was just east of the railroad track which was just east of the
house. This house is still in existence today, but is very run down.
It has been over sixty years since that Fall of 1930.
North of the house was a garden in which Will liked to work early each
morning. Will did not grow vegetables in this garden but rather he
raised roses. Raising roses was his hobby and his bushes produced the
most beautiful roses one could imagine. Will would go to Tyler, Texas
to buy his rose bushes because there was an unusually good source of
Page .33. 02-APR-2007
them there. Tyler, Texas is famous for roses.
Northwest of the house was a small building which was the wash house.
In this building was Lillie's washing machine. West of the house was a
small house in which Annie Ola Baines Elliot and her husband
Albert Elliot lived. This house is also still standing, but is in
disrepair.
Will must have been what we today call a morning person. He liked for
the biggest meal of the day to be breakfast. Lillie would fix
breakfast to suit him and sometimes they even had fried chicken for
breakfast.
VISITING THE CHILDREN OF WILL AND LILLIE BAINES
----------------------------------------------------------------------
While Leola May Smith was in Hennessey, in Kingfisher Co,
Oklahoma, she visited Roy Dixie Baines and his family as well as
Joe Haden Baines and his family.
Glen Edward Minton, who everyone called "Preacher", was very ill
when he was young and needed various medications. This is why he was
living with Will and Lillie who were his grandparents. His mother,
Rita Louise Baines Minton, was the oldest daughter of Will and
Lillie. Glen Edward eventually outgrew his illnesses and was a bomber
pilot in World War II. Today he is a retired dentist in Kansas City,
Missouri.
Each Monday Will would give an allowance to Glen Edward and to Bill.
He would also give Leola May Smith a five dollar bill. This was in
1930.
WASH DAY AT THE WILL BAINES RESIDENCE IN 1930
----------------------------------------------------------------------
One day a week was wash day. Annie Ola would bring her family's wash
and would come on over. Lillie had a electric washing machine in a
barn like building northwest of the house. She did not have a dryer so
they had to hang the clothes on the clothes line. On that day they
would fix a big pot of beans and would cook cornbread. They would put
the beans on early in the morning and let them simmer until lunch
time. Annie Ola and her husband Albert lived in a smaller house just
to the west of the big two storey house that Will and Lillie Baines
lived in.
WHILE WILL AND LILLIE BAINES WENT TO MINERAL WELLS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Will Baines and his wife Lillie Haden Baines had asked Leola
May Smith if she would mind staying while they went to Mineral
Wells, Texas for two weeks to take the hot baths offered there. Leola
May Smith stayed and kept up with Bill who was fifteen and took
care of Glen Edward who was nine. Johan Baines was there quite a
bit too. Johan is the daughter of Joe Haden Baines and his wife
Lillian. Johan's name is pronounced as if it were Joanne.
Once during the time that Leola May Smith was looking after the
house and Bill and Gen Edward, Annie Ola and her husband Albert came
to dinner and brought along the minister of the Baptist church. Annie
Page .34. 02-APR-2007
Ola and Albert came to dinner at least once a week to eat with Will
and Lillie. Annie Ola had asked Leola May Smith if it was all
right to invite the minister over to supper. She told Leola that her
mother, Lillie, often invited him to come to supper. Of course, Leola
May Smith said that it would be all right for all to come. Leola
May Smith was doing all of the cooking while Will Baines and
his wife Lillie were gone.
Leola May Smith tells that one never had to go to the grocery
store. Before he left, Will had said to just call the grocery store
and order whatever was needed and that Bill would pick up the
groceries at the store. Leola May Smith cooked a pork roast with
sweet potatoes for that dinner that evening in 1930. Annie Ola said
she had never cooked a pork roast. Leola May Smith told her that
it was cooked just like a beef roast. Leola May Smith peeled the
sweet potatoes, boiled them and then candied them. The Baptist
minister really liked the sweet potatoes. Though the Baines family was
not much into sweet potatoes the meal was a big success.
