Bair

Jacob Bair and Barbara b. 1750

/ Kirstin Miller

Jacob Bair and Barbara 4th great grandparents on RootsMagic tree

Jacob Bair and Barbara – last name unknown- were born around 1750, probably in Maryland. Their parents are unknown, it’s likely  their parents migrated from Germany. Jacob and Barbara  married around 1780 and moved from Maryland to Pennsylvania where they had at least 7 children. By 1820 the Bair family had traveled 350 miles  west to Stark County, Ohio.  In Stark County they joined hundreds of other German immigrants that moved from Pennsylvania to Ohio: Bair, Bowman, Druckenbrod, Essig, Fryberger, Fuchs, Grubb, Harter, Kryder, Miller, all moved together.

Barbara died in  Stark County around 1820. Jacob lived 20 more years. Jacob’s estate was brought to the county court on December 18, 1840. On January 5 1841 an inventory and legal papers were presented.  Peter Loutzenheiser ‘a venerable pioneer’ was the overseer and “Abraham Bair, Jacob Bair and John Bair sons of said Jacob Bair” are mentioned in the will. Jacob’s inventory included: A tea kettle, a plough shovel, an auger, a psalm book, a pair of sheep shears, pewter dishes and plates, a light body coat, a pair of pantaloons, 2 shirts, 1 flannel shirt, 2 pocket books, yarn & threads and weavers reeds & shuttles.

Jacob’s will, Ohio, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1786-1998

Jacob and Barbara are buried in Henry Warstler Cemetery, Plain Township, Stark, Ohio, United States, their headstones long gone. In the Henry Warstler country church cemetery there are 62 Bair burials. In Stark County 442 Bairs are buried.  Jacob and Barbara’s 2nd great granddaughter Fiana Druckenbrod married William Miller, they moved to Bremer County, Iowa. In the summer Fiana returned to Stark Co. for Bair family reunions. Fiana and William’s daughter Lola kept in touch with her Stark Co. relatives, they visited her in Greene, Iowa.

Sources

  • Jacob’s will, Ohio, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1786-1998 at Ancestry
  • Early records of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Canton, Ohio at FamilySearch
  • Find a Grave memorials
  • Bair family, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Mennonite Vital Records, 1750-2014 at Ancestry

Abraham Bair b. 1784

/ Kirstin Miller

Abraham Bair 5th great grandpa on RootsMagic tree

Abraham Bair, born 1784, in Adams, Pennsylvania was the oldest son of Jacob and Barbara Bair who were probably 2nd generation German Americans. By 1810 Abraham was 22 years old and with his family had moved west to Ohio, a state for 7 years, since 1803. On March 31, 1812 Abraham married Elizabeth Harter. A family history book states this was the first marriage in Stark, Ohio. “Tradition says the marriage ceremony of the first couple was: You bromis to take te voman you holt by te hant to pe your vife, and tat you will shtick to her through hell-fire und dunder? Den I bronounce you man and voman, by Got!!,”

Abraham fought in the War of 1812, his pension records show he fought with the Ohio Militia in Captain James Downing’s Company. Abraham and Elizabeth had at least 7 children and lived on a farm. They grew clover, corn, hay, hemp, oats, wheat; produced butter, honey, milk; raised bees, bulls, cows, geese, hens, horses, pigs, sheep.

Bair, Abraham will

Abraham’s 1829 inventory, partial from his estate

Abraham died at age 45 in 1830. His will was dated September 5, 1829. Brother in law Jacob Harter was the administrator. Abraham’s inventory included 2 iron kettles and a Dutch oven, barrels, a weavers loom and gears, a spinning wheel, a plough, a wagon saddle and sheepskin, a black mare, a bay horse, walnut and poplar boards, Dresden ware and a wooden clock with case. The will is several handwritten pages. In 1833 Abraham’s town lot was offered for sale, his children who were still minors, had Abraham’s brothers and brother in laws as guardians, estate managers.
Sources

  • War of 1812 Pension Application Files Index, 1812-1815 at Ancestry
  • Ohio Repository, The (Canton, Ohio) 1833 May 17 at Ancestry
  • Ohio, Wills and Probate Records, 1786-1998 at Ancestry
  • Ohio county marriages 1789-2013 database at FamilySearch
  • Notes on the Bowman, Harter and Sauer families at FamilySearch

Elizabeth Harter Bair b. 1836

/ Kirstin Miller

Elizabeth Bair 3rd great grandma on RootsMagic

Elizabeth was born in July, 1836 in Plain Township, Stark, Ohio. She was the oldest child of George and Margaret Bowman Harter. Elizabeth’s middle name ‘Harter’ was her maternal grandmother’s maiden name. Both the Harter and Bair families were pioneers in Plain, Elizabeth’s great grandparents some of the first settlers.

