Children: ??? (Died), Jane, James, William, Elizabeth.

Further Notes on this Pedigree - 

       Of the family of Malachi Bath and Elizabeth Holman:     John married Emma Louise Clark, Helena, Montana, 1892. Child: Adah Elizabeth.  Thomas married (1) Harriet Adaline Jones @1877. Children: John, Thomas, Minnie, Mabel, Pearl, William K.  Married (2) Minnie ????. 

     Of the family of William Bath and (1) Ida Thayer (m. 1872) :   John Alfred (Fred) married Carrie Gerner.     Ida Elizabeth (Bessie) married Robert John Armstrong. Children: LeRoy, Robert.    Charles William married (1) Ruth Church (no children), (2) Edna Perkins. Children : Bessie Jean, Charles.      George Albert married Edith Biles (no children).

     Of the family of William Bath and (2) Ida Clegg (m. 1892):  Addie Martha married Rufus Martin.  Children:  three sons and two daughters.  Nellie Dorothea married Henry "Fox" Peal. Children: three daughters.  Herbert Layfield married Ada Zeilsdorf. Children: two daughters.

     Of the family of William James and Minnie Gray:    Grace married Ray Ensley.  Child:  William Ray.     Of William and Melvina McEvers Gray: (no children).      Of William and Eva Louise Brewer: Children: two sons.           Of William and Mary Cummins: (no children).

     Of the family of George William and Mabel Cleyone.  Four sons.

The Following is some of the history of this family:

      Malachy and Mary Knowls Bath had eight children.  They lived on "Rosemanowas", a farm south of Stithians, England.  Their second son, Malachi, married Elizabeth Holman, daughter of James and Sarah Holman.  They also had eight children, although only four lived to maturity.  Malachi became a tenant farmer on "Trolvis," a 79 acre farm next to his father's farm.  He died in 1854, when only 44 years old.  After his death, his son John traveled to America with John Holman, a cousin on his mother's side, to find work.  John determined that the family would be better off in America, so he came back to England and brought his mother and three siblings, Sarah, Thomas, and William to America with him.  "Sarah, age 26, was ill with lung fever so they had to wait several weeks before she was able to make the long trip.  It took all of the money the family had to make the voyage.  Their personal belongings were placed in nine large chests which they had a carpenter make for them.  They traveled on "The City of Paris" for the trip, which took several weeks.   Eventually they landed in New York Harbor and traveled from there to Warren, Illinois, where John Holman ran a butcher shop. John Bath was employed in this shop.  Their meager finances made the first winter a very hard one for all.  The colder climate kept the two younger boys busy obtaining fuel.  Sarah lived only six months after they arrived in Warren, Illinois.  She was buried very simply on the home place, as was the custom then.

   The first summer the two boys put in a few acres of corn and tended it with home made hoes.  The crop did very well.  By the second year, the finances permitted a horse and a double shovel to be added.  Several more acres were tended and the crop turned out quite well.  This gave them their first real start in this country.

   John Bath had purchased his own butcher shop and William went into the shop with him while Tom remained at home to run the farm.  William moved to Topeka, Kansas, where he worked for some time in a butcher shop.  Later, he moved to western Kansas, where he worked as a cowboy.  After getting a bit ahead, he purchased a quantity of prairie hay, then went down to Texas and bought a herd of Texas Longhorns, taking them back to western Kansas.  In a short time, his cattle became frightened and stampeded and he lost the entire herd. 

    It was believed that he returned to Topeka, Kansas and worked again after losing his cattle. Later, he again returned to western Kansas to the same general location. It is not known whether he married Miss Ida Thayer in Topeka, where he met her, or whether she went out to western Kansas after he went back out there and located first. He ran a butcher shop part of the time, buying his beef on the hoof; driving to the herd in a wagon and killing the beef in the late evening. He would then return with the meat, about daylight, after letting it hang over-night to cool out good, while he slept under the wagon to keep the wild animals away. He had some dealings with the Indians but managed to take his own part without gaining undue ill will from them.  At one point, he shot and killed a white buffalo, but immediately found himself surrounded by Indians, so wisely chose to offer them the buffalo before departing peacefully.

   As his family grew to include three children, he tried farming but the dry climate made that occupation very uncertain and so, after a particular hard siege, he loaded his family and all his possessions on a wagon and headed for south eastern Kansas, locating at Neodesha, Kansas, where his fourth child, George, was born.  Here he again began a business of buying and selling live stock, then later going again into a butcher shop and while continuing to buy and sell livestock, feeding some out on the farm.    He also served as a lay-minister in the Methodist church.

   After locating in Neodesha, Kansas, William got in touch with his mother and brothers, who were now located in Nebraska.  All three came to Neodesha to visit him and his family.  About two years after this, his mother (now an old lady) died.  He went to Nebraska to her funeral.  She was buried at Brownsville, Nebraska. She was remembered as being short and small in size.  His brother John had previously moved Sarah's body from Illinois to the Brownville Cemetery.

    In 1891, his wife Ida died, leaving him with four children.  In 1892 he again married, this time to Miss Ida Clegg, daughter of James Clegg and Martha Layfield.  She joined them in the family home just west of Neodesha, Kansas.  A year later, their first daughter, Addie, was born.

   About 1895, William sold the farm and moved the entire family near Kansas City, Kansas, settling in Rosedale, where they again went into the stock business, this time renting feed lots and feeding out cattle for market. His oldest son, Fred, in company with relatives, had found this rather a promising business.

