WORLD WAR I VETERAN

David D. Baker is the son of Sgt. William Bloomfield Powers and Mary Virginia "Jennie" Rankin, daughter of John Rankin and Eliza Ann Fish Rankin Wilkinson.

Sgt. William Bloomfield Powers married Mary Virginia "Jennie" Rankin on 18 Nov 1866 in Jackson County, West Virginia. They had 7 known children: Joseph Hayward, Minerva, George Washington, David, Thomas Benton, Fletcher Tarance, and Jerry. Mary Virginia "Jennie" Rankin Powers died about 1878 and was buried in the Rankin Cemetery in West Virginia near her parents.

After Mary Virginia "Jennie" Rankin Powers' death, two of the sons (Joseph Hayward and David) went to live with Sgt. William Powers' sister and brother-in-law, Mary Virginia Powers Baker and her husband William Henry Baker. These two boys are listed on the 1880 census with a last name of Rankin instead of Powers. Joseph Hayward Powers later married Hannah Snyder and had nine children (one dying in infancy) all using the last name Powers. For unknown reasons, David Powers took on the last name of his "adopted" family and married Isabelle Meeker using the name Baker.
(Most of the confusion comes from the fact that Sgt. William Bloomfield's first wife Mary Virginia "Jennie" Rankin Powers bears the same name as William Bloomfield's sister, Mary Virginia Powers Baker.)

On the 1870 Census record, William Powers is married to Virginia and living with his eldest three children right next door to his father's family, including his sister shown as Mary V who later marries William Henry Baker.)

Sgt. William Bloomfield Powers' second wife was Rebecca A. (Traux) Robison, who had left or divorced Solomon Robison in Noble County, Ohio who was almost 40 years her senior. Rebecca's sister Hannah Traux had married Solomon's youngest son, John Anderson Robison, the year before Rebecca and Solomon wed. One daughter, Charlotte Ella Robison was born in 1875 from this union and the child was left in the care of Rebecca's parents, Enoch and Eliza Traux when she divorced/left Solomon before marrying William Powers on 19 Feb 1879 in Jackson County, West Virginia under the name Traux. William and Rebecca had two known children together: Enoch William and Martha. William and Rebecca later divorced.

Sgt. William Bloomfield Powers then married his third wife, Martha Ann Bell in 1892/1893 in Wirt County, West Virginia. They had six known children together: Loretta Grace, Ethel Delphia, Estella Bell, William Freeland, Ida, and Clara Elizabeth. Martha died in 1903 and was buried in Red Brush Cemetery in Jackson County, West Virginia.

Sgt. William Powers then moved his remaining family to Franklin County, Ohio in 1905 where he married his fourth wife, Annie May Potts, on 12 Jul 1905. They had one daughter together, Daisy Lillian. William Bloomfield Powers died in 1919 and is buried in Greenlawn Cemetery in Franklin County, Ohio.