Ancestry of Lois Baker Smith: Part IV Henry Baker and Orville Baker

Henry Baker, the son of David Baker and Lydia Agard was born 13 October 1808 in Peru, NY and died 15 May 1858. He farmed on land adjacent to that of his father. His first two marriages were to sisters Eunice and Clarissa wright and he is supposed to have had seven children between the two. Eunice died in 1842 when she was only 25 years old. Clarissa died in 1848 when she was 23 years old. It is presumed that both of them died in childbirth. Did women take the very real danger of childbirth in stride. From where I stand it is easy to imagine that when pregnant Clarissa was troubled by the fate of her older sister. Perhaps like those who live in an earthquake zone, however, she were inured to the possibilities and sailed through her days with a sense of personal optimism!

Henry's third wife was Mariah Buck and it is Mariah who is the mother of our ancestor, Orville Clark Baker. Orville was seven years old when his father died. His grandson Horation Baker wrote: "He was very early sent out to do farm work, especially in summer months. He once showed me where he was working doing some early fpring work in an apple orchard when a passerby stopped and told him that Abraham lincoln had been shot and he cried for some time".

Orville apprenticed as a "joiner" but had always wanted to be a physician and eventually was able to become a medical student, first in Vermont and later in New York. He received his diploma in February 1879. Horatio wrote "The writer never fully understood how he (Orville) did manage to finance this medical eduation. He several times said he was terribly in debt when he started the practice of medicine in Belcher, a hamlet in the town of Hebron, Washington County, New York. In the meantime, in September of 1878, he married his sown cousin, Frances Maria Buck.

In 1890 Orville and Frances moved to Brandon, Vermont where he spent the rest of his life. He purchased a house at 16 Franklin Street and established his medical office in that house. In 1908 he purchased a duplex across the street and moved there in 1909. After his death in 1822 his widow remained at 15 Franklin Street which became the home of their son, Clarence Baker and later of my mother, Lois Marie Baker. I will write about the two houses in my next post.