BILL BAINES WAS A TEENAGER THEN
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Baines at the time was taking geometry which Leola May
Smith helped him with. His grades in geometry greatly improved
while Leola May Smith was visiting. He liked to take the truck and
drive to visit some of his friends. Before Will left he had told Bill
not to take the truck out every evening. Even though it was 1930 Bill
Baines was a typical teenager even though that term was not used
until 1939.
Leola May Smith thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience of staying
with the Baines family that three months in 1930. Leola May Smith
and Bill Baines are second cousins.
**********************************************************************
CHAPTER: 014: Children of Joseph Benjamin Baines
**********************************************************************
Joseph Benjamin Baines was a great uncle to both Will Baines
and Charles Creth Smith. His descendants are not only generally
very distinguished but also are easily researched because they lived
in Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma.
THOMAS WILLIAM BAINES
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Thomas William Baines was born in Crooked Creek, Arkansas in 1843.
During the Civil War he served with his father, Joseph Benjamin
Baines, and two of his younger brothers in Company D of the
Sixteenth Arkansas Infantry (Mounted) for the Confederate States of
America. They fought at Pea Ridge, Arkansas.
After the war he married Dosha P. DeShazo and worked as a
physician in Newton County, Arkansas in the town of Jasper. He and
his wife had four children: Swartz, Faust, Edgar and Ida.
JOSEPH BENJAMIN BAINES, II
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Another son of Joseph Benjamin Baines,I was Joseph Benjamin
Page .35. 02-APR-2007
Baines,II who was born at Crooked Creek, Arkansas about 1846. Like
his brother George Marshall Baines, he attended Clarke's Academy
in Berryville, Arkansas.
GEORGE MARSHALL BAINES
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Much of the following information comes from the superb book edited
and compiled by Jim Lair, CARROLL COUNTY FAMILIES: THESE WERE THE
FIRST.
One son of Joseph Benjamin Baines and his wife Mary was George
Marshall Baines who was born on 03-APR-1848 at Crooked Creek which
today is Harrison, Arkansas. He died in Berryville, Arkansas on
07-OCT-1935. He was married to Mae Scott Winfrey who lived from
1862 until 1942.
Who: Isaac A. Clarke M. -
He, his father and two bothers were in the Sixteenth Arkansas Infantry
(Mounted) in Company D in the Army of the Confederacy during the Civil
War.
After the war he attended the famed Clarke's Academy in Berryville,
Arkansas. Isaac A. Clarke was the principal of this small private
college. When George Marshall Baines finished school there he
moved to Gatesville in Coryell County, Texas to set up a law
practice. In Gatesville he served two terms as prosecuting attorney
and four terms as judge.
In 1893 he and his family moved back to Arkansas and lived up north of
Berryville. There he worked as a lawyer and as a justice of the peace.
PINKIE BAINES SANDERS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pinkie S. Baines, whose first name may really have been Martha,
was born in 1853 in Harrison, Arkansas. Her parents were Joseph
Benjamin Baines and his wife Mary. Pinkie died on 09-FEB-1926 in
Oklahoma City and is buried at Fairlawn Cemetery. She married John R.
Sanders who lived from 15-JAN-1848 until 03-OCT-1915 and who
buried with her at Fairlawn. They had a son, J. Noble Sanders who
lived from 1895 until 1928 and who is buried with them at Fairlawn. Of
the three graves only Pinkie's is unmarked.
Pinkie and her husband moved to Oklahoma County in 1891. They lived in
a house at 1221 Northwest Tenth Street which when they moved into it
in 1891 was two miles out in the country from downtown. Pinkie lived
in this same house for thirty-five years. It was at this house that
Pinkie's father, Joseph Benjamin Baines died on 05-DEC-1903.
Pinkie's brother Wellman McCoy Baines was living with her and her
family when he died on 11-JAN-1914. He always went by his middle name
McCoy. He is buried beside her father at Fairlawn Cemetery.
WELLMAN MCCOY BAINES
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Wellman McCoy Baines was born on 24-DEC-1859 in Crooked Creek
which was later Harrison, Arkansas. He died in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
on 11-JAN-1914 and was buried at Fairlawn Cemetery. He always went by
Page .36. 02-APR-2007
"McCoy" or "Coy". He was the father of Marshall McCoy Baines who
lived 06-JAN-1907 to 27-FEB-1976.
