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According to census records, Elizabetha Becker was born in 1833 in
Darmstadt, Hessen, Germany. Sometime between 1839 and 1845 she emigrated to
the US with her family, and settled in Illinois. The family name then changed
from Becker to Baker. In 1850, at the age of 17, Elizabeth was living with her
father, John Baker, and siblings Jacob, Barbara and Mary in Silver Creek
township, Stephenson Co. Illinois. Since there was no mother in the home at
that time, we searched the cemetery records in the nearby area and found an
Apolonia Baker, wife of John Baker, buried in the Gund cemetery in Silver
Creek Township in 1846. The birthdate of 1798, which was recorded on the
tombstone, fits in quite well with the ages of this family and we feel quite
certain that this is the mother of Elizabeth Baker, but more research needs to
be done to confirm this.
In 1851, Elizabeth married Lawrence Smith in Stephenson Co. Illinois. After
they were married, they lived for at least four years in Pecatonica, Winnebago
Co., Illinois. It was here that their first two children, Julius and Cornelius
were born.
It appears from a letter dated 1858 written by Lawrence to his sister, that
the family then moved to Mitchell Co., Iowa. According to census records,
their third son, Carlos, was also born in Illinois in 1860, but it has not yet
been proven exactly where. The family does show up on the 1860 census for
Winnebago Co., Illinois so it is likely they were in or near Pecatonica at
that time.
In 1862, they had moved back to Iowa, where son Charles was born. Two years
later, daughter Lizzie was born in Ellsworth, Hamilton Co., Iowa. The 1870
census shows them living in Lyon Township, Hamilton, Iowa. Several letters
written by Lawrence between 1894 and 1899 give Webster City, Iowa as a return
address. In 1902, at the age of 69 yrs., Elizabeth moved to Chicago to lived
with her son Julius. She died in 1906 in Chicago of vascular disease.
Elizabeth Baker Smith was in the Cook County Infirmary, Chicago, Illinois when
she died. She was a widow at the time, age 72 yrs 1/1833. Elizabeth was buried
in the Forest Home Cemetery, Sec 43, Lot 258, first grave from the North Line
West 1/2.
For more information on the genealogy of the BAKER/BECKER family,
click
here.
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