∼Nettie's maiden name was Myrtle Jeanette Gingrich, but she was called Nettie all her life. She was born 30 Mar 1884 in Reno, Leavenworth County, Kansas. She was one of eight children of Isaac F. Gingrich Jr. and Sarah Eliza Cooper. Isaac and Sarah's third child and second son, Jesse was born and died in Feb. 1880 and another child was born and died before the 1900 census. The census had listed that Sarah had 8 children of which 6 were living at that time. Sarah moved the family to Township 7, Santa Barbara County, California sometime after Isaac died in 1893 and was there at the time of the 1900 census. Sarah's father, Lewis S. Cooper, was living with her family in Township 7 too at that time too, was a widower and he was 75.
Nettie went to a teacher's school in San Jose after finishing 8th grade and then became the teacher at Live Oak Elementary School which was on the George Buchanan Baker ranch. Nettie married George Buchanan Baker on 16 Jan 1901 in Bakersfield, Kern County, California. On the marriage license she listed her age as 18 and George listed his age as 26. Nettie was 16 and George was 33 at the time, his birth date being 22 July 1857. They took their honeymoon in a horse and buggy over to Santa Cruz.
George had been a widower for a little over five years when they married. His first wife, Lucinda Emogene "Emma" Lawn (BD: 5 Dec 1869) had died of TB on 28 Oct 1895 and left George with two young boys to raise: Orley Lewis Baker born on 15 Oct 1891 and Glenn Everitt Baker born on 7 Jul 1893.
George's ranch was seven miles from Paicines, San Benito County, California and about 19 miles from Hollister, San Benito County, California. Hiram and Rebecca Baker, George's parents had traded their homestead near the 101 ranch in the same area for the ranch that George was living on when he married Nettie. After Hiram died in 1873 at the age of 35, Rebecca eventually filed for an additional 160 acre homestead before she died. The ranch, which totaled 256 acres, had been left to George and his sister Annie after Rebecca died.
Annie married well and several years later turned over her part to George. Eventually the address of the Baker Ranch became 18938 Airline Hiway, Paicines, California though the numbers were indicating the distance from Hollister was 18.938 miles and not the distance from Paicines. Previous to this time, the census records showed the ranch as being in the Mulberry District, Monterey County, California and then Mulberry District, San Benito Country, California as the boundaries of the counties were changed. Then on the 1910-1940 census records it lists George Buchanan and Nettie living in San Benito, San Benito, California. All of these references to where they lived was the same place as the eventual Airline Hiway address. The name of the area kept getting changed for years, though Nettie lived on the same ranch from the time of her marriage in 1901 until 1954.
Nettie and George didn't have the easiest life as far as homes on the ranch went. Their first home which was across the river from the highway was lost in a flood of the San Benito River that ran through the ranch. There was one room left after the flood took the rest of the house and that room was hauled farther from where the new river bed was and used as a granary until years later when Orley and his family needed a place to live. It was still across the river from the highway. Orley added on to the one room and made it a slightly livable house. (No indoor bathroom, no phone, no eventual electricity when electricity came through the valley in 1948, no insulation….but it was used as a home by Baker families off and on from around 1930 until 1958.)
The second house that George and Nettie lived in was on the highway side of the river and it burned down in a fire that was believed to have been started by their kerosene refrigerator. After that George didn't want another refrigerator in the house and it took years for his grandsons to convince him to get one for Nettie even after they had electricity in their third house.
The third house was built by Nettie's brother-in-law, Frank Mallory, her sister Iva's husband. Frank was a contractor. That house was even farther away from the river than the second house and was lived in by Nettie and George Buchanan and various grandchildren off and on until 1954 when George Buchanan died. Then George Buchanan's grandson's family, George Everett, his wife Evelyn and two of his three children, Everett Lee and Marilyn Janette lived in it until 1965 when George Everett died on 30 Jan 1965 at the early age of 46 from a drowning accident in the ocean while clamming. Then Everett Baker (George Everett's second child) and his family lived in the house after George Everett died until approximately 1990.
Nettie had her hands full stepping into the step-mother role at the age of 16 since the boys were already 9 and 7 at the time. She went into the egg business in order to have spending money of her own and at one time had 300 chickens. One of the stories that was told about Grandma Nettie was that she had a minor car accident as a young bride and George Buchanan got angry with her about it. She decided then and there to solve that problem of getting yelled at for a car accident by never driving again. George Buchanan had to drive Grandma Nettie into town once a week so she could get the groceries and take her eggs to sell. She would sell the eggs in Hollister and use the money to help with the income needed to make ends meet while living on the ranch besides spending money for her. She grew a garden and had a milk cow that she milked every day too. There were also fruit trees, grapes, and walnuts were eventually a money crop on the ranch.