DAVID WASHINGTON BAINES
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Another son of Joseph Benjamin Baines was David Washington
Baines who was born about 1860 in Crooked Creek, Arkansas and who
was often called "Wash". He was postmaster of Glen, Arkansas which was
a small community southwest of Berryville. Rebekah Baines Johnson
in her book tells that he was a physician.
It is believed that his wife was named Minnie ?? and that for a
while about 1908 they lived at 1313 NW 10th Street in Oklahoma City.
BLOUNT BAINES
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Blount W. Baines was born in 1866 and died on 02-AUG-1926 in
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He is buried with his father, a brother, a
sister and a nephew at Fairlawn Cemetery in Oklahoma City. Many
sources give his first name as Blunt.
He was born in Harrison, Arkansas and lived at Glen near Berryville,
Arkansas in Carroll County before he moved to Oklahoma City. In
Berryville people called him "Fiddler" because he carried a violin
with him which he often played. He wore his mustache long and heavily
waxed.
He lived at 1025 Northwest Tenth Street in Oklahoma City with his
father and mother in 1903. In 1926 he was bookkeeper for the Crystal
Water Company at 1221 Northwest Tenth Street.
**********************************************************************
CHAPTER: 015: Charles Creth Smith \GTWAC M.1872-1938
**********************************************************************
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Creth Smith "Creth" carpenter \GTWAC M.1872-1938
Born: 24-SEP-1872 Denton, Texas
Died: 30-JUN-1938 Hydro, Oklahoma
Buried: Corinth Cemetery, Blair, Greer Co, OK, marked
Father: James Calvin Smith M.1850-1929
Mother: Martha Julia Ann Baines \GTWA F.1851-1930
Spouse: Leola James Ward "Ola" F.1876-1914
Married: 15-AUG-1897 Corinth, Greer Co. Oklahoma
Born: 02-JAN-1876 Union City, Obion Co, Tennessee
Died: 19-JUL-1914 Olustee, Oklahoma
Buried: Corinth Cemetery, Blair, Greer Co, OK, marked
Father: James T. Ward CSA M.1835-1876
Mother: Susan Mary Stone F.1848-1939
----------------------------------------------------------------------
INTRODUCTION
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Creth Smith was born on 24-SEP-1872 in Denton, Texas. His
father was James Calvin Smith who was in the grocery business in
Denton. His mother was Martha Julia Baines Smith who had been a
school teacher. Charles Creth Smith went by his middle name of
Page .37. 02-APR-2007
Creth which was the middle name of his Grandfather William Creth
Baines who was a prominent Denton businessman and farmer. Very
often the name Creth appeared on documents as the first name of
Charles Creth Smith but it was actually his middle name. When
Creth Smith wrote his name he always wrote it as "Creth C. Smith"
which was why there was confusion about his name. On the 1900 and 1910
Censuses his name is "Charles C. Smith". Charles Creth Smith had
the first name Charles after his uncle Charles Silas Baines. His
mother wanted him to be called Creth because she thought so much of
James Warner Dossey Creath, the noted Texas Baptist preacher.
Who: Joseph Warner Dossey Creath M.1809-1882
Charles Creth Smith had two younger brothers who were also born in
Denton, Texas. The middle brother was Edgar J. Smith who was born
on 05-JAN-1874. The youngest brother was Clarence E. Smith who was
born on JUL-1879.
Charles Creth Smith lived with his parents in Denton until the
whole family moved to Palo-Pinto County after 1895. It is believed
that they lived in the town of Gordon in the southern part of the
county. Charles Creth Smith often referred to Palo-Pinto
County when talking with his daughters years later. He pronounced the
"a" in the word "Palo" long as in "fate". He enjoyed living in
Palo-Pinto County.
SCHOOL FOR CRETH SMITH
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Creth Smith had two unusual abilities which he learned in
what today we would call high school. Most likely he went to Robert E.
Lee School in Denton, Texas. Construction of this school was completed
about 1884.
