JOHN BALDRIGE:
Ireland to Gibson County, Tennessee
by Henry David Baldridge, Jr.
John Baldrige (1715, Ulster Province, Ireland - 15/31 Jul 1766, Lancaster Co., PA), was the firstborn 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). John remained in the far north of Ireland when his parents emigrated to America in about 1726. He married Rebekah Clark (b. ca 1720, Ulster Province, Ireland) in Coleraine, County Londonderry, in about 1733.
With their then three young children, John and Rebekah (Clark) Baldrige emigrated to Pennsylvania in about 1737, arriving in Philadelphia before settling in Martic Township in southern Lancaster County.
The children of John and Rebekah totaled perhaps 18, including the following with their probable birth dates, all born in Lancaster County, except for the first three who were born in Ulster Province, Ireland: William, ca 1734; Malcolm, ca 1736; Robert, ca 1737; Francis, ca 1741; Daniel, ca 1744; James, ca 1746; Margaret, ca 1751; John, ca 1752; Alexander, ca 1756; Thomas, ca 1759; Ann, ca 1760; Joseph, 14 Sep 1762; Rebecca, Dec 1764; and possibly 3-5 others.
John Baldrige died in late July 1766 in Lancaster County, PA, and was likely buried in the cemetery of Chestnut Level Presbyterian Church, although there is no known tombstone there bearing his name.
The widow, Rebekah (Clark) Baldrige married Aaron Boggs on 19 May 1769 in St. James Episcopal Church, Lancaster. They soon moved with some of the younger Baldrige children to what is now Lincoln County, North Carolina. Rebecca went on to give birth to three Boggs children, giving her a grand total of at least 19 (perhaps 21), the last child being born in about 1778 with Rebecca in her late 50's. Rebecca (Clark) Baldrige Boggs died on 1 July 1823 at the probable age of about 103 years. Her very weathered tombstone still stands in the cemetery of Knob Creek Methodist Church, Belwood, in eastern Cleveland County, NC.
At some time around 1770, Daniel Baldridge (by then spelled with the second "d") settled a few miles northeast of the present-day City of Hillsborough in Orange County, NC. There is no known extant record bearing the name of his wife. Except for perhaps the first two or three, their nine known children were born in Orange County, NC; James (ca 1762 - before 1830), John (ca 1763 - ca 1819), Hannah ( ? - ? ), William (12 Jul 1777 - ca 1855), Andrew W. (ca 1779 - ? ), Robert (ca 1780 - before 1850), Daniel Jr. (ca 1784 - 28 Jan 1844), Francis Marion (3 Aug 1785 - 11 Oct 1847), Catherine (ca 1787 - ? ).
On 1 May 1810, Daniel sold his last land holding in Orange County, NC, and soon moved to Davidson County, Tennessee (Nashville area). By 1820, Daniel, then an aging widower, was evidently living in the household of his son, Francis Marion Baldridge, in either Davidson County or contiguous Rutherford County, TN.
In 1822, Daniel received a land warrant (#5071) from the State of North Carolina for his military service during the Revolutionary War. This warrant was for 640 acres located a few miles southeast of the present-day City of Martin, in Weakley County, TN. Daniel and his son, William, soon took up residence in Weakley County, where Daniel died in about 1828. His grave site (tombstone erroneously displaying earlier best-guess birth and death dates as 1754 and 1834, respectively) is now prominently preserved in the "Y" formed by the Pair Road exit ramp and the south(west)bound traffic lanes of a highway bypass southeast of the City of Martin.
Francis Marion Baldridge, the youngest son of Daniel Baldridge, was born in Orange County, NC, on 3 August 1785. By the early 1800's, he had migrated westward to Davidson and Rutherford Counties in Middle Tennessee. On 21 November 1811, he married Frances Dickey (b. 20 Aug 1792) in Rutherford County, where all of their nine children were later born; James Henderson (25 Aug 1812 - 5 Apr 1902), Melinda Caroline (10 Sep 1813 - ? ), Ira J. (16 Feb 1817 - ? ), Catherine Minerva (10 Feb 1819 - 5 Jul 1899), Mary Logue (25 Mar 1821 - ? ), Francis Marion Jr. (25 Sep 1822 - ? ), Eliza (ca 1827 - ? ), Rebecca Jane (ca 1832 - ? ), Margaret M. (4 Dec 1835 - 6 Aug 1859). It was with this family that Daniel Baldridge apparently lived from about 1811 until about 1822, when he left to occupy his land grant in Weakley County.
In about the early 1840's, Francis Marion Baldridge, with his wife and younger children, moved from Rutherford County, TN, to Clinton County, Illinois, where he died on 11 October 1847. Frances (Dickey) Baldridge died on 29 October 1874 in Benton County, Arkansas, on land granted to her for her husband's military service in the War of 1812.