Though Nettie never had children of her own, she helped raise three different generations of young Baker's and gave them a sense of importance and encouraged them to become educated. Education was very important to her. Besides raising Orley and Glenn, her husband's children, she raised Orley's first child, George Everett Baker, after Orley's first wife, Agnes Isabell Richards (BD: 5 Dec 1859), died on 27 Feb 1920 of the Asian flu. George Everett (BD: 9 Oct 1918) was only 16 months when his mother died. There were different times when William "Bill" and Franklin "Frank" lived with Nettie and George Buchanan through a school year when there was the need. Bill and Frank were two of Orley's four children from his second marriage to Madge Maria Richards, his first wife's younger sister. The other two children were Robert "Bob" and Peggy Anne "Anne". Frank would often visit from wherever he was living away from the ranch during the summer or on the weekend and would sleep on the bed in the old chicken brooder house that was no longer in use when Nettie was no longer running her egg business to such a large degree.
Nettie also helped support Orley's second family, by often bringing them groceries back from Hollister, when she went to town. She would also have Orley and his family over for Christmas every year and that is how Orley's children would have any Christmas presents. Orley and his family lived in the house on his father's ranch across the river off and on during the years. Orley died suddenly on 9 Jul 1941 of a heart attack in his sleep at the age of 49.
George Everett's oldest child, Calvin Orley Baker, was left with Grandma Nettie after he was born on 17 Apr 1939. Nettie took care of him as a baby when his parents moved so George Everett could work at the San Francisco ship yards. Calvin bonded with his step-great grandma whom he always called Grandma. Calvin's family moved into the house across the river on the Baker ranch after Orley had died and left it vacant when Cal was about two and a half and they lived there until George Buchanan Baker died on 23 May 1954. That house still had no electricity, no phone, no indoor bathroom, and water in the kitchen only when they could afford the fuel for the pump, or when they carried the water by hand from the well. During the time that Calvin and his family lived across the river, Calvin spent as much time as he could with Grandma Nettie. She was the one that took him to meet the school teacher before he started first grade at the age of five. She was the one that had him show the teacher that he knew how to count and knew the alphabet. And Nettie was the one that let the teacher know that Calvin was a smart child and the teacher better teach him well. Nettie wanted to make sure that any of the children that came under her tutelage understood that she wanted them to become as educated as they possibly could.
Grandma Nettie was the one that Calvin wanted there with him after he had his tonsils out when he was five or six. She was always there for him when he needed her. She took care of him when he had "hard" measles as a child and he remembers being at her house and sleeping in a room where she had blankets over the windows which at the time was thought to help prevent blindness as a complication of measles. One time when a bee keeper had placed bee hives over the fence from the school, she saved him again. The bee keeper had come to collect the honey and had stirred up the bees to a frenzy. The bees were chasing the kids at recess, but after school, when Calvin was walking to Grandma's, the bees came in full force and attacked Calvin in the face. He made it to Grandma's house. Then Nettie kept Calvin there overnight to take care of him. By the next morning, his face was so swollen that he couldn't open his eyes and he was terrified that he was blind, but she kept reassuring him that he wasn't blind and that everything would be okay. One winter when Cal's entire family was sick with colds when living across the river, Grandma Nettie walked the ¾ mile to their house and brought her homemade grape juice for them. Calvin's remembers how special it was to have the grape juice.
Any time Calvin needed help or support in a situation, Grandma Nettie was there for him. Calvin was a timid child in some ways, but when he went to the swimming pool as an eight or nine year old and wanted to go off the diving board, the older kids were pushing him out of the way. Nettie was there watching him from the bleachers and she kept encouraging him that he could do it, so that he persisted and found a way to fit himself into the line. She was the most positive force in his life and she looked out for him as if he were her own child. His bond with her was as strong as if she were his mother.
Calvin moved with "Grandma" Nettie to Hollister and lived with her in town for the last two years of his high school after her husband George Buchanan died. Calvin was her chauffeur during those years as he drove her car for her. Nettie instilled in him the desire to go to college, and though his father, George Everett, had only finished 8th grade and his mother, Evelyn Jessie Margaret Mundion, had only finished 9th grade, Cal went to work for three years at Rocketdyne in Southern California after graduating from high school to earn the money for college. He went to Humboldt State College where he got a BS degree in Wildlife Management and then got a research assistantship at Utah State University where he got an MS degree in Range Management.
All five of Nettie's step-grandsons served their country during WW II and/or the Korean War including: George Everett who served in the Merchant Marines during WWII; Bill who served in the Navy during WWII and the Korean War and made the Navy his career and advanced to the rank of Commander; and Bob, who served in the Navy during WWII. Also Glenn Jr., who was Glenn's son, served during WWII and was killed on his ship when the engine blew up on 11 May 1945. Frank, the youngest of Orley's sons was too young to serve during WWII but was drafted during the Korean War and made the Army his first career for 20 years and became a Lt. Colonel.
Nettie was a wonderful influence on the Baker family and was much loved and missed when she died on 24 July 1958 in the Hollister County Hospital of cancer. Her younger brother James "Jim" who was the one who filled out the death certificate information apparently had only known her as Nettie all his life, because he put his oldest sister's first name Martha instead of Myrtle which was Nettie's first name on the records.
