First to Cleveland? Citizen? Finishing Up with Edward Baker's Story

Top row: Catherine and Edward Baker. Middle row: Kathryn, Charles, and Josephine. Front row: Gertrude and Mary Isabelle.

 

I’ve been looking at my great-grandfather Edward Baker’s immigration to the United States from St. Catharines, Ontario. To catch up, read: From Canada to Cleveland: Edward Baker’s Journey, Edward Baker’s Iron Molding Career, and Rally Around the Team: A Fabulous Photo Find.


First to Immigrate to Cleveland?

Employment opportunities seemed to beckon Edward Baker to Cleveland; he began an iron molding career in St. Catharines and worked as a molder in Cleveland the rest of his life. But was he the first ancestor to arrive in Cleveland?¹

My paternal lines arrived in Cleveland from various locales. Some like the Gilbrides and McAndrews were from Scranton, others like the Bakers and Cassidys migrated from Port Dalhousie or St. Catharines. 

It seems that Edward was not the first of our family to call Cleveland home. In fact, it could have been his wife Catherine’s uncle who paved the way for his future migration.

Seventeen-year-old Phillip John Cassidy, Catherine’s brother, arrived in Cleveland about a year before Edward did. In July 1909, Phillip passed through the same Niagara Falls border crossing as Edward to go to “an uncle, Phillip Cassidy, 184 Lake Street, Cleveland, Ohio.” This Uncle Phillip could be our earliest ancestor to make Cleveland home.²

The uncle on Lake Street in 1909 was Phillip Alphonsus Cassidy, the brother of Charles Cassidy, another of my great grandfathers. Phillip emigrated from his parents’ St. Catharines home after 1881; a man named Phillip Cassidy appeared in Cleveland beginning in 1884 and lived on Cleveland’s near west side. It’s amazing to discover that our family’s beginnings in Cleveland go as far back as the 1880s.³


Did Edward Become a Citizen?

While Edward Baker made America his home and enjoyed a successful career, was he a citizen? It appears he intended to become one; he twice filed his “first papers” or his Declaration of Intention to become a citizen, once in 1919 and then again in 1941.⁴

First declaration filed in 1919.

Second declaration filed in 1941.

Some evidence suggests that Edward was naturalized, but there are discrepancies between the census sources:

 


The 1910 and 1920 censuses record the correct immigration year and citizenship status. The 1930 and 1940 censuses state that Edward was a citizen, while the 1950 census declares he was not.⁵

• The 1930 record is incorrect. Edward filed a second declaration of intention in 1941; he would not have done so if he was already a citizen.
• The 1940 record is also incorrect, based on Edward’s 1941 declaration of intention. Informant daughter Jane could have simply assumed that her parents were citizens by then. Perhaps they were unavailable to answer the census enumerator’s questions when he came to call, and their daughter did the best she could to provide answers. Such discrepancies are not uncommon.
• In 1950, Edward's answer to "If foreign-born, is this person naturalized?" was, "No." In addition, no records document Edward completing the citizenship process. Two declarations of intention were found in court records, but no final petition for naturalization.⁶
• At the time Edward made his declarations, U.S. law provided that a woman could gain citizenship when her husband naturalized. Since Edward remained an alien, so did Catherine. She could have applied for citizenship on her own after changes in immigration law gave a woman the right to naturalize on her own, but it appears that Catherine never did.⁷

It’s unclear why Edward never completed the citizenship process. Since he had a successful career, and his family was settled and thriving, perhaps there was no real benefit to be gained at the time. We may never know the answer.

Diving into my great grandfather’s immigration and naturalization story has been very enlightening, and I have discovered much about his reasons for coming to the U.S., his career, his place in the larger family’s migration story, and his citizenship status. Armed with this information, I feel I can now move backward one more generation to learn about his father’s migration from upstate New York to Canada.

Until next time…

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IMAGE: Photo of Baker Family, undated, unknown photographer/location; private collection of R. Firestone [address for private use], 2023.

NOTES

 
¹ Nancy Gilbride Casey, "Edward Baker's Iron Molding Career," Leaves on the Tree, 15 October 2023, (https://myleavesonthetree.blogspot.com/2023/10/edward-bakers-iron-molding-career.html). 

