The Baker Family Reunion

08/20/2026

08/06/2026

Hello everyone,
The Baker Reunion will be on August 8th from 10am-2pm. As in the past it is at the Malta Community Park. Anyone needing directions or information please let me know. Hamburgs, hotdogs, tableware and drinks are furnished. Bring something to share - a bag of chips, a covered dish, cookies, doesn't matter really there's always enough food.
Hope to see you there.
Attached is the August 2026 Baker "Did You Know?" fact.
Enjoy,
Maria L. Carr, Historian
The Baker Family Association

August 2026 Baker “Did You Know?” Fact:

The February 2026 Baker “Did You Know?” fact was about the Yellow Meeting House located on the corner of County Route 75 and VanNess Road in Stillwater, Saratoga Co., New York. A Baker cousin has sent this great picture of her mother, Marjorie L. (Gailor) Kent (1929-2016), who was about 4 years old. Marjorie and her pony are standing in the doorway of the Yellow Meeting House. Marjorie was the great, great, granddaughter of John T. Baker, the 13th son of James Baker of the 16 sons that our Baker Reunion is based on.

The Yellow Meeting house is located at the 4 corners where Route 75, which runs north and south, is intersected on the east side by Van Ness Road and on the west side by McDermott Road. The Yellow Meeting House is on the Route 75 – Van Ness Road corner on the north side. Marjorie’s parents, (Kem) Clarence W. and Ruth (Brenn) Gailor lived for a few years on the Van Ness – Route 75 corner (toward Mechanicville or the south side). Across the road on the McDermott Road – Route 75 corners, one corner was a vacant lot and the other corner was where Marjorie’s grandparents, (Will) Clarence William and Jessie (Earing) Gailor owned a farm. In early 1946 her parents moved over to the farm. The Baker reunion was held on the lawn of the farm twice, and the barrels of dishes and a huge tent that were used for the reunions back then, were stored in one of the barns. (Note – the Baker records show reunions held at William Gailor’s farm in 1938 and 1939. Ten of the original 16 sons attended the 1938 reunion).

According to Marjorie’s daughter, Marjorie’s grandfather, Will Gailor, may have been a caretaker for the Yellow Meeting House property. When the church closed the Gailor family became the proud owners of the chancel table and a collection box. The table is a bit on the small side being only 41 1/2" by 23", but the top of the table is all one piece of wood. Marjorie was her grandfather Will's delight, and he gave her the pony shown in the picture.

Marjorie and her sister, Eleanor, loved it when the tent was erected as there were ropes hanging from the support poles that were just perfect for swinging around on. (undated picture at the right shows the ropes in the tent – Cheryl Laisdell is in the foreground and Essie Baker in the rear of the picture). In a letter in the Baker files, it mentions that Marjorie also remembered the cloud created by the dry ice in the woodshed. The dry ice was for making the ice cream and was supposed to be off limits to kids, which made it all the more attractive to them! And they remembered the large wooden barrels of dishes being rolled out of the barn where they had been stored.

Does anyone else have any memories or pictures of the Yellow Meeting House or the Baker Reunions that they would like to share?

06/29/2026

Hello everyone.

We will be celebrating Independence Day on July 4 when 250 years ago our nation adopted the Declaration of Independence marking the historic time when the 13 colonies severed political ties to Great Britain. As we celebrate the United States as an independent nation, we must thank those who fought for and in some cases gave their lives for it to happen. Although our Baker ancestors were mainly farmers, as are many still today, some have served in the military from the Revolutionary War through to the current time. This month’s Baker “Did You Know?” fact takes a look at one of them.

Enjoy
Maria L. Carr, Historian
The Baker Family Association

July 2026 Baker “Did You Know?” fact:

Isaac Bloom Baker, the 8th son of James Baker (James is the father of the sixteen sons that our Baker Reunion is based on) has many exceptional people in his branch of our Baker genealogy tree. Jonathan Mark Arrow, son of Mark Kenneth and Linda Lee (Huntington) Arrow, who is the great, great, great, great, great, grandson of Isaac Bloom Baker, is a very good example of that.