Nettie was a very special person and a joy to be around for everyone who knew her. It was a special blessing to the Baker family to have her influence to get as much education as they could and to live a good life. Though she was never blessed to have a baby of her own, she helped raise several very special and successful young men whom have lived up to Grandma's expectations and she would be very proud.
Nettie went to a teacher's school in San Jose after finishing 8th grade and then became the teacher at Live Oak Elementary School which was on the George Buchanan Baker ranch. Nettie married George Buchanan Baker on 16 Jan 1901 in Bakersfield, Kern County, California. On the marriage license she listed her age as 18 and George listed his age as 26. Nettie was 16 and George was 33 at the time, his birth date being 22 July 1857. They took their honeymoon in a horse and buggy over to Santa Cruz.
George had been a widower for a little over five years when they married. His first wife, Lucinda Emogene "Emma" Lawn (BD: 5 Dec 1869) had died of TB on 28 Oct 1895 and left George with two young boys to raise: Orley Lewis Baker born on 15 Oct 1891 and Glenn Everitt Baker born on 7 Jul 1893.
George's ranch was seven miles from Paicines, San Benito County, California and about 19 miles from Hollister, San Benito County, California. Hiram and Rebecca Baker, George's parents had traded their homestead near the 101 ranch in the same area for the ranch that George was living on when he married Nettie. After Hiram died in 1873 at the age of 35, Rebecca eventually filed for an additional 160 acre homestead before she died. The ranch, which totaled 256 acres, had been left to George and his sister Annie after Rebecca died.
Annie married well and several years later turned over her part to George. Eventually the address of the Baker Ranch became 18938 Airline Hiway, Paicines, California though the numbers were indicating the distance from Hollister was 18.938 miles and not the distance from Paicines. Previous to this time, the census records showed the ranch as being in the Mulberry District, Monterey County, California and then Mulberry District, San Benito Country, California as the boundaries of the counties were changed. Then on the 1910-1940 census records it lists George Buchanan and Nettie living in San Benito, San Benito, California. All of these references to where they lived was the same place as the eventual Airline Hiway address. The name of the area kept getting changed for years, though Nettie lived on the same ranch from the time of her marriage in 1901 until 1954.
Nettie and George didn't have the easiest life as far as homes on the ranch went. Their first home which was across the river from the highway was lost in a flood of the San Benito River that ran through the ranch. There was one room left after the flood took the rest of the house and that room was hauled farther from where the new river bed was and used as a granary until years later when Orley and his family needed a place to live. It was still across the river from the highway. Orley added on to the one room and made it a slightly livable house. (No indoor bathroom, no phone, no eventual electricity when electricity came through the valley in 1948, no insulation….but it was used as a home by Baker families off and on from around 1930 until 1958.)
The second house that George and Nettie lived in was on the highway side of the river and it burned down in a fire that was believed to have been started by their kerosene refrigerator. After that George didn't want another refrigerator in the house and it took years for his grandsons to convince him to get one for Nettie even after they had electricity in their third house.
The third house was built by Nettie's brother-in-law, Frank Mallory, her sister Iva's husband. Frank was a contractor. That house was even farther away from the river than the second house and was lived in by Nettie and George Buchanan and various grandchildren off and on until 1954 when George Buchanan died. Then George Buchanan's grandson's family, George Everett, his wife Evelyn and two of his three children, Everett Lee and Marilyn Janette lived in it until 1965 when George Everett died on 30 Jan 1965 at the early age of 46 from a drowning accident in the ocean while clamming. Then Everett Baker (George Everett's second child) and his family lived in the house after George Everett died until approximately 1990.
Nettie had her hands full stepping into the step-mother role at the age of 16 since the boys were already 9 and 7 at the time. She went into the egg business in order to have spending money of her own and at one time had 300 chickens. One of the stories that was told about Grandma Nettie was that she had a minor car accident as a young bride and George Buchanan got angry with her about it. She decided then and there to solve that problem of getting yelled at for a car accident by never driving again. George Buchanan had to drive Grandma Nettie into town once a week so she could get the groceries and take her eggs to sell. She would sell the eggs in Hollister and use the money to help with the income needed to make ends meet while living on the ranch besides spending money for her. She grew a garden and had a milk cow that she milked every day too. There were also fruit trees, grapes, and walnuts were eventually a money crop on the ranch.
Though Nettie never had children of her own, she helped raise three different generations of young Baker's and gave them a sense of importance and encouraged them to become educated. Education was very important to her. Besides raising Orley and Glenn, her husband's children, she raised Orley's first child, George Everett Baker, after Orley's first wife, Agnes Isabell Richards (BD: 5 Dec 1859), died on 27 Feb 1920 of the Asian flu. George Everett (BD: 9 Oct 1918) was only 16 months when his mother died. There were different times when William "Bill" and Franklin "Frank" lived with Nettie and George Buchanan through a school year when there was the need. Bill and Frank were two of Orley's four children from his second marriage to Madge Maria Richards, his first wife's younger sister. The other two children were Robert "Bob" and Peggy Anne "Anne". Frank would often visit from wherever he was living away from the ranch during the summer or on the weekend and would sleep on the bed in the old chicken brooder house that was no longer in use when Nettie was no longer running her egg business to such a large degree.
