Cooley and Tryon in Kansas

My husband’s Aunt Mary had worked on the family history for many years before he and I became acquainted.  Or at least before I became interested in the family history.  Mary Elizabeth (Chandler) Fields had a room full of notebooks with hundreds of letters, at least the same number of photographs, and many records relating to the Chandler family - her Dad’s side, and the Tryon family - her Mother’s side.  But one thing she didn’t have was a birth record for her mother, Lora Belle Tryon.  Lora was said to have been born in Baxter Springs, Cherokee Co, Kansas and also in Wichita, Sedgwick Co, Kansas. 

Lora Belle Tryon

One one of our early genealogy trips, my husband and I stopped in Baxter Springs.  We liked the town very much and spent an afternoon at their wonderful history museum, which I see has become even more wonderful.  Considering how many records were available to us in Baxter Springs, it was a surprise and disappointment to us that we didn’t find a record of his grandmother’s birth.  She was born in 1885 and that wasn’t so very long ago. 

About 4 years ago I finally found a good record, although it’s not a birth certificate, per se.  It’s a census record.  I haven’t bothered to send for the birth record, although I may one day do so.  In the meantime, here’s what I found:

1885 Kansas, Sedgwick Co, Kechi, p 19, line 18
Cooley, Isaac, 79, b Pennsylvania

Caroline, 49, b Pennsylvania

Adeline, 17, b Pennsylvania

Emma, 14, b Pennsylvania

- - -

Tryon, H Z, 36, b unknown

Mary, 21, b unknown

Olive May, 2, b unknown

[line 25]  Baby, 7 days, b unknown

Baxter Springs comes into the picture later:

1895 Kansas, Cherokee Co, Lyons Twp, Baxter Springs, 1 March

44/45  H Z Tryon 46, b Indiana, from Indiana to Kansas, farmer / M E, 32, f, b Kentucky, from Kentucky to Kansas // Olive, 11, b Kansas; Lora, 9, b Kansas; Roseta, 7, b Kansas

Isaac Cooley was born in Franklin Co, Indiana in 1805.  His sister Mary Ann was born 1815, also in Franklin Co, Indiana.  

Mary Ann 

married

Noah Tryon 

in 1836

Of their eight children, son Hiram Zachariah “Zack” Tryon was the father of Lora. 

Zack's parents had stayed in Indiana, but Uncle Isaac had come to Kansas by 1880 and Zack had come with him, listed as a bachelor with Isaac Cooley’s family.

Zack Tryon married Mary Elizabeth Thompson in October 1880.  

Thus, it is that, on that 1885 census, Zack and Mary Elizabeth (Thompson) Tryon and their two tiny daughters were living with Zack’s uncle.  

Isaac's land is the NW4 of Section 5 on this map:

This is where the “fun” comes in,  for me.  After all those years of not knowing where my husband’s grandmother was born, it turns out that one of her descendants, Lora’s great-grandson, who was born in Oklahoma, grew up in Michigan, and travelled the country for a few years, now  lives just a few miles down the road from Kechi - - in Park City, Kansas.

Olive, Mary Elizabeth, Zack Tryon

Lora and Rosetta