Jonathan, born in 1985, enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in December 2004 going to boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina and to Marine Combat Training at Camp Geiger in North Carolina in March 2005. He was stationed at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida for his initial MOS (Military Occupational Speciality) school and then at Marine Corps Air Station in Cherry Point, North Carolina for his secondary MOS school. After completing his MOS schooling, he became a KC-130 Airframes Mechanic in September 2005. Upon completion of his schooling, he checked into VMGR-452, a Marine KC-130 unit out of Stewart Air National Guard Base in New York serving with them from September 2005 until April 2011, during which he was promoted to Lance Corporal and then to Corporal.

Jonathan was assigned to VMGR-234 at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base, Fort Worth, Texas in April 2011. While serving with VMGR-234, he was promoted to the rank of Sergeant and served as the Airframes shop supervisor, Collateral Duty Inspector, Collateral Duty Quality Assurance Representative, Quality Assurance Representative, Physical Training Leader, and the squadron's High Intensity Tactical Training Leader, along with other various billets and responsibilities. While stationed there, he was deployed in support of Operation Inherent Resolve with Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force, Crisis Response, Central Command (SPMAGTF-CR-CC) from 2014 to 2015 out of Ahmed Al Jaber, Kuwait. There, they worked hand in hand with other U.S and foreign military branches and special forces in reaction to the rise of ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) and ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and Levant).

Jonathan married Jaclyn Miller in 2011, and they have two children, Mason and Alia.

In June 2018, after 14 years of service with the Marine Corps, Jonathan made the decision to leave the Marine Corps and enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard as a C-130J Hydraulics Technician with the 136th Air Wing based out of NASJRB Fort Worth, Texas. During his time with the 136th Air Wing, he was deployed around the world multiple times. The most notable being in support of Operation Inherent Resolve from 2020 to 2021 at Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, and in support of NATO's Air Defender 2023 in Wunstorf, Germany, the largest NATO Air Wing operation in history. He also served as a Physical Training Representative and was promoted to the rank of Technical Sergeant while serving with the 136th Air Wing.

In August 2018, Jonathan began attending classes full-time at Texas Christian University (TCU). He graduated from TCU in May 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology/Strength and Conditioning, Suma Cum Laude, and was hired as a Physical Education and Health Education teacher at the high school level in the Fort Worth Independent School District. While working at Fort Worth ISD, in addition to his teaching responsibilities, he also served as the Local Wellness Coordinator, Freshman Grade Level Dean, and Freshman Teacher Team Lead. He wrote the Physical Education curriculum that is currently in use by the district. Finally, while serving as a Physical Education teacher in Texas, he was awarded the "Emerging Professional" Award by the Texas Association of Physical Education, Health, Recreation, and Dance Association. This is an award that is presented to an individual with less than five years in the profession in the state of Texas who is recognized as the highest quality example of what it means to be a Physical Education teacher and leader in the profession.

In August 2025, Jonathan retired from the U.S Air Force, Texas Air National Guard, after over 20 years of Honorable service. During his time in the military, he was awarded many medals and awards, including but not limited to the Navy and Marine Corps Accommodation Medal, the Air and Space Achievement Medal, the Air and Space Commendation Medal, and the Inherent Resolve Campaign Medal. He also resigned from his position with Fort Worth ISD in August 2025, so he and his family could move back to their original home state of New York and be closer to family. They currently live in Farmington, New York, where he is a middle school Health Education teacher at Victor Central School District, and his wife is a Sports Physical Therapist at the University of Rochester.

06/29/2026

Hello everyone,

Below is the June 2026 Baker "Did You Know?" fact.

Enjoy,
Maria L. Carr, Historian
The Baker Family Association

June 2026 Baker “Did You Know?” Fact:

A box of letters and documents which were passed on to me at the Baker Reunion this past summer were partly about the Abel family that married into the Isaac Bloom Baker line of our Baker family. Isaac Bloom Baker was the 8th son of James Baker who had the 16 sons and who our Baker Reunions are based upon.

