Old newspapers have always been a fascination for me. As a young boy, I loved going through listening to old stories with my grandmother as we poured over old newspaper clippings and pictures taped into her album. 

Surprisingly, the person who had the least information, was the one who had the greatest story. 

That was the story of Grandpa Banta (my grandfather’s grandfather).  Legend had it that he was struck by lightning while riding horseback in a storm to get help for his laboring wife (Jennie) as she was giving birth to their daughter Belle (Belle Banta Taylor). 

It seems like this would have been front page news, even in 1880’s Kansas, however, the only links to Grandpa Banta in the album were his wife Jennie’s obituary (which mentioned he had died near Alma, KS in 1881) and a photo of a man on horseback that was thought to be him.  

Years later, when I started doing genealogy research, one of my goals was to get more information about Grandpa Banta’s heroic yet fateful act of chivalry.  I used “modern” technology (microfilm) to look through newspapers and was surprised to find nothing.

I also uncovered a digital copy of “Banta Genealogy” from 1893, however and I could not find the record I was looking for here either.  Only after dropping my assumptions, did my search start to become clear. 

My assumptions were that I was looking for a young man getting help for his bride delivering his second child.  I did not expect to find him as a 48-year-old man, previously widowed with ten additional children.  I did not expect Grandma Banta to be listed in Banta Genealogy with a different last name than her maiden name, as she was married prior to Banta.  I did not expect that the “Dora” listed as their two-year-old daughter in Banta Genealogy was actually their two-year-old son Theodore, nor did I expect their infant daughter Belle to be listed as “Isabella.”  

When I expanded my newspaper microfilm search, which meant actually reading the paper looking for the name Banta, I found a story of a man named James Banta, age 48, who died in a wagon accident.  He had literally fallen off his wagon to his death.  I did not think this could be my James Banta due to his age and the timing of the accident.  This accident happened four days before Belle was born!   The mystery was clouded further as the newspaper article did not name his widow or his children, but simply stated he left a widow and large family, see the article below.      

Even after finding the article, I was not certain that this was my ancestor, however I kept him as my top suspect …my only suspect.   

As the internet came to be, and data became plentiful, I was able to find more evidence that the James Banta of the newspaper story was my 2x Great Grandfather, and that our family lore was a quite an exaggeration. 

I became a better researcher by letting go of assumptions and letting the facts speak for themselves.   I also learned to appreciate the great story telling abilities of my GG Grandma Jane “Jennie” Brock Bourassa-Banta-Darling-McDonald.

The best aspect of this experience, however, was connecting with my cousin June Timm.  She responded to a message board request for information about Jennie and discovered we were first cousins 2x removed.  She was able to share stories she had heard from her grandmother Jennie as a young girl.  Stories that painted the picture of a fun loving, determined woman who survived several husbands, and provided for her family in the wild west frontier towns of Kansas and Colorado from 1855-1932.