|
|
|
Baker/DeWeese Family Page
Baker and DeWeese Family Album
Alice's Parents' Memoirs
|
 |
William Aldon Baker Born September 15, 1866 Died April 1955 |
|
Beulah DeWeese Baker Born: May 25, 1907 Died: November 28, 1990 |
Our memories are golden. The written memories of our ancestors are even more precious. Alice's parents each wrote their memoirs shortly before their deaths. Those hand-written memoirs were subsequently typed into print by my wife Alice's sister, Rachel. Thank you Rachel.
Purpose
The primary purpose of this blog subject is to provide a permanent record of those memories for our children, our grand-children, great grand-children and future generations.
No Such Walker Memoirs
I wish we had such personal writings from my own parents. But we don't. Dad enjoyed telling stories of his youth in the early 20th century such as, as a young boy, he would help his dad haul logs for railroad ties many miles by dragging them up and down the Ozark hills behind a team of mules. He loved telling about the good times the family had on a picnic every Fourth of July at Jack's Fork of the Jack's Fork River. Even before he passed we knew how important it was to capture those memories of his and we tried to persuade him to sit with us and relate his story to a tape recorder. But for some reason I could never understand, while he loved telling such stories at his whelm, he refused to do so in any type of formal recorded setting. Perhaps I can try to recreate some of those stories as subject of a future blog but there is no way my memories of sketches of his memories will ever compare to these personal writings of Alice's mother and father.Memoirs of William Aldon Baker
Alice's father, William Aldon Baker, was born in Indiana in 1866 just after the ending of the Civil War. His father, Abner Baker, had been a soldier in the Indiana 40th Regiment of the Union Army until he was transferred to a Nashville hospital to care for his officer brother, Lieutenant David Baker, who had lost a leg in the battle of Chickamauga. Abner called for his wife Martha and their one year old daughter Orie to come to Nashville and in order for her to do that she too had to enlist as a Union Army nurse.
Side-note: My great grand-father Helton Rutherford Walker fought in the Confederate Army as part of the Tennessee 48th Volunteers. I've often kidded Alice that it was probably my great grandfather who shot her father's uncle at Chickamauga. Recently I decided to do some research to find out if such a thing could have been possible. Sure enough, the Tennessee 48th did fight at Chickamauga. Unfortunately, upon further research I found that Helton Rutherford Walker could not have been there. It turns out that in all the Union and Confederate regiments, only the 48th existed as two separate regiments with the same name.
The Tennessee 48th was originally organized late in 1861 under the command of Colonel Voorhies and became known as the Voorhies. Their first assignment was to help protect Ft. Donelson. Unfortunately, they had no sooner arrived there but the fort was surrendered to General Grant's Army in February of 1862 . Some of the 48th was there and captured but several companies were not captured and those companies were re-organized as the 48th under Colonel Nixon. Meanwhile, Voorhies' 48th, including my g-granddad, was sent to the terrible Camp Douglas Prison Camp in Chicago. Fortunately, a few months later the voorhies were released in a prisoner exchange and the Voorhie's 48th returned to the battlefield but were not re-united with the other 48th until near the end of the war (after the battle of Chickamauga).
Jessie James?
Alice's father William relates his life memories commencing from the age of about three years old in Atchison Kansas. He tells of a memory of when his father, then a policeman in Atchison, came home hurriedly to report he had been ordered to guard the Missouri River bridge because reports had been received that Jessie James was on his way to Atchison.
Impossible Journey
Read his memoirs to learn how his father later decided to move his family to the Dakotas; and to do that he built a raft, put all their belongings on it and commenced pulling it upstream. You'll not be surprised to learn that they did not get very far but you will be enchanted by where and how they ended up.
A World In Change
Read the true account of someone who lived to see changes in his life-time from horse and buggy to jet planes and atom bombs. Join him in his excitement as, for the first time in his life, he sees an automobile.
From Farmer To Judge Learn how he emerged from being a poor dirt-farmer to a successful business man, to running for state representative, and to being a justice of the peace. Feel his sorrow when, as a young man he took Stella to be his wife only to soon lose her during child-birth of their son who also lived only a few months.
A New Wife A New Life
After many years as a bachelor living with his old-maid sister Orie, he met a young girl who for some strange reason developed an unusual attraction to this man older than her father. Having thus recognized this mutual attraction, William popped the question to Beulah thusly, “Beulah, if you want to set the date, you may.” So this 60 plus man married this 21 year old girl and a whole new chapter, no, a whole new book began in his life.
Read William A. Baker's memoirs in total.
Alice's Mother-Beulah DeWeese
To complete the story, you must also read his young wife Beulah's memoirs. I am amazed, and you too will be, at the unbelieveable memory that William Baker had so late in his life. His wife, my wife Alice's mother, had at least as good a memory.
Early Memories
In her memoirs you will learn that the first memories still in her mind go all the way back to when she was only two and a half years old!
William Baker Told About Their First Meeting
Beulah DeWeese was only 12 years old when she first laid eyes on the much older man William Baker. Beulah was sitting in church with her family when William entered with his sister Orie. He caught Beulah's attention and she felt in her heart a strange tinge of jealousy that he was with this unknown lady. Her jealousy vanished once she learned that the lady was his sister. Nine years later they were married.
Excuse the Grammar-It's Country Folk
As you read these memoirs, it will be obvious that William Baker was much more literate than his wife Beulah, no doubt due to his life-experiences in the business and political world. In the web versions of those memoirs I have made no editorial corrections in their words other than to add paragraphs and sub-titles to make them easier to read. Thus you will enjoy the full flavor of these generations of Missouri country-folk.
Memoirs Unfinished
Alice's mother Beulah commenced writing her memoirs in 1987 but fell ill before finishing them and died in 1990. Although she left to us many pages of her precious memories as a youngster and teen-ager, her memories as to her falling in love and marrying William Baker were destinied to remain only in her heart.
Beulah's Skills Passed On To Daughter
Those of you who know my beautiful wife Alice know also that she is a lady of many skills from cooking to home remodeling to carpentry to landscaping to building patios and much more. After reading her mother's memoirs it became obvious to me from whece Alice inherited those skills.
Farm Life A Hard Life
But Alice has always said, "I don't want to do anything even remotely related to farming." Her inheritance of that also becomes evident when we read about the hard life her mother's family had trying to eke out a living by farming in the first half of the 20th century.
Missouri Country Life of Old
Within Beulah's memoirs you will learn how Missouri country folk lived during the first half of the 20th century. Got a cut on your foot? Beulah's Mama's remedy was turpentine and sugar (and it worked too). Got a skunk to spare? Beulah's grandma boiled one to extract its oil for medicinal use.
High Family Values
As unbelievably difficult as Beulah DeWeese's early life seems to us to have been based on our standards, you will marvel at the happy, uncomplaining times she had with her loving family. This nation today would be a much better place if the technology had not progressed while those family values stayed the same.
Read Beulah Ann DeWeese Baker's Memoirs
God Bless All and God Bless the USA!
| Click Here to Provide Your Comments |
|
Copyright © June 14, 2000 Jerry Lee Walker Sr. |