Cora Dorcas Carlton (1882-1981), Isaac Bloom Baker’s great granddaughter, married George Alonzo Abel (1881-1960) a farmer who was the son of Charles C. and Melvina Lucretia (Doty) Abel. (Isaac Bloom Baker, Henry H. Baker, Ida Jane (Baker) Carlton, Cora Dorcas (Carlton) Abel). George and Cora had 5 children. Their son, Carlton Donald Abel (1909-1960) married Elizabeth Frances Farrington (1915-2000) who served as Historian for our Baker Family Association for many years. (see “Did You Know?” fact for April 2018 for information on Elizabeth and when they renamed Duell Road to Abel Road in her honor) Most of the documents that I went through are correspondence and documents from Elizabeth (Farrington) Abel and her genealogical research, much of which is research into the Abel family.

The papers show the lineage of the Abel family. Geroge Alonzo Abel’s mother, Melvina Lucretia (Doty) Abel was a direct descendant of Edward Doty of the Mayflower. The Abel line starts with Johan Jacob Abel who came from Germany. His sons, Jeremiah and David Abel, moved from Dutchess County to Saratoga County about the time of the Revolutionary War. Jeremiah was granted a lease by Abraham Ten Broesh of 68 acres on the west side of the Hudson River in Saratoga patent June 13, 1792, Lot #13. Interestingly, our Baker family, also farmers, moved out of Dutchess County into Saratoga County in the late 1700s also. The Bakers settled for a short time in Argyle, Washington Co., New York and then moved to Stillwater, Saratoga County, New York around 1800. One letter in the file’s states that, “as the story goes” Jeremiah and David Abel were awarded lands near Saratoga Lake for their services in the French and Indian wars. Some of the documents are efforts to trace this piece of land and also locate an Abel Cemetery in that area. From Jeremiah the Abel lineage goes to William Isaac Abel (1789-1863), whose son Charles C. Abel (1835-1903) was the father of George Alonzo Abel who married into the Baker family.

The documents will be housed at the Stillwater Public Library with the rest of the Baker files sometime soon. If anyone is researching the Abel family and would like the Abel genealogy that I pieced together from the letters and documents, please contact me and I will gladly email to you what I have ([email protected]).

04/20/2026

Hello everyone,
Attached is the April 2026 Baker "Did You Know?" fact.
Enjoy,
Maria L. Carr, Historian
The Baker Family Association

April 2026 Baker “Did You Know?” fact:

Elaine Rita (Snyder) Taylor (1937-2006) was the wife of Ronald William Hodges (1934-2017) (see March 2026 Baker “Did You Know?” fact about Ron Hodges). Elaine was born in Washington on March 7, 1937, and was drawing before she was a year old. She took a summer course at the Corcoran Gallery of Art when she was about ten years old but otherwise had little early training. She studied at the Pratt Institute in New York. By 1963, she had found a job as a clerk at the Smithsonian. She ran into an acquaintance from Pratt who suggested she take up scientific drawing.

An early marriage to Irving Taylor ended in divorce. They had two sons, Steven and Lawrence. Elaine met Ronald Hodges when they were both working at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC where she was working as a scientific illustrator. She married Ronald in 1967, and he adopted the two boys.

Elaine, who was a scientific illustrator for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, combined art with science in her meticulous drawings of insects and other organisms. She followed an artistic tradition that dates to ancient Greece and early attempts to classify animals and depict medical ailments. Since then, artists have illustrated almost every branch of science. Much of her work was done with the aid of a microscope. She understood the limits of cameras and digital technology. Some subtleties, she knew, can be captured only by an artist’s hand. “Photographs simply cannot do it, because they are not accurate,” she told the Eugene Register-Guard in 2000. “If you draw from a photograph, you can be sure you’ll be in trouble with accuracy.” Peering through a microscope at her tiny specimens (often damaged by the time they reached her) she drew in pencil or ink. She sometimes painted with brushes dipped in carbon dust. Most scientific publications require black-and-white artwork, but she also executed some striking full-color images of bees. Many scientific illustrations are breathtakingly beautiful, but you cannot have artistic flourishes. It must be real and accurate.

