(From statistical records and recollections of family members, both living and deceased)
Dedicated to the Memory of Glen Ray Baker, Sr. And to the Honor of Joseph Herman Baker, Jr. Honorable Mention of Harold D. Baker
Once upon a time in the very early days of the state of Texas, specifically, 1852 or 1853, a man by the name of Josiah Baker came to Texas (apparently by way of Missouri) seeking land and the promise of a good farming and family life. People who came to this new state in those early days either worked to earn money to buy land, or were given grants of land in exchange for service to their country, such as was offered to people and their families in order to populate newly acquired lands claimed and won by the United States government. Josiah was born on May 15, 1807 in Kentucky. He came to Hopkins County, Texas (about 80 miles to the northeast of Dallas and 25 miles to the southwest of Paris), bringing with him a daughter, Jane, who was born in 1851 in Missouri. What happened to his first wife is not known but perhaps she died in childbirth, an accepted risk in the course of life lived on the new frontier. Records show that he married Louisa A. Martin (born about 1816 in Alabama) in Hopkins County, Texas, on April 2, 1854. Together, they had two more children, Louisa Baker, born 1856, and Josiah Hayden Baker, born January 7, 1858, records also of Hopkins County, Texas.
It is not certain how this family lived but tenant-farming, particularly cotton, was prevalent during those times as such would be beneficial for those willing to share the workload and profits for their future. The Civil War was upon them and times were uncertain, especially in this particular region, freshly settled with people from the North and the South. Able men were called to war, most of which was fought far from their new homes in Texas. Even family men went off to war and those who stayed behind protected their home fronts and those of their neighbors to the best of their ability.
The little Baker family survived those harsh times and the Delta County records show that Jane Baker married H. T. Lewis on March 30, 1871. On September 24, 1871, Josiah Baker bought the entirety of Block 6 during the inception of the township of Cooper in Delta County, which was formed from Hopkins County in 1870. Louisa Baker married John H. Pickens (b. 1852, d. 1933) on December 6, 1871. The Census of 1880 shows that Josiah Hayden Baker lived in the household of his parents, who would have most certainly benefited from his help, as he was aged 22 at that time; Josiah was 73 and Louisa was 64.
An index of Hopkins County shows Josiah Baker as the Grantee for 320 acres of land patented by C. R. Tinley there on September 17, 1878. He continued to acquire 105 acres in Delta County on November 9, 1883, and another 65 acres in 1889. The entity of Josiah Baker, et alias (probably father and son, or other family members), acquired another 11 acres in Delta County in 1890. (Note: My land records are incomplete since the courthouse closed at 5 p.m. and I had to let them go home. Suffice it to say that they owned land.)
On June 25, 1888, James H. Pickens was born to John H. and Louisa (Baker) Pickens. The Pickens family was also prominent around the town of Cooper as were the Martin family in the nearby town of Charleston (settled by people who had made their way to Texas by way of Alabama, from South Carolina). On September 6, 1891, Josiah Hayden Baker married Hemons Johnson. The records show that her parents were married in Mississippi and migrated to settle and work in Delta County and sometimes close to Dallas in Tarrant County, Texas.
Josiah Hayden and Hemons made their home on the Baker land and on June 9, 1893; their first son was born, whom they named (Joseph) Herman Baker. Six months later, on December 12, 1893, Josiah Baker (the elder) passed away at the age of 86 and was buried in a small family cemetery on the north side of Brushy Creek (called the Brushy Creek-Blackwell Cemetery) about 4 miles to the east of Cooper, at the intersection of F.M. 1529 and T.H. 19, the remains of which have been discovered on land now owned by the France family. (Note: I have taken steps to claim this cemetery through the Texas Historic Commission.)
