Baker Family Reunion, 1893

BAKER

Posted By: Volunteer
Date: 7/17/2019 at 05:43:46

Garden Grove Express
Garden Grove, Decatur County, Iowa
Thursday, November 30, 1893

Baker Family Reunion

At the Opera Hall this evening the relatives of the BAKER family will hold their second annual reunion. Dinner will be served at six o'clock, then will follow the usual dinner social.

Nobody is invited who is not related either by affinity or consanguinity to the BAKER family, and the relatives are so numerous in this vicinity, that when they are together they form a large party. Thinking it would be of interest to most of our readers, we take the liberty of giving a short sketch, with a view of merely showing the relationship of the different persons who will be present at the family gathering.

The BAKER ancestors, we believe, emigrated from England to the New World sometime during the seventeenth century, and settled in that part of the colonies that afterward became the state of New York. It would not be essential to this sketch to say anything of the history of the family if we knew it, prior to the marriage and settlement in New York state of Mr. Richard T. BAKER something over a hundred years ago. Suffice it to say that he and his good wife were the parents of twelve children, six sons and six daughters, and the direct descendants of six of these children will be present tonight, constituting members of six different families, and are mentioned briefly as follows:

Ralph BAKER and his two children will constitute the only representatives present of Richard, one of the six sons.

Sophia, one of the six daughters married George STEARNS. This accounts for the relationship existing between the STEARNS and BAKER families. Lucretia, a daughter, married Sylvanus ARNOLD, and they were the parents of Hon. Guy P. ARNOLD and Mrs. S. P. MCNEIL.

Ann, another daughter, married Z. W. KNAPP. Mrs. L. E. ZICHY, T. J. KNAPP, and Chas. ARMSTRONG, and their respective children, are the only members of this family who will probably be present.

Tryphina, a fourth daughter, married Mr. GREY and they were the parents of J. S. BROWN's mother.

Mary, the fifth daughter, married a gentleman by the same name, but not related. This family will be represented by Ferry D. BAKER, son of Richard T.; Mrs. R. D. HALL and her two brothers, Sam and Ralph BAKER, children of Samuel; and Polk, the son of Jefferson. (Samuel, Richard T. and Jefferson being sons of Mary, the daughter above mentioned.)

The ? descendants of the one son and four daughters above named and those related by affinity constitute the party that will be present. We note in passing that if the other six who are not represented obeying the injunction of scripture to "multiply and replenish" as faithfully as did the other six branches of their family, the scions of the BAKER tree must be very numerous indeed.

The Express extends congratulations that so many descendants of the family are living in and around Garden Grove, thus enabling them to meet in pleasant reunion, and at least once each year enjoy each others society exclusively. May their numbers increase.

Copied by Stacey McDowell Dietiker, January 7, 2004