Their oldest son, James Henderson Baldridge married Elizabeth J. Todd (b. ca 1815, TN) in about 1833 in Rutherford County and became the parents of eight children; Elmira J. (ca 1834 - 1 May 1880), William T. (ca 1837 - 18 Apr 1909), John P. (ca 1838 - ? ), Francis "Frank" (ca 1840 - ? ), James Smith (17 Sep 1843 - 21 Jun 1922), Edmund Todd "E.T." (20 Nov 1844 - 20 Oct 1920), Lucinda "Lucy" (ca 1846 - ? ), Mary Elizabeth (ca 1849 - ? ). Elizabeth (Todd) Baldridge died in Rutherford County in about 1853.
James Henderson Baldridge married his second wife, Mary Brogden (ca 1829, NC - ca 1877, TN), on 15 September 1857, either when still living in Rutherford County or shortly after moving westward to Madison County. By 1861, they had moved to adjacent Gibson County, where they spent the remainder of their married life. They were the parents of at least seven children; Benjamin Brogden (ca 1858 - ? ), George Luckey (31 Mar 1861 - 11 Oct 1920), Robert H. (ca 1863 - ? ), Edith (ca 1865 - ? ), twins Virginia Tennessee (13 Mar 1868 - 20 Mar 1923) and Julius H. (13 Mar 1868 - ? ), Luther Caldwell (1870 - ? ).
Mary (Brogden) Baldridge died in about 1877 in Gibson County. The Census evidences that by 1880 James Henderson Baldridge (age 79) had moved with his younger children to Crockett County. He died in there on 5 April 1902 and is buried in Section 3 of the Alamo Cemetery.
At the time of the 1860 Census, Edmund Todd "E.T." Baldridge, (then age 16) was living in the household of his father and step-mother, James Henderson Baldridge and Mary (Brogden) Baldridge, in Madison County, TN. He enlisted in the Civil War in the summer of 1863 as a private in Company B, 14th(Neely's) Tennessee Cavalry Regiment, Confederate States Army, later under the command of General Nathan Bedford Forrest. He was paroled as a prisoner of war at Brownsville, Haywood County, TN, on 31 May 1865.
On 27 February 1868, "E. T." married Amanda T. "Mendy" Fisher (23 May 1849 - 22 Feb 1880), and they lived their 12 years of married life farming in Gibson County, TN. They were the parents of probably five children; Walter Lee (1868 - 1952), Thomas Oliver (24 Dec 1871 - 23 Oct 1938), James Earl "Early" (4 June 1874 - 14 Jan 1933), Leroy (b. 1876), Susan A. (b. 1878).
Amanda (Fisher) Baldridge died in Gibson County on 22 February 1880 and is buried at Good Hope Methodist Church Cemetery, southwest of Dyer, Gibson County, TN. On 26 September 1883, "E. T." married his second wife, Elizabeth "Bettie" Worrell (b. 1847, TN), and they were the parents of at least two children, including Hattie (1886 - 1919) and Dora( ? - ? ). "E.T." and "Bettie" were farming near Trenton in Gibson County as late as 1907. This family moved later to Crockett County, where "Bettie" died in 1915 and "E.T." died on 20 October 1920. They are buried in the cemetery of Cypress Methodist Church about three miles southeast of Alamo.
Walter Lee Baldridge (1868 - 1952), married Claude M. Orr (1875 - 1953), and they lived out their lives in Gibson County, where they were the parents of two children; James Robert (1899 - 1980) and Marian (1902 - 1946). Walter and Claude (Orr) Baldridge are buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Dyer, TN.
James Earl Baldridge (4 Jun 1874 - 14 Jan 1933) never married and lived his last years in Memphis, Shelby County, TN, where he is buried in Forest Hill Cemetery.
Thomas Oliver Baldridge (24 Dec 1871 - 23 Oct 1938) moved from Gibson County to Memphis, Shelby County, in about 1894. In about 1898, he married Estelle Meyer (7 Feb 1872 - 19 Oct 1925), and they became the parents of seven children, all born in Memphis; Arthur E. (22 Jul 1899 - 28 Sep 1959), James Meyer "Mike" (ca 1900 - 2 Mar 1954), Henry David (16 May 1902 - 18 Jun 1969), Irma Ardell (17 Aug 1904 - 3 Mar 1997), Bernice E. (14 Sep 1905 - 13 Jan 1986), Thomas O., Jr. (19 Jan 1907 - 16 Dec 1985), Kahn R. (19 Jan 1909 - 8 Dec 1991). Both Thomas Oliver Baldridge and Estelle (Meyer) Baldridge are buried at the Jewish Cemetery in Memphis, Shelby County, TN.
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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.