Nettie also helped support Orley's second family, by often bringing them groceries back from Hollister, when she went to town. She would also have Orley and his family over for Christmas every year and that is how Orley's children would have any Christmas presents. Orley and his family lived in the house on his father's ranch across the river off and on during the years. Orley died suddenly on 9 Jul 1941 of a heart attack in his sleep at the age of 49.
George Everett's oldest child, Calvin Orley Baker, was left with Grandma Nettie after he was born on 17 Apr 1939. Nettie took care of him as a baby when his parents moved so George Everett could work at the San Francisco ship yards. Calvin bonded with his step-great grandma whom he always called Grandma. Calvin's family moved into the house across the river on the Baker ranch after Orley had died and left it vacant when Cal was about two and a half and they lived there until George Buchanan Baker died on 23 May 1954. That house still had no electricity, no phone, no indoor bathroom, and water in the kitchen only when they could afford the fuel for the pump, or when they carried the water by hand from the well. During the time that Calvin and his family lived across the river, Calvin spent as much time as he could with Grandma Nettie. She was the one that took him to meet the school teacher before he started first grade at the age of five. She was the one that had him show the teacher that he knew how to count and knew the alphabet. And Nettie was the one that let the teacher know that Calvin was a smart child and the teacher better teach him well. Nettie wanted to make sure that any of the children that came under her tutelage understood that she wanted them to become as educated as they possibly could.
Grandma Nettie was the one that Calvin wanted there with him after he had his tonsils out when he was five or six. She was always there for him when he needed her. She took care of him when he had "hard" measles as a child and he remembers being at her house and sleeping in a room where she had blankets over the windows which at the time was thought to help prevent blindness as a complication of measles. One time when a bee keeper had placed bee hives over the fence from the school, she saved him again. The bee keeper had come to collect the honey and had stirred up the bees to a frenzy. The bees were chasing the kids at recess, but after school, when Calvin was walking to Grandma's, the bees came in full force and attacked Calvin in the face. He made it to Grandma's house. Then Nettie kept Calvin there overnight to take care of him. By the next morning, his face was so swollen that he couldn't open his eyes and he was terrified that he was blind, but she kept reassuring him that he wasn't blind and that everything would be okay. One winter when Cal's entire family was sick with colds when living across the river, Grandma Nettie walked the ¾ mile to their house and brought her homemade grape juice for them. Calvin's remembers how special it was to have the grape juice.
Any time Calvin needed help or support in a situation, Grandma Nettie was there for him. Calvin was a timid child in some ways, but when he went to the swimming pool as an eight or nine year old and wanted to go off the diving board, the older kids were pushing him out of the way. Nettie was there watching him from the bleachers and she kept encouraging him that he could do it, so that he persisted and found a way to fit himself into the line. She was the most positive force in his life and she looked out for him as if he were her own child. His bond with her was as strong as if she were his mother.
Calvin moved with "Grandma" Nettie to Hollister and lived with her in town for the last two years of his high school after her husband George Buchanan died. Calvin was her chauffeur during those years as he drove her car for her. Nettie instilled in him the desire to go to college, and though his father, George Everett, had only finished 8th grade and his mother, Evelyn Jessie Margaret Mundion, had only finished 9th grade, Cal went to work for three years at Rocketdyne in Southern California after graduating from high school to earn the money for college. He went to Humboldt State College where he got a BS degree in Wildlife Management and then got a research assistantship at Utah State University where he got an MS degree in Range Management.
All five of Nettie's step-grandsons served their country during WW II and/or the Korean War including: George Everett who served in the Merchant Marines during WWII; Bill who served in the Navy during WWII and the Korean War and made the Navy his career and advanced to the rank of Commander; and Bob, who served in the Navy during WWII. Also Glenn Jr., who was Glenn's son, served during WWII and was killed on his ship when the engine blew up on 11 May 1945. Frank, the youngest of Orley's sons was too young to serve during WWII but was drafted during the Korean War and made the Army his first career for 20 years and became a Lt. Colonel.
Nettie was a wonderful influence on the Baker family and was much loved and missed when she died on 24 July 1958 in the Hollister County Hospital of cancer. Her younger brother James "Jim" who was the one who filled out the death certificate information apparently had only known her as Nettie all his life, because he put his oldest sister's first name Martha instead of Myrtle which was Nettie's first name on the records.
Nettie was a very special person and a joy to be around for everyone who knew her. It was a special blessing to the Baker family to have her influence to get as much education as they could and to live a good life. Though she was never blessed to have a baby of her own, she helped raise several very special and successful young men whom have lived up to Grandma's expectations and she would be very proud.
