Kable Brothers and Rittenhouse Company
Mount Morris, Illinois
Dear Editors:
…
But we came west destined to enjoy the growing privileges of Mount Morris. In 1857, my husband, children and myself joined a party of forty emigrants to the Kansas territory. We settled near Lawrence in Douglas County, where I resided until 1883 where I again moved to Sumner County, Kansas. During my forty-eight years residence in Kansas, I have watched it rise from barren prairie into a noble statehood, watched it pass through the tremendous struggle of the border warfare. When everyone feared the result fathered by the period of famine caused by the drought of 1860. When no rain fell to moisten the cracked ground for a period of 18 months, many left the territory never to return. In 1861, Kansas joined the Union and the turmoil of war was again felt inland and many a noble life was given for the life of the nation. One morning in the last of June, 1862 news came to me of the death of my husband, David Fearer, having been killed upon the battle ground leaving me alone in a frontier country to raise and educate the children alone.
Then, when the perilous warfare was over and the State began to prosper again growing slowly but steadily, we were invaded by a destructive army of grasshoppers who came during the summer of 1874 destroying all the vegetation, leaving their eggs to hatch the following spring to finish the work of destruction. But, the young grasshoppers only remained long enough to fly, when they left mysteriously as the old ones had come.
The cyclone too frequently came to pay an unwelcome visit to the frontiersman and when the morning sun rose, it always meets a scene of destruction, but with the love that the pilgrim felt making it still more dear for the hardships they had endured so we do love our Kansas land because of its struggles and victories. I loved Kansas as it struggled for freedom. I loved it for its loyal sacrifices of its noble citizens and yet if I could, I would love it more as it stands today, one of the foremost States of the West, having outlived the trials of its youth and standing ready to give aid to any sister state when needed. Kansas remembered Galveston during its disastrous time, floods of Topeka and Kansas City, made it necessary to have aid.
Since 1901, I have been residing with my eldest daughter Mrs. Stephen Porter near Rose, Kansas. Although we live on a farm, we enjoy every advantage with our natural gas for fires, the F.R.D. routes, improved roads, good public schools and Church in a close distance.
I am afraid I have made my letter so long now that it will get no further than the waste basket, so I will close the best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to both Editors and subscribers.
Written by Mrs. Sarah Baker who moved to Kansas from Maryland in 1840; November 25, 1905, Rose, Kansas
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Sarah Coffman [Mrs. Sarah Baker] was born in Maryland, November 19, 1831. She moved to Illinois in 1840 where she lived until 1857 (she and David Fearer were married, December 27, 1849).
In 1857, with three children they came to Kansas, with a party of about forty emigrants, settling near Lawrence, Kansas for a short time, then moving to Black Jack. Mr. David Fearer was killed near Independence, Missouri by bushwhackers as he was carrying the mail, in 1862. Mrs. Sarah Fearer had a boarding house in Black Jack for a number of years. A daughter, who was later Mrs. Frank Van Tries, was born in Black Jack in 1860.
Mrs. David Fearer experienced the drought of 1860-61, border warfare, and the invasion of the grasshoppers.
In 1866, she married Fletcher Baker. In 1883, they went to Sumner County. Mr. Fletcher Baker died in 1891. In 1901, Mrs. Sarah Baker began making her home in Woodson County with her daughter Mrs. Alma Porter. She died May 30, 1917.
Births: Alma M. Fearer January 12, 1851
John C. Fearer April 18, 1853
Mary A. Fearer June 4, 1855
Jonathan M. Fearer August 3, 1857
Mother: Sarah Coffman November 19, 1831
Father: David Fearer May 20, 1827
Fletcher Baker May 8, 1829
Deaths: Jonathan M. Fearer February 20, 1859
David Fearer June 1862
Fletcher Baker 1891
Sarah Coffman Fearer Baker May 30, 1917
Sarah Coffman was my Great-Great Grandmother; David Fearer was my Great-Great Grandfather
Fletcher Baker was my Great-Great Grandfather; Mrs. Frank Van Tries was my Great Grandmother
From the Van Tries family