The first ability he learned which showed so much in later life was
his penmanship. Today his penmanship would be considered much more
than good penmanship. It would be called calligraphy. When his
daughters were in school they had to buy their own books in which they
would need their names written. They would take their books to Papa to
have him write their names in them because he wrote so beautifully.
They all called him "Papa", and he always used "Hun" when speaking to
them.
The second ability which he had was a natural aptitude for doing
mathematics in his head. None of his children even began to have his
knack for this. Since he was unable to explain how he could do math
problems in his head it was most likely a natural aptitude. Leola May
Smith has said that he could do square roots in his head before
she could do them with pencil and paper when she was in high school.
One of his daughters could read him an algebra problem and he would
have the answer almost immediately upon hearing the whole problem. He
was a whiz at geometry and could see the proof as quickly as his
daughters could read the problem.
He would say, "Hun, you don't need a pencil and paper to do square
roots." He would say, "Hun, I've been to school and can do them in my
head." As a carpenter he often had to work in board-feet which he did
with the greatest of ease all in his head.
Page .38. 02-APR-2007
Charles Creth Smith had attended some kind of a school which
specialized in mathematics when he was in high school. He used to help
his daughter Leola May Smith with her math when she was in school.
He was pretty sharp at everything and especially mathematics. He had a
phenomenal ability to spell words correctly. His daughter, Leola, in
later years told that Papa could spell any word.
THE WOMAN ON THE STREET IN DENTON
----------------------------------------------------------------------
About 1896 Creth Smith went to Denton to visit his cousin James
Lafayette Smith. "Fate" Smith, as he was called was a first cousin to
Creth's father James Calvin Smith.
Creth and Fate were walking in Denton when suddenly Creth pointed to a
lady on a sidewalk across the street and said, "That is the woman I am
going to marry." Much to the surprise of Creth, his cousin Fate
replied, "I will introduce her to you for she is staying with us." The
lady in question turned out to be the niece of Fate's wife, Liola
Elizabeth Stone Smith, who was visiting them from Greer County
which at that time was still considered to be part of Texas.
Of course, that lady was Leola James Ward who was born on
02-JAN-1876 and who on 15-AUG-1897 becames the wife of Charles Creth
Smith.
CRETH SMITH: DESCRIPTION
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Creth Smith was not a tall man at about five foot seven
inches. Nor was he a stocky man since he only weighed about one
hundred forty pounds. His father James Calvin Smith and his
brother Edgar Smith were both five inches taller than he.
One characteristic of Creth Smith which showed up in the pictures
of him whether age twenty or age sixty was that his ears stuck out
from his head. A picture of him taken in Denton when he was about
twenty showed him stockier than he was in later life. His mother's
cooking no doubt contributed to this. Even in later life he always had
plenty of dark brown hair on the top of his head. In some of the last
pictures of him, which were taken of him while sitting in a chair
outdoors at 126 South Flood, he appears very lean with greatly varying
expressions on his face. Leola May Smith remembers that his face
was extraordinarily expressive. From these pictures of him dressed in
a suit it is obvious that his customary overalls would have looked
more natural on him.
Charles Creth Smith worked as a finish carpenter. He did all the
fancy woodwork inside of houses. In those days a carpenter had to form
and finish the wood himself from lumber. Creth Smith could do
fancy staircases which twisted down from the second floor. About 1920
he built the house with round rooms in Norman which still stands today
about five blocks north of Main Street just to the east of the
railroad track.
Page .39. 02-APR-2007
**********************************************************************
CHAPTER: 016: Clarence Eugene Smith \GTWAL M.1879-1942
**********************************************************************
Clarence Eugene Smith was born in Denton, Texas on 07-OCT-1879.
His father was James Calvin Smith. His mother Martha Julia Ann
Baines Smith.
On the 1900 Census he was not living with his folks. He got married
about 1901, and his wife, Mary Josephine Anderson, died on
09-FEB-1910 of typhoid fever. She was born in Illinois and her name
was Mary Josephine Anderson. He and his first wife had three
daughters: Ava M. Smith, Martha Smith and Artie May Smith.
