ALEXANDER BALDRIGE:

Ireland to Gibson County, Tennessee

by Henry David Baldridge, Jr.

 

Alexander Baldrige(5 Oct 1717, Ulster Province, Ireland - 12 Mar 1805, Lincoln Co., NC) was the second child of William Baldrige(1689, Ulster Province, Ireland - 25 Nov 1772, Lancaster Co., PA) and Janette (Holmes) Baldrige(24 Jun 1694, Ulster Province, Ireland - 28 Jul 1768, Lancaster Co., PA). He accompanied his parents when they emigrated from Ireland to America in the early 1700's. Alexander Baldrige and Jane Ramsey (ca 1730 - 6 Dec 1800, Lincoln Co., NC) were married in about 1752 in Lancaster Co., PA, and made their home in Martic Township. Alexander traveled to North Carolina in about 1765 and purchased land in that part of Old Mecklenburg County that is now Lincoln County. He moved with his family to North Carolina soon thereafter.

Alexander and Jane (Ramsey) Baldrige were the parents of nine children, six born in Lancaster Co., PA, and the last three in Lincoln Co., NC; John(28 Sep 1754 - 17 Oct 1823), Margaret (b. ca 1755), Janet (b. ca 1758), Nancy (ca 1760 - 21 Feb 1836), William (26 Feb 1761 - 26 Oct 1830), Mary (b. ca 1763), Alexander Jr. (13 Jun 1766 - 7 Feb 1851), Michael (6 Apr 1772 - 29 Sep 1839), Elizabeth (5 Mar 1777 - 29 May 1867).

Their oldest son, John Baldridge (28 Sep 1754, Lancaster Co., PA - 17 Oct 1823, Maury Co., TN) was Captain of a North Carolina rifle company in the Revolutionary War. He married Isabella Luckey (27 Feb 1761, Lancaster Co., PA - 29 Apr 1848, Maury Co., TN) in Iredell Co., NC, on 21 Aug 1780, and they were the parents of eleven children; Nancy (22 Apr 1782 - 27 Feb 1862), James Luckey (10 Jul 1786 - 3 May 1861), Jane (30 May 1788 - after 1857), Catsy (b. 12 Jul 1790), Alexander (25 Jul 1792 - 14 Sep 1848), Isabella (b. 2 Aug 1795), Rebecca E. (b. 13 Jan 1798), John (b. 20 Feb 1800), Margaret A. (b. 4 Mar 1802), Elizabeth E. (b. 5 Jun 1804), William Davidson (b. 1 Jan 1807). This family lived in Lincoln Co., NC, until 1797, when they moved first to Davidson Co., TN, and then on to Maury Co., TN, in 1813. John and Isabella (Luckey) Baldridge are both buried in Haynes Cemetery in southeast Maury Co., TN.

According to census data, James Luckey Baldridge, the second child of John and Isabella (Luckey) Baldridge, moved with his family westward to Gibson County in the 1830's. His younger brother, William Davidson Baldridge, followed with his family in the 1840's.

William Davidson Baldridge (1 Jan 1807, TN - after 1850) and his wife, Mariah D. Blanton (15 Nov 1811, TN - 15 Oct 1852, Gibson Co., TN), were the parents of eight children; Isabella Frances (b. 18 Nov 1834), John James (b. 1 Mar 1836), Alexander W. (b. 28 Jul 1837), Eugenia Adelaide (7 Nov 1838 - 22 Nov 1839), William (b. 20 Dec 1840), Samuel Davis (16 Sep 1842 - 31 Sep 1842), Robert (b. ca 1845), Ophelia America (5 Mar 1849 - 2 Oct 1898).  Mariah (Blanton) Baldridge is buried in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Yorkville, Gibson County.

James Luckey Baldridge (10 Jul 1786, Lincoln Co., NC - 3 May 1861, Gibson Co., TN) married his first wife, Lydia Pickens, on 11 Sep 1809 in Maury Co., TN. His second wife was Narcissa Henderson (12 Dec 1790, NC - 28 Nov 1857, Gibson Co., TN).  James Luckey Baldridge was the father of nine children, the first five believed to have been with his first wife; Cynthia (b. ca 1811), Lydia P. (b. ca 1815), Nancy L. (ca 1818 - 1853), John S. (b. ca 1821), Mary A. (b. ca 1823), William Henry (ca 1825 - after 1870), Alexander S. (1827 - 28 Jul 1863), Isabella N. (ca 1829 - 1875), Susanna E. (b. ca 1833).  James Luckey Baldridge and Narcissa (Henderson) Baldridge are buried in the Yorkville Cumberland Presbyterian Church Cemetery.

John S. Baldridge (b. ca 1821, TN), son of James Luckey and Lydia (Pickens) Baldridge, married Martha Moore (b. ca 1828) in Gibson County on 5 October 1846. They were listed as childless at the time of the Gibson County census of 1850.

William Henry Baldridge (b. ca 1825, TN) was probably the first child of James Luckey Baldridge and his second wife, Narcissa Henderson. On 28 December 1846 in Gibson County, he married his first wife, Elizabeth Nuckles, who apparently died not long thereafter. His second wife was Lucy E. Nichols (b. ca 1827, TN), whom he married in Gibson County on 26 August 1850. There were perhaps eleven children; Alecta (12 May 1851 - 19 May 1929), Sarah (b. ca 1853), Elizabeth S. (b. ca 1854), John (b. ca 1856), Adolphus (b. ca 1858), Charles A. (b. ca 1860), Albert Sidney (b. ca 1862), Harve U. (b. ca 1864), Jesse D. (b. ca 1866), M.G. (b. ca 1868), Walter (b. ca 1871). William Henry Baldridge apparently moved from Gibson County to Texas sometime after the Census of 1870 and later died there in Wise County.

Similarity in the maiden names of the two wives of William Henry Baldridge suggests that they were perhaps sisters, especially since the 1850 Census notes young William H. and Lucy Baldridge as living in the household of William Nuckolls (age 56), perhaps the father of the two wives. William was employed then as a constable in Gibson County.

The 1850 Gibson County census found unmarried Alexander S. Baldridge (b. 1827) and teenager Susanna E. Baldridge(b. ca 1833) living at home with their parents, James Luckey and Narcissa (Henderson) Baldridge.

By 1860, Alexander S. Baldridge had evidently become a physician and was still living in the household of his father, then a 75 year old widower. He died on 28 July 1863 during the Civil War while serving as surgeon of the 47th Tennessee Infantry Regiment, CSA, and is buried in the Yorkville Cumberland Presbyterian Church Cemetery.

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Ref: Kennedy, Chester C. (1993). "Our Baldridge Forbears and Some of Their Collateral Lines", 2nd Ed., privately published, The Kennedy Library of Konawa, Inc., Route 1, Box 3, Konawa, OK 74849-9602.


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