∼Nettie's maiden name was Myrtle Jeanette Gingrich, but she was called Nettie all her life. She was born 30 Mar 1884 in Reno, Leavenworth County, Kansas. She was one of eight children of Isaac F. Gingrich Jr. and Sarah Eliza Cooper. Isaac and Sarah's third child and second son, Jesse was born and died in Feb. 1880 and another child was born and died before the 1900 census. The census had listed that Sarah had 8 children of which 6 were living at that time. Sarah moved the family to Township 7, Santa Barbara County, California sometime after Isaac died in 1893 and was there at the time of the 1900 census. Sarah's father, Lewis S. Cooper, was living with her family in Township 7 too at that time too, was a widower and he was 75.
Nettie went to a teacher's school in San Jose after finishing 8th grade and then became the teacher at Live Oak Elementary School which was on the George Buchanan Baker ranch. Nettie married George Buchanan Baker on 16 Jan 1901 in Bakersfield, Kern County, California. On the marriage license she listed her age as 18 and George listed his age as 26. Nettie was 16 and George was 33 at the time, his birth date being 22 July 1857. They took their honeymoon in a horse and buggy over to Santa Cruz.
George had been a widower for a little over five years when they married. His first wife, Lucinda Emogene "Emma" Lawn (BD: 5 Dec 1869) had died of TB on 28 Oct 1895 and left George with two young boys to raise: Orley Lewis Baker born on 15 Oct 1891 and Glenn Everitt Baker born on 7 Jul 1893.
George's ranch was seven miles from Paicines, San Benito County, California and about 19 miles from Hollister, San Benito County, California. Hiram and Rebecca Baker, George's parents had traded their homestead near the 101 ranch in the same area for the ranch that George was living on when he married Nettie. After Hiram died in 1873 at the age of 35, Rebecca eventually filed for an additional 160 acre homestead before she died. The ranch, which totaled 256 acres, had been left to George and his sister Annie after Rebecca died.
Annie married well and several years later turned over her part to George. Eventually the address of the Baker Ranch became 18938 Airline Hiway, Paicines, California though the numbers were indicating the distance from Hollister was 18.938 miles and not the distance from Paicines. Previous to this time, the census records showed the ranch as being in the Mulberry District, Monterey County, California and then Mulberry District, San Benito Country, California as the boundaries of the counties were changed. Then on the 1910-1940 census records it lists George Buchanan and Nettie living in San Benito, San Benito, California. All of these references to where they lived was the same place as the eventual Airline Hiway address. The name of the area kept getting changed for years, though Nettie lived on the same ranch from the time of her marriage in 1901 until 1954.
Nettie and George didn't have the easiest life as far as homes on the ranch went. Their first home which was across the river from the highway was lost in a flood of the San Benito River that ran through the ranch. There was one room left after the flood took the rest of the house and that room was hauled farther from where the new river bed was and used as a granary until years later when Orley and his family needed a place to live. It was still across the river from the highway. Orley added on to the one room and made it a slightly livable house. (No indoor bathroom, no phone, no eventual electricity when electricity came through the valley in 1948, no insulation….but it was used as a home by Baker families off and on from around 1930 until 1958.)
The second house that George and Nettie lived in was on the highway side of the river and it burned down in a fire that was believed to have been started by their kerosene refrigerator. After that George didn't want another refrigerator in the house and it took years for his grandsons to convince him to get one for Nettie even after they had electricity in their third house.
The third house was built by Nettie's brother-in-law, Frank Mallory, her sister Iva's husband. Frank was a contractor. That house was even farther away from the river than the second house and was lived in by Nettie and George Buchanan and various grandchildren off and on until 1954 when George Buchanan died. Then George Buchanan's grandson's family, George Everett, his wife Evelyn and two of his three children, Everett Lee and Marilyn Janette lived in it until 1965 when George Everett died on 30 Jan 1965 at the early age of 46 from a drowning accident in the ocean while clamming. Then Everett Baker (George Everett's second child) and his family lived in the house after George Everett died until approximately 1990.
Nettie had her hands full stepping into the step-mother role at the age of 16 since the boys were already 9 and 7 at the time. She went into the egg business in order to have spending money of her own and at one time had 300 chickens. One of the stories that was told about Grandma Nettie was that she had a minor car accident as a young bride and George Buchanan got angry with her about it. She decided then and there to solve that problem of getting yelled at for a car accident by never driving again. George Buchanan had to drive Grandma Nettie into town once a week so she could get the groceries and take her eggs to sell. She would sell the eggs in Hollister and use the money to help with the income needed to make ends meet while living on the ranch besides spending money for her. She grew a garden and had a milk cow that she milked every day too. There were also fruit trees, grapes, and walnuts were eventually a money crop on the ranch.