Her husband, former Agriculture Department entomologist Ronald Hodges, said one of her painstaking drawings could take up to 80 hours to complete. Each hair on a moth’s legs, for instance, had to be drawn precisely to scale.
Through her artistry and the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators, she became a prominent figure in her field. She spent years working on the “Guild Handbook of Scientific Illustration,” enlisting the help of dozens of artists with the 575-page book.

She was an illustrator with the Museum of Natural History from 1965 to 1996, and during that time studied biology at the University of Maryland. She retired to Oregon after 31 years at the museum, where she became one of the country’s leading figures in her exacting field. Her illustrations of bees, moths, mosquitoes, fleas, and other invertebrates were seldom seen by the vast numbers of visitors at the Smithsonian’s museums in Washington, D.C. instead, they appeared primarily in scientific papers and books as part of the research of Smithsonian scientists. She was a founder of a professional group, the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators, and was the editor of the leading book on the topic, the “Guild Handbook of Scientific Illustration,” first published in 1989 and revised in 2003. Elaine illustrated The Moths of America North of Mexico printed in 1978 of which her husband was the author.

“Elaine was one of the absolute masters in the field,” said Pamela Henson, director of institutional history at the Smithsonian Institution Archives. “She wrote the textbook on natural history illustration,” said Robert Robbins, an entomologist at the Natural History Museum and her former supervisor. “In that sense, she was a world figure.”

04/20/2026

Hello everyone,
Attached you will find the March 2026 Baker "Did You Know?" fact.
Enjoy,
Maria L. Carr, Historian
The Baker Family Association

March 2026 Baker “Did You Know?” fact:

Ronald William Hodges (1934-2017) was the son of Lester Amos Hodges (see the January 2026 Baker “Did You Know?” fact for information on Lester Amos Hodges). Ronald was also the great, great, great grandson of Valentine Baker who was the 6th son of James Baker who had the 16 sons.

Ron became interested in Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) at age six when he found a freshly emerged Luna moth in the backyard of his Michigan home. As a ninth grader, he stated his intent to update Holland’s “Moth Book”. At Michigan State University he received his BS degree in 1956 and his MS degree in 1957. He went to Cornell University to work with Professor John G. Franclemont. Franclement taught in the Department of Entomology focusing his research on the moths of North America, with particular interest in cutworms. Franclement’s personal collection of insects contained more than 350,000 specimens, which he donated to the Cornell University Insect Collection.

During this period Ron did extensive field work in New York, North Carolina, Florida, Arizona, and Ecuador. He became deeply interested in microlepidoptera, particularly the Gelechioidea (superfamily of "micromoths" within the order Lepidoptera) and was awarded a PhD degree in 1961. Ron was elected to the Washington Biologists Field Club in 1963 serving as president from 1976 to 1979 and participated on various committees and work and field days. He received a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship and commenced to work on genera of Gelechiidae (a large family of small, often drab moths). This project was interrupted when he accepted a position with the Systematic Entomology Laboratory at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service located in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. Ron had several roles in the Laboratory, including laboratory chief. He stepped down from this position to continue field and laboratory research on gelechioid moths. At the Smithsonian, he met Elaine (Snyder) Taylor, a scientific illustrator, and they married in 1967.

Ron was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Association for Zoological Nomenclature (president from 1993 to 1995), American Entomological Society, Entomological Society of America, Entomological Society of Canada, Entomological Society of Ontario, Entomological Society of Washington (honorary member, 1999), Michigan Entomological Society, the Lepidoptera Research Foundation, the Lepidopterists’ Society (president from 1975 to 1976), Maryland Entomological Society (president from 1973 to 1974), Ohio Lepidopterists, Northwest Lepidoptera Society, Sigma Xi, and Societas Europaea Lepidopterologica. He received the Thomas Say Award from the Entomological Society of America for his editorial oversight of Moths of North America in 1990, the Karl Jordan Medal from the Lepidopterists’ Society for research on gelechioid moths in 1997, and he was elected an honorary member of the Entomological Society of Washington in 1999.

