Online Material
Published Sources
THE DAILY REPUBLICAN, Monongahela, PA, February 5, 6, & 22, 1902
THE PITTSBURGH GAZETTE, February 6, 1902
Researchers
Earl Bake
Biography
Family records show that Gilbert BAKE and his wife Jane immigrated from
Yorkshire, England, in 1831 and settled in the vicinity of Belle Vernon or
Rostraver Twp., Westmoreland County. Four sons, named Gilbert, William, John,
and Joseph came with them, along with the younger Gilbert's wife (Margaret)
and two daughters (Jane and Mary BAKE). They were from a Quaker district in
Yorkshire; Gilbert and Jane were reportedly buried at an unknown time in a
Quaker cemetery in Sewickley, Westmoreland Co.(not the later Sewickley west of
Pittsburgh).
The younger Gilbert BAKE and his family migrated at some unknown time to
Richmond, Jefferson Co., OH, where there was a Quaker community, and he
reportedly died in 1879. William BAKE had a farm in Warren Twp., Jefferson
Co., OH and died in about 1878; this William is believed to have been the
brother of the younger Gilbert, because he mentioned a brother named John BAKE
in his will. However, this is not certain.
John W.BAKE was lost in the sinking of the steamboat JOHN W. AILES in the
Monongahela River on February 5, 1902. Newspaper accounts say he was from
Glenwood, PA and had two brothers and a sister living in Charleroi. Other
accounts report that he had children named Sarah, William, and Earl BAKE.
While John's ancestry is uncertain, it seems likely that he descended from one
of the 1831 immigrants due to the unusual surname and closeness to their
Westmoreland Co. home.