The region of Texas in Delta County and many surrounding counties is called Blackland Prairie, very suitable for farming, both personal and textile (i.e. cotton), combination cattle farms and dairy farms. If you all can remember going to visit Grandma and Grandpa at the farm, running through the woods and discovering “new places”; they probably even had a “blue hole” there in Delta County to go swimming, maybe even a shepherd dog to run the cows in. These children would have most certainly also had chores to do on the farm, besides attending the local school, maybe riding there on an old white horse, or being delivered by their father and/or mother in a wagon drawn by a team of mules.
Joe Pickens and Alice (Martin) Pickens, related to the family by marriage, probably lived close by with their four children: Howard, born May 28, 1895; Annie L., born September 18, 1899; Bonnie W., born March 23, 1901; and Madge, born May 27, 1903. Can you imagine them all, along with their cousin, James H. Pickens, and perhaps cousins from the Johnson or Lewis families, getting together for a family dinner or an after church picnic?
At the age of 54, Josiah Hayden Baker passed away on January 12, 1912. He was interred at Oak Lawn Cemetery right outside the town of Cooper, Delta County, Texas, off F.M. 1529, about four miles from the Brushy Creek-Blackwell Cemetery.
Gladys M. married D. A. Southerland, Delta County Records, on February 15, 1914, and the young couple moved to Paris, Lamar County, Texas. Some time in subsequent years, the Baker farm was sold. Hemons Baker went to live with her daughter in Paris, while Joseph Herman and Randolph Ivan attended a commercial college in Tyler, Smith County, Texas. Randolph Ivan Baker secured a position as an accountant with Texaco and Delta County Records show that he married Lillie Owen on June 3, 1923. The couple made their home in Tulsa, Tulsa County, Oklahoma; they had two sons, Harold D. and Jack Baker.
Joseph Herman Baker worked in the construction industry, apparently traveling often in the southern states. While working at a site in Louisiana, he met Grace Celestine Causey, and when his job assigned him to a new location in south Texas, she met him in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, where they were married on September 27, 1925.
The following year, on September 27, 1926, while working in Eagle Pass, Maverick County, Texas, Joseph Herman and Grace Baker celebrated the birth of a son, whom they named for his father, Joseph Herman Baker, Jr; then on December 8, 1927, in Donna, Hidalgo County, Texas, a second son, Glen Ray Baker. The 1930 Census taken in Donna, Hidalgo County, Texas, lists J. H. Baker, Sr. (36) as head of household with wife, Grace C. (27) and sons, J. H. Baker, Jr. (3) and (Glen) Ray (2), also with a housekeeper named Petra Alagracia, from Mexico.
Those were the years of the Great Depression and, considering what we know about that, times must have been tough for them. Imagine what it would have been like to finally settle down after those years of hard work, but we know that Joseph Herman and Grace C. Baker purchased land in Forest Hill, Rapides Parish, Louisiana, some time in the 1940’s and settled their family to farm in the place we remember so well.
Joseph Herman, Jr., and Glen Ray Baker were both active in military services. Joseph Herman Baker, Jr., married Beverly Glass in 1951 and Glen Ray Baker married Nancy Evelyn Smith on December 30, 1952, and we all know the rest of the story.
The Baker Family Triumphs
Epilogue
Hemons (Johnson) Baker passed from this earth in February of 1952 and was interred at Oak Lawn Cemetery in Cooper, Delta County, Texas.
Randolph Ivan Baker passed from this earth in 1960.
Gladys M. Baker passed from this earth in March of 1967 and was interred at Oak Lawn Cemetery in Cooper, Delta County, Texas.
Joseph Herman Baker, Sr., passed from this earth in 1972 and was interred at Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Woodworth, Rapides Parish, Louisiana.
Jack Baker passed from this earth in 1978.
Glen Ray Baker passed from this earth July 21, 1988, and was interred at Memory Gardens Cemetery in Baytown, Harris County, Texas.
Grace (Causey) Baker passed from this earth in August of 1996 and was interred at Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Woodworth, Rapides Parish, Louisiana.
“Through the Lord’s unbounded love we meet again in realms above.” (From J. H. Baker’s Headstone)
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