Though Nettie never had children of her own, she helped raise three different generations of young Baker's and gave them a sense of importance and encouraged them to become educated. Education was very important to her. Besides raising Orley and Glenn, her husband's children, she raised Orley's first child, George Everett Baker, after Orley's first wife, Agnes Isabell Richards (BD: 5 Dec 1859), died on 27 Feb 1920 of the Asian flu. George Everett (BD: 9 Oct 1918) was only 16 months when his mother died. There were different times when William "Bill" and Franklin "Frank" lived with Nettie and George Buchanan through a school year when there was the need. Bill and Frank were two of Orley's four children from his second marriage to Madge Maria Richards, his first wife's younger sister. The other two children were Robert "Bob" and Peggy Anne "Anne". Frank would often visit from wherever he was living away from the ranch during the summer or on the weekend and would sleep on the bed in the old chicken brooder house that was no longer in use when Nettie was no longer running her egg business to such a large degree.
Nettie also helped support Orley's second family, by often bringing them groceries back from Hollister, when she went to town. She would also have Orley and his family over for Christmas every year and that is how Orley's children would have any Christmas presents. Orley and his family lived in the house on his father's ranch across the river off and on during the years. Orley died suddenly on 9 Jul 1941 of a heart attack in his sleep at the age of 49.
George Everett's oldest child, Calvin Orley Baker, was left with Grandma Nettie after he was born on 17 Apr 1939. Nettie took care of him as a baby when his parents moved so George Everett could work at the San Francisco ship yards. Calvin bonded with his step-great grandma whom he always called Grandma. Calvin's family moved into the house across the river on the Baker ranch after Orley had died and left it vacant when Cal was about two and a half and they lived there until George Buchanan Baker died on 23 May 1954. That house still had no electricity, no phone, no indoor bathroom, and water in the kitchen only when they could afford the fuel for the pump, or when they carried the water by hand from the well. During the time that Calvin and his family lived across the river, Calvin spent as much time as he could with Grandma Nettie. She was the one that took him to meet the school teacher before he started first grade at the age of five. She was the one that had him show the teacher that he knew how to count and knew the alphabet. And Nettie was the one that let the teacher know that Calvin was a smart child and the teacher better teach him well. Nettie wanted to make sure that any of the children that came under her tutelage understood that she wanted them to become as educated as they possibly could.
Grandma Nettie was the one that Calvin wanted there with him after he had his tonsils out when he was five or six. She was always there for him when he needed her. She took care of him when he had "hard" measles as a child and he remembers being at her house and sleeping in a room where she had blankets over the windows which at the time was thought to help prevent blindness as a complication of measles. One time when a bee keeper had placed bee hives over the fence from the school, she saved him again. The bee keeper had come to collect the honey and had stirred up the bees to a frenzy. The bees were chasing the kids at recess, but after school, when Calvin was walking to Grandma's, the bees came in full force and attacked Calvin in the face. He made it to Grandma's house. Then Nettie kept Calvin there overnight to take care of him. By the next morning, his face was so swollen that he couldn't open his eyes and he was terrified that he was blind, but she kept reassuring him that he wasn't blind and that everything would be okay. One winter when Cal's entire family was sick with colds when living across the river, Grandma Nettie walked the ¾ mile to their house and brought her homemade grape juice for them. Calvin's remembers how special it was to have the grape juice.
Any time Calvin needed help or support in a situation, Grandma Nettie was there for him. Calvin was a timid child in some ways, but when he went to the swimming pool as an eight or nine year old and wanted to go off the diving board, the older kids were pushing him out of the way. Nettie was there watching him from the bleachers and she kept encouraging him that he could do it, so that he persisted and found a way to fit himself into the line. She was the most positive force in his life and she looked out for him as if he were her own child. His bond with her was as strong as if she were his mother.
Calvin moved with "Grandma" Nettie to Hollister and lived with her in town for the last two years of his high school after her husband George Buchanan died. Calvin was her chauffeur during those years as he drove her car for her. Nettie instilled in him the desire to go to college, and though his father, George Everett, had only finished 8th grade and his mother, Evelyn Jessie Margaret Mundion, had only finished 9th grade, Cal went to work for three years at Rocketdyne in Southern California after graduating from high school to earn the money for college. He went to Humboldt State College where he got a BS degree in Wildlife Management and then got a research assistantship at Utah State University where he got an MS degree in Range Management.
All five of Nettie's step-grandsons served their country during WW II and/or the Korean War including: George Everett who served in the Merchant Marines during WWII; Bill who served in the Navy during WWII and the Korean War and made the Navy his career and advanced to the rank of Commander; and Bob, who served in the Navy during WWII. Also Glenn Jr., who was Glenn's son, served during WWII and was killed on his ship when the engine blew up on 11 May 1945. Frank, the youngest of Orley's sons was too young to serve during WWII but was drafted during the Korean War and made the Army his first career for 20 years and became a Lt. Colonel.
Nettie was a wonderful influence on the Baker family and was much loved and missed when she died on 24 July 1958 in the Hollister County Hospital of cancer. Her younger brother James "Jim" who was the one who filled out the death certificate information apparently had only known her as Nettie all his life, because he put his oldest sister's first name Martha instead of Myrtle which was Nettie's first name on the records.