On the 1910 Census he was living in Wilbarger County, Texas which
is where Vernon is located. He was living alone on a farm. The Census
definitely shows that he was a widower. Apparently his three daughters
were too much for him since they ranged in age from one to six. From
that time on they lived with their grandparents James Calvin Smith
and Martha Julia Ann Baines in nearby Vernon, Texas.
THE FIRST THREE DAUGHTERS OF CLARENCE EUGENE SMITH
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Clarence Eugene Smith had three daughters by his first wife who
were nicknamed Tinsy, Tina and Sack by their uncle, Edgar John
Smith. The letter "i" in Tinsy and in Tina is pronounced long.
Tinsy whose real name was Ava M. Smith was born about 1903. Tina
whose real name was Martha Smith was born about 1905. Sack whose
real name was Artie May Smith was born in JAN-1909. These three
girls lived with and were raised by their grandparents, James Calvin
Smith and Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith in Vernon,
Wilbarger Co, Texas. Clarence Eugene Smith's first wife was
Mary Josephine Anderson. She was born in Illinois on 20-APR-1885
and died on 09-FEB-1910 in Vernon, Texas of typhoid fever.
Tinsy or Ava married a railroad man named Olin A. McCoy, and they
lived in Ashland, Oregon.
Tina or Martha married a man named Ed C. Walker, and they lived on
a farm northeast of Vernon. He apparently had two children from a
previous marriage.
Sack or Artie May married a man named Earl Wilson. They had a son
born about 1924.
TINSY OR AVA MCCOY
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Tinsy whose real name was Ava M. Smith was born in late 1902 or
early 1903.
Tinsy used to come to visit the Smith Children when they lived at 126
South Flood in Norman. She and her first cousin, Leola May Smith,
would take a nap every afternoon in the basement. At the time that
Edgar John Smith died in 1928, Tinsy was already married and was
living in Ashland, Oregon. Tinsy's husband was Olin A. McCoy.
Leola, Crethie and Neva always called her Tinsy.
Page .40. 02-APR-2007
Leola used to tell about the time when Tinsy was visiting in Norman
and the two of them had a sleeping contest to see who could sleep the
most. They only got up to eat or to take care of the calling of
nature. This occurred one summer during the 1920's. Leola never said
who won the contest.
In the fifties Tinsy came to visit Crethie Munro Smith Mashburn
and her sister Neva Eugene Smith from Oregon. Neva had been quite
excited when she had learned that Tinsy was coming for a visit. Tinsy
kept in touch with Neva and Crethie until after 1960.
MARTHA "TINA" OR MRS. ED C. WALKER
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Martha Smith or "Tina", as her Uncle Edgar John Smith called
her, was born in late 1904 or early 1905. Her real name was Martha
Smith. Since her Uncle Edgar had nicknamed her "Tina" it is
possible that her middle name was Clementine.
Martha Smith married a man in Vernon named Ed C. Walker. They
lived on a farm northeast of Vernon with his two children from a
previous marriage.
During the summer of 1925 Leola May Smith, who was visiting her
grandparents, James Calvin Smith and Martha Julia Ann Baines
Smith, visited the Ed C. Walker family for a week. The Ed C.
Walker family farmed and raised lots of chickens. Very often that
week they ate fried chicken.
The main thing about visiting Tina that Leola May Smith remembered
was swimming in the farm pond. Tina's step son who may have been as
old as ten often swam in the pond. He would have to get in first
because he did not wear a swimming suit. Leola May Smith swam in
the pond every day and thoroughly enjoyed it. The neighbor men came
and peeked over the dam to watch her swim. They asked if she minded
them watching since they had never seen a girl swim before. She told
them that she did not mind and that they should come on in too. No
doubt men in 1925 liked to look at girls in swimming suits pretty much
in the same way that men do today.
SACK OR ARTIE MAY WILSON
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sack whose maiden name was Artie May Smith was born in JAN-1909.
She was married to Earl Wilson, and they lived in Vernon, Texas
during the late 1920's.