Ron was the author of The Moths of America North of Mexico printed in 1978 which was illustrated by his wife. He served as managing director of the series' publisher, the Wedge Entomological Research Foundation and as its editor-in-chief. He introduced the MONA numbering scheme (which is also referred to as a “Hodges number”) for North American moths in 1983 in the publication Check List of the Lepidoptera of America North of Mexico which he edited.

In 1997 Ron and Elaine retired to Eugene, Oregon, where he continued to work on moths (an illustrated, annotated key to genera of North American Gelechiidae) and, until 2011, to edit and publish The Moths of America North of Mexico.

During his retirement Ron enjoyed gardening with a highly diverse array of plants and developing and maintaining a collection of mainly pleurothallidine orchids. He enjoyed classical music and paired gourmet meals with wonderful wines.

04/20/2026

Hello everyone from the frigid northeast. We have wind, we have snow, we have temps below zero. I'm definitely looking forward to spring. Hope you all are someplace warm and cozy.

Attached is the Baker "Did You Know?" fact for February 2026. Also, just a reminder to take a minute and mark your calendars for the 161st Baker Reunion on August 8th (10am-2pm) at the Malta Community Park.

Maria L. Carr, Historian
The Baker Family Association

February 2026 Baker “Did You Know?” Fact:

The Yellow Meeting House was located on the corner of County Route 75 and VanNess Road in Stillwater, Saratoga Co., New York. Its name came from the fact that it was painted yellow early in its history. The Congregational Church, which built the Yellow Meeting House, was originally organized in Canaan, Litchfield County, Connecticut on June 26, 1752. The church congregation (or at least a good part of it) moved from Connecticut to Stillwater in 1762 and became one of the oldest churches in New York State north of Albany.

The following is an excerpt from History of Saratoga County, New York by Nathaniel Bartlett Sylvester, 1878. The Congregational church, that came to this town in an organized form, brought lumber with them from Connecticut to build their house of worship. They first built about opposite the mouth of the Hoosic, on the road to Ballston, near the Thompson place, and half a mile from the Hudson river. This building was afterwards taken down and erected over again where it now stands, two miles farther from the river. It was painted yellow, and thus became known all through the county as the “Yellow Meeting House,” and to this day it is better known by this name than by the name of the denomination that founded it. When it was repaired in 1850 it was painted white, but it was so contrary to its old name and associations that it was again painted yellow to correspond with its past history. In 1850 the old meeting house was thoroughly repaired and rededicated.

The Yellow Meeting House Cemetery is one of the oldest in the county. It is situated on the north side of the road, directly in the rear of the Yellow Meeting House about two miles northwest of Mechanicville, New York. The character of the stones, a considerable number being of heavy brown stone, and of ornamentally cut marble, indicates the wealth and importance of the early settlers, whose names they perpetuate. There are a large number of old unmarked field stones in the back part of the cemetery. The inscriptions were copied September 11, 1877, by E. D. Harris and C.E. Durkee.

Among those buried there is Daniel Baker, Sr. (1744-1824). We do not know who his wife was, but his children were Daniel Baker, Jr., Philip Baker, and Amanda Baker. We have not connected Daniel Baker, Sr. to our Baker line as far as we have been able to ascertain, but his granddaughter, Sylvia Baker, married into it. His son Daniel Baker Jr. (1774/5-1834) married Polly Vosburgh (1780-1864) and their daughter, Sylvia Baker (1801-1859), married William Baker (1795-1875), the second son of our James Baker who had the 16 sons. Interestingly, although Daniel Baker, Jr. is buried in the Yellow Meeting House Cemetery, his wife Polly (Vosburgh) Baker is buried in our Baker Cemetery just down the road. Possibly that has something to do with the fact that Polly died 30 years after her husband and several years after her daughter Sylvia; and Sylvia and husband William are both buried in the Baker Cemetery.

02/06/2026

Happy New Year to you and your family,
Attached is the January 2026 Baker "Did You Know?" fact.

