Abagail Adelia White was one of four children born to Edward Newton White (1828-1916)& Catherine Jane (Burkhart) White (1832-1859). Catherine had come with her parents and 9 siblings crossing the Oregon Trail in 1847 to help settle the town of Albany in the Oregon Territory. She had married Edward White in 1848 when Oregon was still a territory and "Abbie" was the 2nd of 4 children to be born in the Oregon Territory. Cynthia Louise was b.1852, Abbie was b.1854, Jeanette "Nettie" was b.1857, and Edward was b.Aug 12, 1859 into the new State of Oregon. Tragically, their mother, Catherine, died Sept 26, 1859, at the age of 26 yrs. and was buried at the Riverside Cemetery in Albany. As if to mock their pain, little Edward died Oct 11, 1859, at the tender age of one month and 30 days. He was buried with his mother. Edward, Abbie's father, like so many before him, tried his hand at farming. He remarried, to Miss Annie Woodsides of Warren County, Ohio. She became Abbie's stepmother and the mother of 8 children, as follows: Jane (Jennie),b.1861, Eudocia, b.1863, Grant, b.1865, Aaron, b.1867, Edith, b.1869, Bertha, b.1870, Eleanor, b.1875, & Edward C.,b.1878.
Abbie came to know a Civil War veteran who had relocated from Ohio. His name was Thomas Corwin Baker and he was 12 yrs. older than she, having been born in March, 1842. The couple was married in Linn County, Oregon on Oct 10, 1876. In 1870, Abbie's father was farming a donation land claim in the Sand Ridge area of Linn County (East of Albany, West of Lebanon; there is still a cemetery and a road). In the 1870 Census, her father valued the land at $4,000. In 1880, Abbie, her husband, Thomas, and their little son, Edward Delbert, b.Sept.10, 1878, were living in the Albany area, also as farmers. The next Census I found for Abbie and Thomas was for 1900. It showed that their family now consisted of both Abbie & Thomas with a total of three children now living at Fairmount, Soap Creek Precinct, in Benton County, Oregon. Abbie, Thomas and three children, Edward D., Mary Mabel and Verna Jeanette, were in the home, but that Abbie had given birth to 4 children, not 3. I can only assume that one of her children died prior to the 1900 U S Census, although no name has ever been given, along with an age or whether it was a son or daughter. They were still living as they had when they'd lived near Albany, farming. By 1910, young Edward had hired himself out as 1 of 3 farm hands on a farm near Johnson Creek in Crook County. This left Abbie, Thomas and the 2 daughters now living in Corvallis, Benton County area of Oregon. As of Jan 9th, 1920, they lived alone. As of 1920, Abbie and Thomas were reaching their "golden years", in that Abbie was now 64, and Thomas was now about 77 yrs. old. In their last U S Census, taken in 1930, the elderly couple was now living in SW Portland on SW Primrose Lane, Multnomah County, with their daughter, Mary Mabel. She had married an undertaker in the funeral business (his words), Vaughn Louis Youngblood, originally from Ohio. They had 2 daughters and one son. To my knowledge, both Thomas and Abbie lived with Vaughn, Mary Mabel and the grandchildren until they both passed away while living in Seattle, Washington in 1938. Abbie died Dec 2nd, 1938 and her remains were transported back to Albany for burial. Abbie and Thomas share a headstone in Riverside Cemetery, Albany, Oregon, where she is buried under the name "Abbie Baker".