Cousin Diana started all of this by sending this terrific picture from 1924 and remarking, "I think that little guy in the big hat might just be my dad, Arnon."
Aunt CB/Mom replied:
Yep, that’s a picture taken on a June 1924 visit to Center Lisle and the beloved Baker farm!
Ruth was 6 and a half, Arnon was 4 and a half, and Esther was 2 and a half. Doris was born that September and Byron Baker died in April, 1925, less than a year after this picture was taken. As you can see, the Taylor kids loved the barn cats! (We all did and were shocked to realize that Grandma gave the hundreds of kittens that they produced an opportunity to learn to swim!)
In a letter to Ethel that year, Grandma Baker includes $2, writing that Pa (Byron) wants you to buy Arnon a pair of barn boots (see picture) like his, as he so admired his. Byron’s eyes had been failing for some time (macular degeneration). Ethel used to read the paper to him when she was home from Cortland. He’d gone to Cortland and lived with a cousin who was a church janitor, while taking a “mercury cure” for his eyes. This, I think, was in the fall of 1924. Ethel always thought that this had contributed to his death. He was 66 and a half when he died.
Picture One: Ruth, Arnon, Byron, Esther plus cats
Picture Two: Front porch of farm
Aunt CB/Mom replied:
Yep, that’s a picture taken on a June 1924 visit to Center Lisle and the beloved Baker farm!
Ruth was 6 and a half, Arnon was 4 and a half, and Esther was 2 and a half. Doris was born that September and Byron Baker died in April, 1925, less than a year after this picture was taken. As you can see, the Taylor kids loved the barn cats! (We all did and were shocked to realize that Grandma gave the hundreds of kittens that they produced an opportunity to learn to swim!)
In a letter to Ethel that year, Grandma Baker includes $2, writing that Pa (Byron) wants you to buy Arnon a pair of barn boots (see picture) like his, as he so admired his. Byron’s eyes had been failing for some time (macular degeneration). Ethel used to read the paper to him when she was home from Cortland. He’d gone to Cortland and lived with a cousin who was a church janitor, while taking a “mercury cure” for his eyes. This, I think, was in the fall of 1924. Ethel always thought that this had contributed to his death. He was 66 and a half when he died.
Picture One: Ruth, Arnon, Byron, Esther plus cats
Picture Two: Front porch of farm
5 comments:
WOW!
The picture of the porch really takes me back! Those hollyhocks to the right of the steps were there when I grew up. I made many hollyhock dolls there.
Thanks for sharing the pictures!
Lots of love,
Kathryn
How we Taylors loved that place!!
Close your eyes, imagine that it is summer dusk, after supper and you are sitting on those cement steps. Ethel, Lil , and Kate are sitting in those rocking chairs behind you and Adin is on the old cemetery marker that serves as a step to the left side of porch, smoking a cigarette. They are talking, hashing over the events of the day, the neighbors and relatives. The bugs are congregating around the porch light until someone turns it off!! And every once in a while, one of the step sitter kids jumps up and tries to catch a lightning bug!
Oh to go back for a bit!! CB
I don't think I've ever seen a picture of Great-Grandpa Byron Baker. Maybe a formal portrait on the attic stairs in Rochester, but I didn't really know who he was. I can see a real person in this picture, a grandpa playing around with his grandkids. He looks like a nice guy. It's disorienting to realize I can't just go and visit him, he's at least 80 years away from me. And yet, he looks so present in this picture!
Is the farmhouse in these pictures the one we used to visit when I was little, where Wendell and Joyce lived? Is that the farmhouse where you grew up, Kathryn? If it's different, is it still there?
Sue
(for some reason, the "name/URL" option has not been working for me for the past week or more, so I have to use anonymous. But it's working for others - hmm.)
Hi!
That is definately the farm that I grew up on. Ethel, Adin, Ruth, and Lil grew up there too. Wendell and Joyce raised their children there. Joyce lives there still. The kitchen is right inside that door you see. It was a lot smaller when I was a kid. There was a bedroom right off the kitchen. In my memory, the closet in it was HUGE. Uncle Adin lived next door to us. We walked over to see him through the pasture next to the barn. I love that farm. I am so grateful that Joyce is there still.
I once asked Ruth Maney what Grandpa Byron Baker was like. She got a delighted look of memory on her face and said that he was a real sweetie. I always wished that I knew him. My Mom didn't even get to know him. Big bummer. I am just grateful for other's memories.
what a great mustache!
Post a Comment