More on H.J. At that time (late 1880s), Frank, Nellie, and Cindy (Lucinda), were at Oshkosh Normal. His older brother, A.P., ran a hardware store in Clairmont, MN. A.P. loaned H.J. $50.00 at 25% interest. H.J. began to work in the Insane Asylum in Oshkosh as an attendant in the wards. He had a heap of fun there. From January to July, he worked in the violent ward. He got $25.00 per month plus board and washings. He still kept one of his horses. In July he sold nursery stock. His father thought it was silly to leave a good job. H.J. also helped his younger brother and sisters financially at school in Oshkosh. Said he had been in the nursery business ever since. By the following spring, H.J. had $1,000.00 in the bank. He and his dad both sold for others, separately. After his marriage and return to Fond du Lac, from Iowa, in 1894, he started his own nursery. They had left Iowa because the doctor said Verena couldnt stand the climate. H.J. and Verena both listed Dotyville as their place of residence at the time of their marriage. Frank Baker and Clara Schneider were the witnesses at their wedding. Rev. A. Gardhaus officiated at the wedding. The Commonwealth, February 22,1891 Forest (township ?) - Married on the twelfth at the residence of John Huck, Mr. Henry (Harry?) Baker, of Empire (township) and Miss (Verena) Huck. Marcella certainly had command of the language and so did H.J. and A.P. It was their mother tongue and they never had to really learn it. They were inclined to enjoy exaggerated diction as do the colored people of the South. And they were conscious of their flair. Now my (Vincent Huck) mother tongue was and is German. I never spoke any other until I was about 7 years old and went to school. So I was called Findy, diminutive of the German ___?___. Q&A between Monica Baker Bruno and Vincent Huck in 1959. Q: Do you know what H.J. did in MN (besides help build the railroad for some months) after his family moved to WI? He was but 14 and on his own. He and A.P. stayed up there boarding in homes. A: He was inclined to raise hell. Got soused and rode his horse into a saloon for one episode. Alex was with a Scotch family and became anything but an Irish Englishman which he ??? Q: What town in IA was her 1st baby born? A: I think Grand Junction as H.J. had a Dr. friend there. It was a still birth and H.J. wrote Anastasia a letter which no one understood until it passed to me. We were not used to such involved language, but I finally made it out. I translated it for mother. It was my first encounter with literary English and I think I did pretty well at it. Letter is lost. Q: Verena wrote HJ she wished she were home to help pack. Where were they moving from? Where moving to? A: After Verena came with me to FdL a home, Harry finally decided to move back again too. So he sold the house in Grand Junction and packed things up for shipment to WI. That is what this means I think, but the packing of nursery stock stands to. This may mean packing nursery stock. It was purchased in bulk (in Normal, IL I think) and packing meant picking up each individual sale. Then shipments were made to the towns of delivery. By trains at first, later by truck. Q: Did mother live in Ogden, Ia when married? A: Perhaps, for a time. They lived in small hotels where ever, HJs travels took him. I recall Iowa Falls as one, as it was from there they once came back to Empire. Q: Did HJ ever own the house Schneiders lived in on 7th St.? A: HJ lived there just E. of Seeleys. I do not know whether he bought it or rented it (owned - see below), but recall it well. He first lived in a rented house farther out on 7th St. and your mother did not like it. I think Verena was born there. He then bought the pretentious old Blankenburg house at 47 - 6th St. in 1901, from the woman in Oneida, NY, who held the mortgage. HJ was making money and once owned 6 or 8 places or more in the city. But he got the farmland fever and sold them in spite of Verenas weeping, and put his money in a farm, which brought him plenty of trouble, but little income. Verena was efficient in handling the rent and the renters of the houses they had. They really were low financially and my coming (they begged me) in 1950 helped to ease matters. HJ died in 49 and I still have his letter and Verenas too. It was best for all of us (his death?). According to the 1900 census, H.J.s occupation was nurseryman. He was living at 15 Seventh Street in Fond du Lac. The House was owned by him and the title was clear. Anna Peters, a 22 year old, single female border/servant was living with the family at the time. H.J. grew cantaloupes at the nursery. He would often bring home a bucket of them for the children. The kids would take them out under the street lights and eat them. H.J. was very fond of cantaloupes, and insisted on eating a whole one at a sitting, even though it would always make him sick. This didnt seem to deter him though. Harris Jerome played solitaire a lot. He wrote poetry and was legally blind in his later years. He wrote a poem for Queen Elizabeth at the time of her coronation and sent it to her, receiving a response from one of her ladies-in-waiting. H.J. continued to write late into life and was assisted by a clipboard he invented for himself. The nursery was named Baker Nursery and Seed Co. when H.J. operated it. When the name was changed to Baker Nursery is uncertain. H.J. would always say to the kids; Ive got something in my pocket. He would carry a pocket full of the round, pink XXXX candies. H.J. died of a bowel obstruction. Obituary - August 31, 1949, Commonwealth Reporter. Funeral services for Harris J. Baker, who died Monday, were held today at 9:45 A.M. at Hargrove and Gordon funeral home and at 10 A.M. in St. Josephs church, where the Rev. Henry G. Riordan was celebrant of a solemn requiem mass. The Rev. Joseph Hosch and the Rev. John Devine were deacon and sub-deacon, respectively. The Rt. Rev. Msgr. M.F. McEvoy of Milwaukee was seated in the sanctuary. Pallbearers were John P. McGalloway, John W. Jagdfeld, John Treleven, Laurence E. Gooding, Madison, Hugh Keys and Ralph Sheridan. Burial was in Calvary cemetery. Among those attending the services were Mr. and Mrs. James Barry, Dr. and Mrs. James Ottoway and daughter, Ann, and Mr. and Mrs. R.J. Baker and son, Paul, and daughter Janice, all of Milwaukee; Mr. and Mrs. E.A. Nieman, Wausau; Dr. and Mrs. Ralph U. Gooding, Normal, IL; Mr. and Mrs. J. Fluck, Algoma, Mrs. Phillip Fairchild, Mrs. Laurence E. Gooding and David Olig, Madison (in school at UW); Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Treleven, Grand Rapids, MI; Mrs. Henry Kuehl, New Holstein; Miss Elaine Kuehl, Elkhorn; Mrs. A.E. Cooper and Miss Adella Ray, Medina; Mr. and Mrs. Glenn P. Gessell, Gross Pointe Shores, MI; Mrs. Norman Nieman and son, Peter, Evanston, IL: and Mr. and Mrs. Miles Bruno and children, Barbara and Michael, Lawrenceburg IN.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Feb 2014 17:38:23 +0000
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