Surnames in this history: Allender, Baker, Barnett, Roderick & Schiff.

Photograph by Jerry Ferrin.

 

Roderick gravestones in the Sharon, Barber Co, Ks, cemetery:

Daniel B. Roderick, b. 18 May 1839, d. 25 June 1911. A bronze marker beside his grave indicates he was a veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Laura M. (Allender) Roderick, b. 14 Aug 1861, d. 26 June 1942. (She was the daughter of David W. & Margaret J. Allender of Benton township, Polk Co., MO. "Kate" Roderick Baker of Wilmore, Ks, was her step-sister. Anna Aurelia (Allender) Barnett of Wilmore, Ks, was her sister.)

Gladys I. Roderick, b. 18 Sept 1899, d. 20 June 1975.

Susan T. Roderick, 1865 - 1956.

Willis J. Roderick, 1862 - 1940.

(Blanche?), dau. of W.J. & S.T. Roderick, b. 8 May 1901, d. 22 Feb, 1908. (the name is badly weathered on the stone)

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LETTER FROM ALZINA BAKER OF WILMORE, KS, TO JERRY FERRIN OF TUCSON, AZ, REGARDING NELLIE MAY (BARNETT) FERRIN OF WILMORE, KS, 24 OCT 1988.

I found this in Rod Baker's mother's Family History Book:

Daniel Boone Roderick, b. May 18, 1839 ; m. Louisa Mary Thorpe b. Feb 28, 1844 d. Sept 10, 1889. They had eight children, including:

1. Kate Baker, mother of Rod Baker (Rod is still living in Wilmore.)

2. India R. Huffaker, mother of Mary Schiff, (Mrs. Emmet Schiff, who lives in Sharon, Ks.)

D.B. Roderick's second wife was Laura Maggie Allender, b. August 14, 1861; m. March 6, 1893; d. June 26, 1912.

The only child of D.B. and Laura Maggie Roderick, Ura Ramona Roderick, was born August 2, 1895 and married Grant Wright. They moved to Phoenix, Az, and their children (Ronald, Max and Margaret) still live there.

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Loose notes included with Alzina's typed letter:

1. Rod thinks this mother, Catherine "Kate" Baker, knew Mrs. Barnett, Nellie's mother (Anna Aurelia Allender Barnett) before Kate came to Coldwater and married L.E. Baker. If so, it might have been at Sharon, Kansas. It seems, too, that Kate Roderick Baker's father married some kin of Mrs. Barnett -your great grandmother. I'll try to get names, etc.

2. Rod seems so sure that his mother, Catherine Elizabeth Roderick - who married Llewellyn Edward "Lew" Baker in 1908 - had known Nellie's mother, Mrs. Annie Barnett, before either of them came to Wilmore. So I started looking in the Roderick Family Genealogy Book. With it and some facts we remember -we found this which may help you to find more information, if you still need it.

3. I've known that Mary Schiff was some relation to Nellie Ferrin, but never really paid attention. Also that Ura Wright was a half-sister to Kate and Aunt India. Rod says that Ura's mother was a sister to Nellie's mother. If so, this explains that they probably knew each other for years - likely all had a background at Sharon, Kansas.

4. I have never been really interested in people's ages, even my own, until I look at a picture or in a mirror and, seeing that old woman, with shock realize that it is me. I knew, of course, that Nellie was a bit older than I - unless she was married awfully young, for she had three fair-sized kids when I was married. Anyway, one day after Ernie's death she stopped to see me. She was on her way to renew her driving license, and took it out and showed it to me. I noted with her that its date indicated time for renewal. Later someone asked me how old Nellie was. It really had not registered in my mind. So for the first time when looking for facts for you, and checking her life span from the funeral folder - I realized the difference in our chronological ages. There never seemed to be any differences in our feelings and responses to life.

The gravestone of Laura Maggie (Allender) Roderick, born 14 Aug 1861, died 26 June 1942. Sharon Cemetery, Barber County, Kansas.

Photograph by Jerry Ferrin.
 

The gravestone of Daniel Boone Roderick, b. 18 May 1839, died 26 June 1942. Sharon Cemetery, Barber County, Kansas.

Photograph by Jerry Ferrin.

At left: Detail of a USGS topographical map showing the Sharon Cemetery just south of Sharon, Barber County, Kansas.

Aerial photograph of the Sharon Cemetery just south of Sharon, Barber County, Kansas..

Life from Death & Death from Life

from Wendel Gene Ferrin: Life Stories, page 102, privately published.

My mother, Nellie Barnett Ferrin, was born near Springfield, Missouri, on 08 Jan 1893, and moved to Sharon, Kansas, with her mother, Annie Barnett, and sister, Geneva Barnett in 1901 when she was 8 years old. I am not sure for what reason they moved from Missouri to Sharon or how long they lived in Sharon or why they moved from there to Wilmore, but I recall Mom telling many times of a young lady in Sharon who was engaged to be married and was wearing a large diamond ring. For some reason that was never explained to me and was perhaps never known, this young lady "died" shortly before the wedding was to take place. Since in most cases they did not embalm people at that time, she was buried the next day and she was buried with the ring on her finger. Late that night, so-called "grave-robbers" who had observed the ring on the "corpse" dug into the grave to retrieve it but when they attempted to pull the ring from her finger she hollered "Ouch!" and sat up. Needless to say, the grave robbers let no grass grow under their feet. They vacated the property immediately.

The girl had been in such a deep coma that neither the doctor, the undertaker or the family detected that she was alive since neither her pulse or breathing was perceptable. She scrambled frbm the grave and walked the short distance to town. She made the mistake of walking into her mother's house unannounced and when her mother saw her, she had a heart attack and died.

The young lady resumed her life where she had left off. She married the young man she was engaged to and was still living in Sharon when I moved with my family to Tucson from Kansas in 1966.

I don't recall any of the names but anytime we went through Sharon and Mom was with us, she always pointed out where that woman and her husband lived and also the house where the woman's mother who did actually die had lived.

--Wendel Ferrin, written in November 1989.

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Related histories:
The Allender Ancestors & Relatives of Nellie May (Barnett) Ferrin.
Lew & Kate (Roderick) Baker
The Memoirs of Grant Wright
Letter to Jerry Ferrin re: Nellie May (Barnett) Ferrin from Alzina Baker
Mary (Huffaker) Schiff