Bair, Elizabeth and family 1850 census

1850 Plain Township, Ohio census, Elizabeth Bair and family

On the 1850 census Elizabeth is 13. The Bair family is on page 45 of 53. The 53 pages with 20 or fewer person on each page contain Elizabeth’s future husband’s Druckenbrod family, the Henry Miller family, future in laws of granddaughter Fianna and lots of ancestors: Miller, Bair, Harter, Druckenbrod, Malone, Kryder and Shuler families. Also in laws by marriage: Grubb, Essig, Troxel, Christ, and Bishop families. And no relation: Kissinger, Trump and Pence families too, all in this tiny township with population at 896 people in 1820 then 2277 people in 1850.

Population in Plain Township, Ohio from 1855 map

Population from 1820-1850

Elizabeth married Samuel Druckenbrod around 1854. They lived on a farm, and had 12 children. Elizabeth was 24 when the Civil War started. 320,000 Ohio men were drafted in to the war which was covered in the local newspapers: Stark County Democrat and Stark County Republican.  Elizabeth could have read Mrs. Samuel Stover’s eyewitness account of ‘the march of Lee’s rebel army into Pennsylvania; also of the retreat of the remnant of said army to the Potomac’ in the Republican and details of the battle in the Democrat.

Sources

George Bair b. 1816

/ Kirstin Miller

George Bair 4th great grandfather on RootsMagic tree

George Bair was born on October 19, 1816 in Stark, Ohio, 1st son in a large family. All four of his grandparents were pioneer settlers in Ohio. George stayed in his hometown area. On March 24 1836 he and Margaret Malone were married by the Justice of the Peace. George farmed and with Margaret had 4 daughters and one son.

Bair Malone marriage

An 1875 Atlas of Stark Ohio shows George’s land in Plain township, 84 acres.

Also in the 1870s, George and Margaret’s granddaughter Fiana Druckenbrod lived with them. On the census Fiana is a servant. Maybe she helped her grandma in the garden, and with laundry, cooking. And maybe on the weekend they would take a horse and  buggy into the town of Stark to pick up goods at the General Store.

On George’s will administration page a Wm L. Miller signed. George Bair had 2 Wiiliam L Millers in his life. Young William L was his granddaughter Fiana’s husband. Senior William was George’s brother’s wife’s sister’s husband, so kind of like brother in law. Senior William L was also Young William L’s uncle, the brother of Peter Miller, Young William’s dad. Senior William and his brother Samuel and George’s brther Jacob  married into another Miller family. Confusing. Young William was about 42, Senior William about 64 at George’s death. Either one of these Williams makes sense as a witness to the will.

George died in 1892. Margaret died 2 years after George, they share a headstone at Saint Jacobs Lutheran Cemetery, Lake Township, Stark County, Ohio. This cemetery has 47 Bair family memorials and 98 Miller family memorials, about half of those Millers somehow related to my Miller family.

Page 71 image 79 of 136 George Bair square 3 84 acres near Middle Branch PO, Plain township. Combination atlas map of Stark county, Ohio at Archive.org.

Ohio, Wills and Probate Records, 1786-1998

Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-2013

Find a Grave

Jacob H. Bair b. 1814

/ Kirstin Miller

Jacob Bair 4th great grand uncle on RootsMagic tree

Jacob Bair was born in Stark County, Ohio in 1814 to Abraham and Elizabeth Harter Bair. Abraham, the father, died at 46, in 1830 and Elizabeth married Jehu Grubb, of the Grubb Family Iron Dynasty but, not recognized as part of the family until 2000 or so -another story, Wikipedia link to the story https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehu_Grubb .

In 1868 at age 54, with land and/or money from his 2nd father Jehu, Jacob began building The Jacob H Bair House, now a private residence and on the National Register of Historic Places, photo at Wikipedia http://bit.ly/1NvvUvH.

In September 1871 Jacob’s farming skills were on exhibit at the 22nd Ohio State Fair held in Springfield Ohio. Jacob raised 92 bushels of barley on 2 acres of land, this is verified by 2 additional people then recorded in the Annual Report of the Ohio State Board of Agriculture.

Jacob married, had a family and stayed in Plain City, Stark, Ohio,

Jacob Bair b. 1814, brother of George Bair b. 1816, father of Elizabeth Bair b. 1834, mother of Fiana Druckenbrod b. 1854, mother of Lola Miller b.1880, mother of Faber Miller b. 1905 m. Gladys Cable

Sources