Enjoy,
Maria L. Carr, Historian
The Baker Family Association

PS -- A Baker cousin is trying to sell property in Stillwater, New York near Saratoga Lake which has been in the family since the 1800s. If anyone is interested or know someone who is interested, please contact Jessica Shields at [email protected]

Baker January 2026 “Did You Know?” Fact:

Lester Amos Hodges (1909-1991) was the son of George Elson and Maude Mabel (Ballard) Hodges. Lester was the great, great grandson of Valentine Baker who was the 6th son of James Baker of the 16 sons. As a teenager Lester traveled extensively visiting and working in every state in the United States with the exception Alaska.

Lester had a varied career as he traveled. He sandhogged on a bridge in Florida. According to the internet, the term "sandhogged" is the past tense/participle form of the verb "to sandhog," which is U.S. slang meaning to work as a "sandhog". A sandhog is a laborer who works in underground or underwater excavation and construction projects, such as in caissons, tunnels, or bridge foundations. The term likely originated from the workers who excavated the soft earth under the Brooklyn Bridge in the 1870s, as they were perceived to "hog" or dig in the sand like an animal. Therefore, to have been "sandhogged" means to have performed this specific, often dangerous, type of manual labor in a subterranean or subaquatic environment.

He also worked on the Hoover Dam in Arizona. The Hoover Dam was built between 1931 and 1936.

He picked fruits and vegetables in the state of Oregon and shucked corn in Nebraska.

Lester served in the Army from 1929-1931 with the Army Engineers in Nicaragua and Hawaii along with other posts and reached the rank of Master Sergeant. After that he joined the Civilian Conservation Corps near Gwinn, Michigan at Camp 685 now Sawyer Airforce Base. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a public work relief program in the United States, part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, that ran from 1933 to 1942. It provided jobs for unemployed, single men, ages 18 to 25, who worked on conservation and resource development projects on public lands. Participants earned $30 a month, with most of the money sent to their families, and received housing, food, and clothing in return. While working for the CCC, he met Elma Ahlstrom (1910-1992), whom he married in 1933. They had one son, Ronald William Hodges.

After leaving the CCC he did press work for the Lansing Stamping Company. He supervised machinists at the John Bean Manufacturing Company. He taught operators to use thread grinders during World War II at Nash Kelvinator. He worked for Lundberg Screw Products, Reo Automative, Montgomery Ward, Van’s Camera Store, and State Farm Insurance. His primary job was as a toolroom machinist for Oldsmobile General Motors from which he retired in 1975 after 27 years of service.

Lester was also a ham radio operator achieving the “Advanced” level. What an interesting and fascinating life he lived.

12/30/2025

Donald & Gladys Baker Estate - Selling Family Land

The family is currently in the process of settling an estate that includes land at 120 Putnam Road in Stillwater, New York. The family is interested in offering the land for sale to Baker family members first to keep the land actively within the Baker family.

The land includes two parcels in the Town of Stillwater, near Saratoga Lake. If you are interested, please either comment on this post OR send a message to this page and we will get you in touch with the people settling the estate.

12/30/2025

Hello everyone,
Hope everyone is doing well and had a pleasant and happy Thanksgiving. Winter and Christmas are both closing in on us. Stay warm, stay safe and enjoy the season.

Attached is the December 2025 Baker "Did You Know?" fact. We take look at where our Baker ancestors moved when they left Long Island. As you read, remember that it would be a time before automobiles, U-Haul trucks or moving vans. Even if the weather was pleasant the process would have been tedious with large trunks and slow-moving horses or oxen.

Enjoy,
Maria L. Carr, Historian
The Baker Family Association

December 2025 Baker “Did You Know?” Fact

Our earliest ancestors, Peter and Mary (Peet) Baker married and lived in Hempstead, Long Island. It is said that Peter came from Rhode Island, and his father was John; but we have never been able to connect Peter with any John Baker. The Bakers were Quakers, and their son James married Jemima (Kirke) Baker the daughter of William and Abigail (Valentine) Kirke (note - some places the name is spelled Kirk, others Kirke) at St. George’s Episcopal Church in Hempstead, Long Island.