Nettie was a very special person and a joy to be around for everyone who knew her. It was a special blessing to the Baker family to have her influence to get as much education as they could and to live a good life. Though she was never blessed to have a baby of her own, she helped raise several very special and successful young men whom have lived up to Grandma's expectations and she would be very proud.
Nettie went to a teacher's school in San Jose after finishing 8th grade and then became the teacher at Live Oak Elementary School which was on the George Buchanan Baker ranch. Nettie married George Buchanan Baker on 16 Jan 1901 in Bakersfield, Kern County, California. On the marriage license she listed her age as 18 and George listed his age as 26. Nettie was 16 and George was 33 at the time, his birth date being 22 July 1857. They took their honeymoon in a horse and buggy over to Santa Cruz.
George had been a widower for a little over five years when they married. His first wife, Lucinda Emogene "Emma" Lawn (BD: 5 Dec 1869) had died of TB on 28 Oct 1895 and left George with two young boys to raise: Orley Lewis Baker born on 15 Oct 1891 and Glenn Everitt Baker born on 7 Jul 1893.
George's ranch was seven miles from Paicines, San Benito County, California and about 19 miles from Hollister, San Benito County, California. Hiram and Rebecca Baker, George's parents had traded their homestead near the 101 ranch in the same area for the ranch that George was living on when he married Nettie. After Hiram died in 1873 at the age of 35, Rebecca eventually filed for an additional 160 acre homestead before she died. The ranch, which totaled 256 acres, had been left to George and his sister Annie after Rebecca died.
Annie married well and several years later turned over her part to George. Eventually the address of the Baker Ranch became 18938 Airline Hiway, Paicines, California though the numbers were indicating the distance from Hollister was 18.938 miles and not the distance from Paicines. Previous to this time, the census records showed the ranch as being in the Mulberry District, Monterey County, California and then Mulberry District, San Benito Country, California as the boundaries of the counties were changed. Then on the 1910-1940 census records it lists George Buchanan and Nettie living in San Benito, San Benito, California. All of these references to where they lived was the same place as the eventual Airline Hiway address. The name of the area kept getting changed for years, though Nettie lived on the same ranch from the time of her marriage in 1901 until 1954.
Nettie and George didn't have the easiest life as far as homes on the ranch went. Their first home which was across the river from the highway was lost in a flood of the San Benito River that ran through the ranch. There was one room left after the flood took the rest of the house and that room was hauled farther from where the new river bed was and used as a granary until years later when Orley and his family needed a place to live. It was still across the river from the highway. Orley added on to the one room and made it a slightly livable house. (No indoor bathroom, no phone, no eventual electricity when electricity came through the valley in 1948, no insulation….but it was used as a home by Baker families off and on from around 1930 until 1958.)
The second house that George and Nettie lived in was on the highway side of the river and it burned down in a fire that was believed to have been started by their kerosene refrigerator. After that George didn't want another refrigerator in the house and it took years for his grandsons to convince him to get one for Nettie even after they had electricity in their third house.
The third house was built by Nettie's brother-in-law, Frank Mallory, her sister Iva's husband. Frank was a contractor. That house was even farther away from the river than the second house and was lived in by Nettie and George Buchanan and various grandchildren off and on until 1954 when George Buchanan died. Then George Buchanan's grandson's family, George Everett, his wife Evelyn and two of his three children, Everett Lee and Marilyn Janette lived in it until 1965 when George Everett died on 30 Jan 1965 at the early age of 46 from a drowning accident in the ocean while clamming. Then Everett Baker (George Everett's second child) and his family lived in the house after George Everett died until approximately 1990.
Nettie had her hands full stepping into the step-mother role at the age of 16 since the boys were already 9 and 7 at the time. She went into the egg business in order to have spending money of her own and at one time had 300 chickens. One of the stories that was told about Grandma Nettie was that she had a minor car accident as a young bride and George Buchanan got angry with her about it. She decided then and there to solve that problem of getting yelled at for a car accident by never driving again. George Buchanan had to drive Grandma Nettie into town once a week so she could get the groceries and take her eggs to sell. She would sell the eggs in Hollister and use the money to help with the income needed to make ends meet while living on the ranch besides spending money for her. She grew a garden and had a milk cow that she milked every day too. There were also fruit trees, grapes, and walnuts were eventually a money crop on the ranch.
Though Nettie never had children of her own, she helped raise three different generations of young Baker's and gave them a sense of importance and encouraged them to become educated. Education was very important to her. Besides raising Orley and Glenn, her husband's children, she raised Orley's first child, George Everett Baker, after Orley's first wife, Agnes Isabell Richards (BD: 5 Dec 1859), died on 27 Feb 1920 of the Asian flu. George Everett (BD: 9 Oct 1918) was only 16 months when his mother died. There were different times when William "Bill" and Franklin "Frank" lived with Nettie and George Buchanan through a school year when there was the need. Bill and Frank were two of Orley's four children from his second marriage to Madge Maria Richards, his first wife's younger sister. The other two children were Robert "Bob" and Peggy Anne "Anne". Frank would often visit from wherever he was living away from the ranch during the summer or on the weekend and would sleep on the bed in the old chicken brooder house that was no longer in use when Nettie was no longer running her egg business to such a large degree.
