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Subject: Re: Need Obit: Gershon A. BAKER d 11 Jan 1924 in Mountain View, CA age 74; husb of Ruth WARD; dau Helen J. BAKER
Date: 27 Jun 2004 17:25:23 -0600
This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Surnames: Baker, Wing, Parr
Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/CY.2ADE/3654.1
Message Board Post:
The following is a transcript of Gershon Baker's obituary. The copy I have is pasted in a scrapbook and is undated and doesn't show the source, but from the content it is clear to me that it was from a Seventh-day Adventist publication. The items in brackets are corrections or additions by me. I am Gershon Baker’s great-granddaughter. I would be happy to correspond with anyone interested in this family (descendants or ancestors).
Gershon A. Baker has Fallen Asleep
Life’s record for another esteemed citizen of Mountain View, and comrade is service, has closed. Mr. G. A. Baker passed away at his home on Ada Avenue last Friday afternoon [January 11, 1924] following a decline in health and illness dating back to September of last year. At that time he was at his regular work with the Register-Leader. He sought medical help in Southern California, and underwent an operation, but his condition was beyond the power of medical skill. He recovered from the operation and returned to his home to spend the remaining weeks among loved ones and friends among whom he has gone in and out for twenty-one years in his residence and work here.
At his death Mr. Baker was a little past seventy-four years of age. He had led an active and temperate life and age had not made its usual changes. For forty years, from 1878 to 1918, Mr. Baker was connected with the Pacific Press Publishing Association. During that time he held responsible positions, for a number of years in the earlier history of the institution serving as foreman of the pressroom. He was among the oldest of the employees, from the standpoint of length of service, who removed with the Pacific Press from Oakland when it was located here in 1903.
Although retired form the active service of that institution, he was ever counted a member of its family, and was closely associated with its work and workers. In emergencies he was always ready to help. During the past two years he spent, more or less regularly, considerable time with the Register-Leader.
The funeral was held Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. from the Seventh-day Adventist church. Interment was made in the Alta Mesa cemetery. The service was conducted by Elders A. O. Tait, M. C. Wilcox, and E. L. Maxwell. Elder Wilcox, almost a life-long co-worker with Mr. Baker, gave the following sketch of his life:
“August 3, 1849, in Monroe County, Western New York, was born Gershon Almond Baker, whose death we mourn today.
“The immediate place of his birth was West Henrietta, eight miles from the city of Rochester, fifteen miles from that inland fresh-water Lake Ontario, and one and one-half miles from the beautiful Genessee River, which swept in alluring curves near his boyhood home. Here the lad lived for eight years. Railways were building there, and the New York Central was right in the midst of the beginning of its great system. All the stirring scenes around him, the beautiful scenery, and the rugged climate must have left their impress upon the plastic mind of the boy.
“Mr. Baker came of sturdy English and Welsh stock that had become disciplined and Americanized in Vermont and New York. Strong patriots they were, not a few serving, some as officers in the wars of the Revolution and 1812. Three families appear prominently, Wing, Baker and Parr. Of religious beliefs Baptist and Quaker seem to prevail. However, Mr. Baker’s father, Justus Baker, Jr., and his mother, Sylvia Wing, were married by a Methodist Presiding Elder, Randall Hobart, at Marshall, Michigan, February 15, 1848.
“At the age of eight years, Mr. Baker with his parents came to Placer County, California, where he lived till the age of eighteen, when the family removed to Oakland, California. Here he worked and attended school.
“In 1878 he and his wife heard the message given by the Seventh-day Adventists and accepted it, and became charter members of the church at Oakland, California. Shortly after – 1878 – he became one of the regular employees of the Pacific Press Publishing Company in the press room, and there remained in regular service until October, 1918. Since that time he has been with the Company off and on, yet always counted a member of the family. For some time before his last illness, he was in the employ of the Register-Leader, where there was mutual appreciation of the good relationship between employer and employee.
“November 3, 1872, Mr. Baker and Miss Ruth Ward of Oakland were united in marriage. To that union were born eight children, three sons and five daughters – Fred, Robert, Ruth, Delmer, Sylvia, [Ethel,] Rosa, Helen. Fred and Robert died in young manhood. Delmer and family are in the foreign mission field in Western Africa laboring in mission work. The mother survives, a blessing to her children still. The four older daughters are married, and they with Helen, the youngest, have been with their father during the past few weeks. Mr. Baker’s sister and brother also survive him and are present. (The daughters are – Mrs. W. B. Corliss, Visalia; Mrs. T. F. Culhane, Glendale; Mrs. G. [should be “E.”] W. Walker, Glendale; Mrs. W. T. [should be “W. J.”] Goodwin, Hollywood; and Helen Baker, Loma Linda, California.)
“It was but a little more than a year ago that Brother and Sister Baker celebrated their Golden Wedding and received congratulations from so many. His comrades in service will miss him. It is another break in the circle to be united in God’s land of life. In his profession he was faithful to the end, always cheerful, hopeful, trusting in the love, mercy and power of His Saviour. He was ready to go, knew there was no human hope in his case and faced death as a Christian should. When he came form Los Angeles after hearing the dread sentence of the doctors, he laid his plans accordingly. He met in warm fellowship his old comrades from time to time, and died as he had lived, patiently, trustingly, resting in the Master’s promise. We shall miss him as comrades in service. His brother and sister and friends will miss him. His children will miss the kind father at the home comings. More than all the beloved companion of more than half a century will mi!
ss him. We commend them all to the blessed God who careth for the sparrow and how much more for his ____sting [trusting?] ones."
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