When James (1731-1806) and Jemima (Kirke) (1735-1800) Baker moved their family out of Long Island about 1780 he left his farm in the hands of his oldest son, Peter C. Baker (1756-1838). During the American Revolution, Hempstead, Long Island was a hotbed of British sympathizers or Tories, as they were known. The British attempted to occupy Hempstead after the Battle of Long Island. When the British troops took up their quarters in Hempstead it was reasonably expected that the predominant Tory element in Hempstead would cause the British to show them some favor, but they were greatly disappointed. The British seized St. George’s Church, whose rector was an ardent loyalist and converted it to military uses. So, you can see why James and Jemima moved out of Long Island.

According to a letter in the Baker archives dated August 5, 1876, written by William H. Wheeler who was James Baker’s grandson, James moved his family to Stanford, Dutchess County, New York where they resided for a year. He then moved to Clinton, Dutchess County, New York where he lived until he bought a farm in the town of Pleasant Valley, Dutchess County, New York where he died in 1806. (Note: William H. Wheeler (1815-1895) married Mary Baker, the daughter of Daniel Baker. Daniel was the 9th child of James and Jemima (Kirke) Baker and the brother to our James Baker of the 16 sons.)

The Bakers were Quakers so it makes sense they would move to an area where other Quakers were and where there was a Quaker meeting house. Jemima (Kirke) Baker is referenced to be a Quaker preacher, and she preached in the Quaker Church at Crum Elbow, New York (pictured right). Being referenced as a “minister” actually means that she had the right to speak at silent meetings which is something not originally given to everyone. (note-Silent Meetings meant that no one spoke unless moved by the spirit and those permitted to speak if so moved had to be recognized by the Meeting as a whole). Crum Elbow was never a village or even a hamlet. It was a farm area but a cohesive one with a school, a Post Office, a store and a blacksmith shop. The two-story white meeting house which is surrounded by a cemetery was built in 1797 with an addition built about 1810. It is part of Hyde Park.

Before there were towns in Dutchess County, Dutchess was divided into precincts. By an act of March 5, 1788, Dutchess County was divided into towns instead of precincts.

Blenheim Hill: The Baker Family states “James Baker, after living a while on Long Island, left his farm in charge of his son Peter, and moved with his family to the town of Pleasant Valley, Dutchess, N.Y. It is believed that the unsettled state of affairs on the western part of Long Island caused by the invasion of that section by the British during the Revolution, and the Battle of Long Island, caused him to prefer the quiet and seclusion of Dutchess to the exciting and sanguinary state of affairs that existed at home. He purchased a farm of four hundred acres situated about five miles from Poughkeepsie, Dutchess, N.Y.”

So, let’s look at where they moved to.

According to his grandson, the Bakers first went to Stanford which lies in the northern part of the county, a little north and east from the center. The History of Dutchess County, NY 1882 by James H. Smith references the Titus farm in Stanford. Interestingly, one of James Baker’s grandsons was named Titus Baker. Coincidence?

From Stanford they moved to Clinton. Clinton was formed from Charlotte and Rhinebeck Precincts and gets its name from Hon. George Clinton who was then the first governor of the state and had served as general during the Revolution. He was later Vice President of the United States. Many of the early settlers of the Town of Clinton were Friends or Quakers. The Assessment Roll for James Baker in the Town of Clinton was $2520 value with a $5.67 tax.

From Clinton they moved to Pleasant Valley. Per The History of Dutchess County by James H. Smith, the village of Pleasant Valley was incorporated April 15th, 1814. It also mentions that “The Blooms built a mill and mansion a short distance north of Washington Hollow.” Interestingly, one of James Baker’s grandsons was named Isaac Bloom Baker (but referred to as Bloom). Coincidence? Also, Per “Records of Crum Elbow Precinct” 1940 “the clerk of Clinton Precinct, Isaac Bloom, was retained as clerk of the town of Clinton” Again, coincidence?