Sack came to visit her grandparents, James Calvin Smith and Martha
Julia Ann Baines Smith, during the summer of 1925 when, her first
cousin, Leola May Smith, was visiting them in Vernon,
Wilbarger Co, Texas. Sack and her little boy who was about three
years old came on the train and stayed about three weeks. Leola May
Smith did not remember learning anything about Sack's mother or
husband, and cannot remember where Sack lived. Leola was never able to
remember the little boy's name, either.
CLARENCE EUGENE SMITH IN TEXAS PER 1920 CENSUS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Page .41. 02-APR-2007
The 1920 Census showed that Clarence Eugene Smith was living in
Vernon, Wilbarger Co, Texas. He had remarried to a lady who had
been born in Germany in 1890 and had had four children by her. Her
name was Martha Annie Walbrick. She went by the name "Annie". The
four children were: Clarence Eugene Smith, Jr, James C. Smith,
Ola Mae Smith and Fannie Alma Smith. After the 1920 Census,
Clarence and Annie had two more children. While they lived in Vernon,
Texas they had Ann Smith who was called "Sweetie". After they
moved to near Fayetteville, Arkansas they had another son named Ernest
Eddie Smith who was called "Sonny".
It is believed that they moved several times in Arkansas but
eventually ended up in Lavaca, Sebastion Co, Arkansas. Some
sources give their location in Alma, Arkansas and some in Altus,
Arkansas. It is not known why they moved to Arkansas. For a long time
it was believed that the Clarence Eugene Smith family moved to
Arkansas because of the German settlement around Altus, Arkansas. Now
it is believed that, though they probably lived there shortly, that
Annie's close kin from Germany all had stayed in Texas.
CLARENCE EUGENE SMITH IN ARKANSAS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In times past whenever Crethie made reference to her Uncle Clarence
she said that he was tied up in Alma, Arkansas with a bunch of
children. Leola May Smith did not ever remember even meeting her
Uncle Clarence. Crethie was quite the lady to look up relatives when
she travelled to places where they lived; however, she never expressed
an interest in looking up her Uncle Clarence and his later family.
Crethie, Neva and Leola had been very close to the three daughters
that their Uncle Clarence had had by his first wife. However, his
second family had apparently been out of touch with the children of
Charles Creth Smith since 1930 when their grandmother in common,
Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith had died.
In several cases it was said that Clarence and his family lived in
Alma, Arkansas. Alma, Arkansas is just east of Ft. Smith twenty miles
and is in Crawford County. Alma, Arkansas claims to be the Spinach
Capitol of the world. It is now known, of course, that they were just
south of Alma in the very small town of Lavaca. It is due to the
genealogical research of Carrie Thomas Dominguez that the contact
between the descendants of Clarence Eugene Smith,Sr and the
descendants of Charles Creth Smith was reestablished. Carrie is a
great granddaughter of Clarence Eugene Smith,Sr.
When Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith died on 12-MAR-1930 Clarence
Eugene Smith and his three daughters from his first marriage
attended the funeral along with his brother, Charles Creth Smith.
Clarence Eugene Smith died on 06-MAY-1942 and his wife, Annie, in
FEB-1979. They are buried in Riverdale Cemetery on Highway 96 at
Arbuckle Island south of Lavaca, Sebastion Co, Arkansas.
Who: Carrie Thomas Dominguez F. -
Page .42. 02-APR-2007
**********************************************************************
CHAPTER: 017: Letters from Will Baines to Lillie Haden
**********************************************************************
----------------------------------------------------------------------
These letters which have been so graciously furnished by Linda
Clark who is a great granddaughter of Will and Lillie Baines
are personal in the extreme but contain some fascinating family
information. One of them is here quoted that is of genealogical
importance.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Miss Lillie Haden, Ft. Worth, Texas Aug. 6, 1889
My Dear Lillie, I have no doubt you are anxious to hear from me, and
so I have a little time this A.M. - thought I would write you. Nothing
would do Pa but for me to come with him. We arrived here safely
yesterday eve about 6 o'clock. Attended preaching last night, services
conducted by Dr. Burleson of Waco, we will go over to Roby in
Fisher County today. I may get home tomorrow night, if not, you
may look for me Thursday evening. This is a nice little town and Pa
seems very well pleased with the country. Hoping to see you Thursday
night. I am Lovingly Yours. W.J. Baines
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Notes:
This letter was apparently written from Sweetwater, Nolan Co,
Texas. "Pa", of course, refers to his father, Charles Silas
Baines. "Dr. Burleson" refers to Rufus C. Burleson who had
earlier been president of Baylor University. Waco was the new home of
Baylor University.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
**********************************************************************
CHAPTER: 018: Letter from Lyndon Baines Johnson to Crethie Mashburn
Updated 2006/09/20, 2005/05/25
**********************************************************************
Lyndon Baines Johnson \GTGJRL M.1908-1973
Crethie Munro Smith Mashburn \GTWACC F.1904-1990
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Lyndon B. Johnson
Texas
United States Senate
Office of the Democratic Leader
Washington, D. C.
