Appolonia Baker Stoecklein

Photo from Mike Cunningham

My plan for the ancestral biosketches was to jump between family lines (that is, one from my mom's side, then one from my dad's side), but I find myself thinking about Appolonia Baker Stoecklein recently. Although my last biosketch was about her husband, John T. Stoecklein, I'm going to write a short sketch of what we know about her family for this week's post.

Appolonia died quite young, at the age of 41. Because her children had few memories of her, they weren't able to pass down much family lore. In fact, we didn't know her full name or anything about her birth family, which, as far as I know, had little contact with her children after she passed away.

I discussed her married life, children, and death in my post on her husband. Other than a few photographs handed down through the family, I have only public documents to shed light on her early life. Luckily, the name Appolonia is unusual enough that she can be easily traced, despite her common maiden name, which was Baker or Becker. Originally, the name was probably Baker with an umlaut over the a, and this got transliterated various ways in English-language documents. Baker is closer to the original spelling, but Becker is closer to the original pronunciation.

Appolonia Baker/Becker was the daughter of Casper and Anna Maria Baker. Casper Baker was born March 18, 1822, according to his tombstone, and his wife was born Feb 2, 1826(1). In census documents, they both list their birthplace as Saxony. Place names in Germany are difficult to interpret. The same town and region names can be used for a variety of different locations, and, of course, the boundaries of those regions could change over time. Saxony, in the period 1820-1860, most likely referred either to the Kingdom of Saxony (an independent member of the German Confederation that included the major cities of Dresden and Leipzig) or the Province of Saxony (a somewhat less coherent region annexed by Prussia and including areas that had previously been part of the Kingdom of Saxony, such as Wittenberg, but also Magdeburg, Halberstadt, and parts of the former territories of Brandenberg and Erfurt.) Where, exactly, Casper and Anna were from is unknown, but my best guess is that they were from the Kingdom of Saxony rather than the Province, since they would have been more likely to give their nation of birth as Prussia in the later case. On the other hand, the areas annexed by Prussia, particularly Upper Lusatia which used to be part of Brandenberg, had much higher Roman Catholic populations, and the Bakers were clearly Catholic, since they are buried in the Catholic Calvary cemetery in Dayton.

So far, I've given Appolonia's mother's name as "Anna Maria", but in fact, her name is a bit of a mystery. In the 1850 census, she is listed as "Mary Baker", 24, of Germany(2). In 1860, she is "Anna M. Becker" of Saxony, age 35(3). In the 1870 census, Casper's wife's name is given as Elizabeth, 41, from Saxony(4). In 1880, she's back to being "Mary Baker", born in Germany, aged 54(5). On her tombstone in Calvary Cemetery, her name is given as Anna M. Becker(1). Her name was probably Anna Maria, since German naming practices tended to give child a more formal first name and a less formal second name. Either one could be used in official documents, particularly in the United States. I'm not sure why she was called Elizabeth in the 1870 census. One possibility is that the 1870 census was mistake (perhaps a neighbor gave the information). This would explain why her age is incorrect in that census, as well. Alternatively, her full name was Anna Maria Elisabeta. 

Anna Maria's maiden name is unknown. On her son Casper's death certificate, it is listed as "Derorph", but I can find no records of this name in the U.S. or Germany. The name may have been imperfectly known by Casper's daughter (who was the source for the information on his death certificate), or it may have been poorly written by the clerk. I can only guess that her maiden name was actually something like Dierdorf.

Appolonia had a number of siblings recorded in the censuses of 1860 and 1870. All were born in Ohio, suggesting her parents were married in the U.S., or moved to the U.S. very soon after marriage, and that they arrived before 1849. The recorded children of Casper and Anna Baker are:

• Mary E. (1849)
• Casper (1852)
• Appolonia (1854)
• Joseph (1856)
• Louis (1858)
• Anne (1859)
• Louisa (1860)
• Katy (1862)
• Emma (1865)

We know from the 1860 census, when Appolonia was 6 years old, that she and her family lived in the fourth ward of Dayton, Ohio. The fourth ward, defined in 1829, was "Bounded on the north by a line running due east from the river to the south line of Market Street and along that line to Jefferson Street; thence north to Third Street, and along Third Street to the corporation line; on the south by Fifth Street, and on the east by the corporation line."(6).  

According to the 1870 census, Casper was a stone cutter. He is also listed as such in a number of city directories. The oldest daughter, Mary, worked as a cigar maker, and the oldest son, Casper, was a shoe maker. Appolonia, 16, was living at home, her occupation listed as "helps mother". Two years later, she married. She would have been around 18 years old.

This was in a Stoecklein family album, so there must have
been some contact between the families.
Photograph from Mike Cunningham

Although Appolonia herself died young, in 1895, a number of her family members would have been in Dayton throughout the childhood of her own orphaned children. Her mother did not die until 1905, for example. I was not able to trace all of Appolonia's siblings, but her eldest brother, Casper Jr., was a shoemaker in Dayton. His wife, Barbara, and his children, Ralph and Carrie, lived in Dayton their whole lives. His married daughter, Daisy Baker Breen, was there at least part of her life.

Similarly, Appolinia's youngest sister, Emma, married Frederick Toby. She was widowed rather young, but lived in Dayton with her children, Frederick Toby and Florence Toby Plummer, (and later her orphaned grandson, Marvin Plummer) until 1950. Part of that time she lived with her sister, Katy Baker, and her sister's daughter, Beatrice Baker Poling. (As a side note, as far as I can tell, Beatrice was illegitimate.) Katy moved to New York in the 1920s with her daughter's family, but would have been in Dayton during the formative years of Appolonia's children.

Louisa Baker married Joseph Bennett, and she also lived in Dayton for her whole life. She had at least three children: Charles Bennett, Corrie Mountjoy, and Henrietta Geiger.

Do any of the Stoecklein descendants recognize these names? Was there ever contact between these Baker descendants and Appolonia's children or grandchildren?

To me, personally, the most pertinent legacy of Appolonia Baker Stoecklein is in her genetic contribution to subsequent generations, but that is a topic for another post, coming soon.

References:
1 - ↑ http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=56952586&PIpi=100987812
2 - "United States Census, 1850," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MX3W-6GM : accessed 31 January 2015), Casper Baker, Dayton, ward 5, Montgomery, Ohio, United States; citing family 3261, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
3 - 1860 census
4 - "United States Census, 1870," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M6L8-NHY : accessed 31 January 2015), Joseph Baker in household of Casper Baker, Ohio, United States; citing p. 88, family 746, NARA microfilm publication M593 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 552,748.
5 - "United States Census, 1880," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M8S3-62R : accessed 15 January 2015), Casper Baker, Dayton, Montgomery, Ohio, United States; citing enumeration district 159, sheet 331D, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 1051; FHL microfilm 1,255,051.
6 - http://www.daytonhistorybooks.com/page/page/3428681.htm