² "U.S. Border Crossings from Canada to U.S. 1895-1960," Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1075/images/m1464_101-0623 : 29 October 2023), "List or Manifest of Alien Passengers Applying for Admission to the United States from Foreign Contiguous Territory," sheet 16, line 17, Phillip Cassidy, age 17, arriving from St. Catharines, Ontario to port of Niagara Falls, 24 July 1909; citing Manifests of Passengers Arriving at St. Albans, VT, District through Canadian Pacific and Atlantic Ports, 1895-1954, National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service RG 85, microfilm publication M1464, roll 101, Washington, D.C.

 

³ For sibling relationship: "Canada, Ontario Roman Catholic Church Records, 1760-1923," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9YWX-XHG : 29 October 2023), Phillip Alphonsus Cassidy, b. 28 August 1864, baptized 8 September 1864; citing St. Catharines Cathedral, baptisms 1860-1906, Ontario. And: "Canada, Ontario Roman Catholic Church Records, 1760-1923," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9YWX-6DW : 29 October 2023), Charles F. Cassidy, b. 1 December 1861, baptized 7 December 1860; citing St. Catharines Cathedral, baptisms 1860-1906, Ontario. For 1881 residence: "Canada Census, 1881," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-DTQQ-8G7?i=684 : 29 October 2023), Province of Ontario, District No. 145 Lincoln, District Grantham, Philip Casady, age 16 in household of Jane Casady; citing Ancestry. (www.ancestry.com : 2008); citing Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario. For 1884 residence: The Cleveland Directory for the Year Ending July 1884 (Cleveland: Cleveland Directory Company, 1883), p. 112, Philip Cassidy, lab. r. 34 Detroit; database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2469/images/3808147 : 26 October 2023). 

 

⁴ U.S. District Court, Eastern Division, Northern District, Cleveland, Ohio, Declaration of Intention 27152, Edward Joseph Baker, 9 July 1910; image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C39P-8QQ7-W : 14 September 2023); citing National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C. Also: United States Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Declaration of Intention No. 76385, Edward Joseph Baker, 16 August 1941; citing National Archives and Records Administration, Chicago, Illinois. Image supplied by Jeremy Farmer, Archives Technician, 5 September 2018 to N. Gilbride Casey via email [e-address for private use].

 

⁵ 1910 United States Census, Cuyahoga County, ED 125, Sheet 3B, Cleveland Ward 6, line 87, Edward J. Baker, age 23; database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7884/images/4449824_00881 : 12 October 2023); citing National Archives and Records Administration, microfilm publication T624, Washington, D.C. Also: 1920 United States Census, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, population schedule, sheet 22A, ED No. 539, East Cleveland City, line 4, Edward J. Baker household; database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6061/images/4384965_01022 : 15 October 2023); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm publication T625, roll 1374, Washington, D.C. Also: 1930 United States Federal Census, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, population schedule, Sheet 44A, ED #714, University Heights, line 17, Edward Baker household; database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6224/images/4638927_00452 : 16 October 2023); citing National Archives and Records Administration, microfilm publication T626, Washington, D.C. Also: 1940 United States Census, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, population schedule, sheet 7B, ED No. 18-35, Cleveland Heights City, line 62, Edward Baker household; database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2442/images/m-t0627-03049-00198 : 15 October 2023); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm publication T627, roll 3049, Washington, D.C. Also: 1950 United States Census, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, population schedule, ED 92-1136, sheet 16, line 19, Edward J. Baker, superintendent, foundry; database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/62308/images/43290879-Ohio-043745-0017 : 12 October 2023); citing National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 29, Roll 1144, Washington, D.C.

 

⁶ 1950 United States Census, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, population schedule, ED 92-1136, sheet 16, line 19, Edward J. Baker. Also: Jeremy Farmer, NARA Technician, e-mail to N. Casey, "Form submission from Contact Us on Sunday, August 26, 2018"; Baker Project email files, privately held by N. Casey [address and e-address for private use], Tioga, TX. "The index card you found online relates to a Declaration of Intention, not a final Petition for Naturalization. Filing a declaration is the first step to gaining citizenship, so Edward seems to not have finished this process in Cleveland, if at all."

 

⁷ Marian L. Smith, "Women and Naturalization, ca. 1802-1940," Prologue Magazine, Summer 1998, Vol. 30, No. 2; citing digital edition, National Archives (https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1998/summer/women-and-naturalization-1.html : 29 October 2023).