Old West Kansas

Kansas Family History

Family History of SAMUEL L. BAYLESS

SAMUEL L. BAYLESS was born in 1819 in Montgomery Co. TN, to WILLIAM and 
ROWENA FRANKLIN BAYLESS.  There were at least 6 children born to them: 
SAMUEL, WILLIAM, JOSIAH FRANKLIN, HIRAM MONTGOMERY, MARIAH ELIZABETH and 
MARY JANE or MARY ROENNA.  His father WILLIAM was born about 1790 in 
Halifax Co. NC to JOHN B. and PATIENCE HORN BAYLESS.  JOHN B. was born 
in 1755 to JOHN and AMEY BAYLESS. 
 
SAMUEL married MARTHA SUSAN LITTLE in 1843 in Marshall Co. AL.  They 
had the following children:  ROENNA JANE born in 1844 (married Jacob 
Webber on 11/2/1862 in AT Co. KS.) MARY EMMA (Emmeline) born in 1846 
(married James S. Womach on 2/11/1866 in AT Co.) HIRAM MONTGOMERY born 
in 1848 (married Louisa Jane Louisghont on 7/29/1866 in AT Co.KS.)  
SAMUEL MATHIAS born on 3/14/1850 (married Hannah E. Wallace on 10/25/1878 
in Douglas Co. KS.)  FRANKLIN THEODORE born 7/11/1854 (married Mary 
Trentham on 11/25/1888 in Shannon, Mo.)  JAQUILLIAN M. (QUILL) born on 
5/14/1854 (married Eliza Mathiot in 1876 in Marion Co. KS.)  HARVEY 
THEODORE born in 1855 (married Caroline Strom on 1/6/1884 in SN Co. KS. 
MARTHA SUSAN born in 1861 (married Levi Dutcher in Auburn, SN Co. KS in 
1886. She died in the state of Oregon in 1888.
 
SAMUEL and MARTHA SUSAN arrived in AT Co. KS on 6/2/1962.  There were 
several family members already living in Kansas at the time, as Samuel's 
mother ROWENA and several of his sisters and brothers had homesteaded 
there around 1856.  SAMUEL and MARTHA were living in Mt. Pleasant, Mo. 
in 1860, when his mother and a sister came and persuaded the family to 
move to KS.  SAMUEL was very ill at the time (dropsy).  His son, THEODORE
FRANKLIN wrote in his memoirs, "NO MAN'S LAND OF THE BORDER or TRUE STORIES 
OF THE OLD FRONTIER" published in 1939, that he remembered the journey 
vividly.                                       
      "We had a big wagon of the prairie schooner type so much used in 
those days.  The wagon was drawn by 3 yoke of oxen.  A light wagon was 
drawn by a pair of horses.  We had 35 head of stock cattle and 5 horses, 
colts included.  My father had to be hauled, so we got a young man who 
wanted to go west to drive the 3 yoke of oxen.  My mother drove the horse 
team.  My oldest brother drove the loose horses, riding one.  A brother two 
years my senior and the writer of these lines (THEODORE FRANKLIN) drove the 
stock cattle...My brother was 11 years of age and I was 9."
       "It was the 15th of May when we started.  The grass was green the 
flowers were in bloom and all nature was at its best.....Our route led north 
across..to me..that mysterious prairie that I had so often longed to explore 
and see what lay beyond....It was the first time in memory I had ever camped 
out.  My mother and sisters cooked supper on a campfire. How strange it all 
seemed!...We passed through the town of LaMarr, the county seat of Barton Co.
Mo.  It was a small town at that time.  A flag was waving from the courthouse.  
We had never seen a flag like it and we asked a man what kind of flag it was; 
he said it was a Confederate flag.  I shall never forget that flag; it was as 
red as blood.  This was the sign of rebellion and  had been since the days of 
the Roman Empire."
       "One day as we were going on our way, we saw a column of men coming 
toward us.  They were marching four abreast or in columns of four, as it is 
called in the army. They were young fellows, all on foot, dressed in rough 
workmen garb, of farmers and mechanics. They were full of frolic and fun, 
laughing and shouting and bellowing at our cattle as they passed.  My father, 
who had been a soldier, (SAMUEL served in the Florida War, in Co. D, Snodgrass' 
North AL mounted volunteers)  raised the wagon sheet and asked them where they 
were going.  They laughed and one said " We are going to the army, and we are
going to lick the suffering out of the damned rebels!".....The next town we 
passed through was Lawrence....It was a struggling little town on the Kaw, or 
Kansas River....The people of this quiet town did not dream that the time was 
not far distant when their homes would be ashes and their streets cumbered with 
the dead and dying....A few more days and we arrived at our destination.  It was 
the third day of June, 1861.....The next summer, on the third day of June, 1862, 
a year to a day from the time we arrived at our new home, my father died.  We 
laid him to rest ina frontier graveyard, and went back to our darkened house."

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