May 13, 1960
Dear Mrs. Mashburn:
Your letter was very interesting to me
and I am wondering if you ever correspon-
ded on genealogical matters with my mother.
She did extensive work on our Johnson line
and was working on the Baines' family at the
time of her death. I've never been good at
figuring degrees of kinship; Mamma could
always tell me. She was with me at that
Page .43. 02-APR-2007
parade you mentioned in Johnson City. Both
of us would have been happy to have met and
talked with you.
The schedule for my appearance in Okla-
homa City on the 22nd is being worked out in
detail by folks down there and I don't know at
this time just how the time will go. Of course
I would be pleased to see you there and I hope
we can work it out.
With warmest best wishes.
Your cousin,
(signed)
Lyndon B. Johnson
Mrs. Crethie Mashburn
617 Chautauqua
Norman, Oklahoma
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The above letter was sent to Crethie Munro Smith Mashburn who was
a daughter of Charles Creth Smith. She with two of her sisters,
Neva Eugene Smith and Leola May Smith Ballard and a nephew
visited Lyndon on 22-MAY-1960 at the graduation of Oklahoma City
University. Lyndon spoke and was awarded an honorary DHL degree there.
In August of 1960 there was a political gathering in a hotel in
downtown Oklahoma City that was open to the public. Again the three
Smith sisters mentioned above and the nephew attended where they again
met Lyndon Baines Johnson along with his wife, Lady Bird Johnson.
**********************************************************************
CHAPTER: 019: Letter from Rebekah Baines Johnson to Harriet Breedlove
Updated 2005/09/14, 2005/09/13
**********************************************************************
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The following letter from Rebekah Baines Johnson to Harriet
Elizabeth Baines Breedlove was furnished by Harriet's nephew
Roy Dixie Baines.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2519 Harris Blvd.
Austin, Texas
February 18, 1957
Mrs. William O. Breedlove
Brownwood, Texas
Dear Mrs. Breedlove,
Sometime ago my son, Lyndon, showed me a letter he had received from
Judge Breedlove mentioning the fact that you are a daughter of
William J. Baines. A few years ago, I wrote your brother William, in
Hennessey, in regard to your father's family. He gave me your name
and address and I then wrote you but had no reply.
Page .44. 02-APR-2007
I am compiling a Baines genealogical history and am greatly interested
in securing information on the line of Great Uncle William C. Baines,
the brother of my Grandfather George W. Baines. I shall greatly
appreciate any assistance you may kindly give me in reference to your
father's family and your own family. I have had some correspondence
with Link H. Baines, J. Mercer Baines and Gordon Baines, all
descendants of William C. Baines. However, I have not nearly
completed my file on this line and need much additional data.
May I have your cooperation and assistance in the undertaking? I shall
look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience. Please
give me the names, birth dates, marriages and other information
concerning your brothers and sisters.
The Baines family has an interesting history, and I wish to make it
available to all of the line. I cannot make the record complete
without information from the various branches.
With thanks for your assistance, I am
Cordially yours,
Rebekah Baines Johnson
----------------------------------------------------------------------
**********************************************************************
CHAPTER: 020: Letter from Rebekah Baines Johnson to Roy Dixie Baines
Updated 2005/09/13
**********************************************************************
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The following letter from Rebekah Baines Johnson to Roy Dixie
Baines w