   A few years later, the family moved to Armadale, Kansas, where they again rented feedlots and fed out stock. It was about this time that the three oldest children went to Olathe, where they rented a farm, with Bessie keeping house for the boys Fred and George, while they did the farming.

   Some months later, the rest of the family moved out to Olathe to a rented farm south east of town. Here they again did some farming, but also sold fruit from the orchards on the place and fed stock on an adjoining acreage piece which they purchased.

   The family lived there for four years and planned to build a home on the acreage.  During this time, the three older children married and the fourth started out for himself.  Then a stockbuyer offered to purchase the land, so William began buying and improving property as a sideline to feeding stock.

   After selling the farm, William then purchased a block in the south suburban part of Olathe, between Cherry and Chestnut Street and built a six-room cottage for the family. They lived here about three years, then sold the place.  William built a barn and outbuildings on the corner of the feeding acreage they owned nearby and the family moved into the barn since there was not time to build a house.  They lived in the barn fom around March until a cottage in the same style as their last was completed the following summer.  They lived there for a year and again sold the entire acreage.

   This time they bought a forty-acre piece adjoining the town on the west city limits.  Again, for lack of time they built the barn and out buildings and moved into the barn around March first. They built another six-room cottage the same style as the other two, which was completed the following summer.  They spent the next five years on the property before selling again.  It was while living on this place the youngest child, Herbert Layfield, was born in 1910.  While there, the living pattern changed slightly.  Instead of feeding out cattle and shipping them to market, the cattle were butchered in a building put up on the back part of the place and sold to the local meat markets.

    In 1911 the moving fever hit hard.  Living costs were up and they finally found a buyer for the home place by advertising in the Kansas City Star.  After selling their place, the hunt for a new home began in earnest and, after a couple of trips checking on ads, they purchased a farm in Benton County, Missouri, just south of  Warsaw.  It was a good-sized stock farm with plenty of sheds and a large barn but only a fairly large three-room house.

   The family moved there in February, 1912, and before spring learned how people managed when the river got out between their place and town which was a little over a mile away.  Nellie and Bill went to school there but Addie had stayed in Olathe to finish the school year.  The following summer the house was enlarged and the family continued farming and raising sheep, cattle, hogs, and a couple of colts.

    While in Missouri, the two oldest children of the second marriage (Addie and Bill) married; the next (Nellie) left home for college and then on to a business career. This left only one small boy (Herb) at home, so in a short time they sold most of the farm to the County Superintendent of Schools.  The family retained a seventeen acre triangular piece of land from the original farm and built a four room cottage during World War I.  After the war they traded this place for a garage on lots in Chetopa, Kansas.  The family had a sale and went back to Neodesha where most of Ida's family still lived.

    In Neodesha they bought a farm adjoining town on the east of the Verdigris River and started selling milk, eggs and some stock.  Since there were a number of pecan trees, they also sold the pecans, which sold very well.  They also raised wheat.

    After living there for several years they rented the farm to their son Bill to run a dairy business and again built a home.  This time it was a six-room cottage on the east end of the place, adjoining the Verdigris River that ran through the farm.  After a few years, their son Bill found other work, so they sold the cottage and some acreage and moved back to the main house while he moved to Independence.  This time they remodeled the house and enlarged it.  This place remained the family home until William's death, with the exception of three/four years when he rented it to a brother-in-law and moved to Independence to live wih his son, Bill, who was divorced, and his son, George.  While they lived in Independence, Highway 75 was changed to go through the home place and a big bridge was built across the river on the farm.

    After four years in Independence, they returned to the home place in Neodesha with their youngest son, Herbert taking over most of the dairy business and farming.  Ida's brother,  "Bud", came to make his home with them during this time and continued to stay with Ida until he passed away in 1954.

     While living in Independence, Kansas; both of William's brothers passed away in Auburn, Nebraska, only a month apart. This coupled with the depressing effect of a series of bad floods followed by severe drouths, augmented by a very bad attack of flu started his general break down. His last four years was a steady decline physically. His hearing failing, but not completely gone, altho at the last conversation was not very satisfactory. His eyesight was not so good, so he had given up reading anything but headlines a year or more before the end. The last few months he grew more helpless, having to be helped about, but he was only bed fast a few days.  He died December 7th, 1936 at the age of 83.

From "The Life History of William Bath" by his daughter, Addie Martin and family research.

The Family Legend

       Uncle Herb said that he thought he remembered one or more of his aunts telling him that there were 2 Bath brothers who were ancestors of ours who were barons (or something similar) who he thought lived near Bath and who had sizeable land holdings.  After watching the workers (serfs) on their property they felt that the workers would not be able to feed and care for their families on the share they were receiving of the harvest.  They discussed it and then went to some of the other "nobility" in the area and told them that they would be increasing the workers' share of the harvest.  They were warned not to do such a thing under any circumstances or there "could be dire consequences."  The brothers said that they were going to do it anyway since the workers couldn't survive on what they were making.  The night they had done as they said they would do and increased the workers share they had visitors at the manors in the night.  Both brothers and their wives were killed.  The "visitors" were unable to find the children of at least one of the brothers who the servants had taken and hidden in a root cellar.  Several weeks later, after the threat had subsided, the children were smuggled out of the manor and area and sent to another part of the country where they would be safe and where they grew up.  Eventually some of their family made their way to the US and our family is the result of that.

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