Nettie also helped support Orley's second family, by often bringing them groceries back from Hollister, when she went to town. She would also have Orley and his family over for Christmas every year and that is how Orley's children would have any Christmas presents. Orley and his family lived in the house on his father's ranch across the river off and on during the years. Orley died suddenly on 9 Jul 1941 of a heart attack in his sleep at the age of 49.
George Everett's oldest child, Calvin Orley Baker, was left with Grandma Nettie after he was born on 17 Apr 1939. Nettie took care of him as a baby when his parents moved so George Everett could work at the San Francisco ship yards. Calvin bonded with his step-great grandma whom he always called Grandma. Calvin's family moved into the house across the river on the Baker ranch after Orley had died and left it vacant when Cal was about two and a half and they lived there until George Buchanan Baker died on 23 May 1954. That house still had no electricity, no phone, no indoor bathroom, and water in the kitchen only when they could afford the fuel for the pump, or when they carried the water by hand from the well. During the time that Calvin and his family lived across the river, Calvin spent as much time as he could with Grandma Nettie. She was the one that took him to meet the school teacher before he started first grade at the age of five. She was the one that had him show the teacher that he knew how to count and knew the alphabet. And Nettie was the one that let the teacher know that Calvin was a smart child and the teacher better teach him well. Nettie wanted to make sure that any of the children that came under her tutelage understood that she wanted them to become as educated as they possibly could.
Grandma Nettie was the one that Calvin wanted there with him after he had his tonsils out when he was five or six. She was always there for him when he needed her. She took care of him when he had "hard" measles as a child and he remembers being at her house and sleeping in a room where she had blankets over the windows which at the time was thought to help prevent blindness as a complication of measles. One time when a bee keeper had placed bee hives over the fence from the school, she saved him again. The bee keeper had come to collect the honey and had stirred up the bees to a frenzy. The bees were chasing the kids at recess, but after school, when Calvin was walking to Grandma's, the bees came in full force and attacked Calvin in the face. He made it to Grandma's house. Then Nettie kept Calvin there overnight to take care of him. By the next morning, his face was so swollen that he couldn't open his eyes and he was terrified that he was blind, but she kept reassuring him that he wasn't blind and that everything would be okay. One winter when Cal's entire family was sick with colds when living across the river, Grandma Nettie walked the ¾ mile to their house and brought her homemade grape juice for them. Calvin's remembers how special it was to have the grape juice.
Any time Calvin needed help or support in a situation, Grandma Nettie was there for him. Calvin was a timid child in some ways, but when he went to the swimming pool as an eight or nine year old and wanted to go off the diving board, the older kids were pushing him out of the way. Nettie was there watching him from the bleachers and she kept encouraging him that he could do it, so that he persisted and found a way to fit himself into the line. She was the most positive force in his life and she looked out for him as if he were her own child. His bond with her was as strong as if she were his mother.
Calvin moved with "Grandma" Nettie to Hollister and lived with her in town for the last two years of his high school after her husband George Buchanan died. Calvin was her chauffeur during those years as he drove her car for her. Nettie instilled in him the desire to go to college, and though his father, George Everett, had only finished 8th grade and his mother, Evelyn Jessie Margaret Mundion, had only finished 9th grade, Cal went to work for three years at Rocketdyne in Southern California after graduating from high school to earn the money for college. He went to Humboldt State College where he got a BS degree in Wildlife Management and then got a research assistantship at Utah State University where he got an MS degree in Range Management.
All five of Nettie's step-grandsons served their country during WW II and/or the Korean War including: George Everett who served in the Merchant Marines during WWII; Bill who served in the Navy during WWII and the Korean War and made the Navy his career and advanced to the rank of Commander; and Bob, who served in the Navy during WWII. Also Glenn Jr., who was Glenn's son, served during WWII and was killed on his ship when the engine blew up on 11 May 1945. Frank, the youngest of Orley's sons was too young to serve during WWII but was drafted during the Korean War and made the Army his first career for 20 years and became a Lt. Colonel.
Nettie was a wonderful influence on the Baker family and was much loved and missed when she died on 24 July 1958 in the Hollister County Hospital of cancer. Her younger brother James "Jim" who was the one who filled out the death certificate information apparently had only known her as Nettie all his life, because he put his oldest sister's first name Martha instead of Myrtle which was Nettie's first name on the records.
Nettie was a very special person and a joy to be around for everyone who knew her. It was a special blessing to the Baker family to have her influence to get as much education as they could and to live a good life. Though she was never blessed to have a baby of her own, she helped raise several very special and successful young men whom have lived up to Grandma's expectations and she would be very proud.
Inscription
Nettie Baker
1884-1958
At Rest
