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Note: Descendants of George Baker as recorded by Susan Basile in her "Baker/Bosworth Family History"
(Source: Newspaper article / Silver Lake News, Thursday, December 7, 1967. "Ella Baker Didn't Care for Halifax 74 Years Ago." Ella F. Sturtevant Baker (Mrs. Jared Baker) observed her 90th birthday Saturday, Nov. 18 with celebrations at her Plymouth Street, Halifax, home beginning with an early morning coffee party and continuing through the day until late evening. Enjoying excellent health, articulate and expressive both of her rich memories of years gone by and of her keen interest in current activities, Mrs. Baker radiates both a physical and intellectual vitality that tingle. Her four children were with her - Mrs. Cleon (Zillah) Bryant, J. Robert Baker and Guy S. Baker of Halifax and James Baker of Gardner, Mass. and Halifax. Of her seven grandchildren, 17 great� grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren, not all could be with her on this birthday. Great-grandson Philip Bosworth is in Vietnam, and grandson James Baker was enroute to Greece. He is a captain for Northeast Airlines, and he was delivering a plane to Greece. He stopped at Shannon Airport in Ireland, enroute to Athens, and telephoned his grandmother on her birthday. Ella Baker, born in East Bridgewater, has lived in Halifax for 74 years. She didn't like it at all when she first came as a young bride; she didn't know the town at all, it was hard to find a place to live, and the people were quite stand-offish. She soon found out that "Halifax people regarded blacksmiths with some suspicion, owing to the fact that previous smiths had never been able to make a living here. But Ella's husband Jared was not the ordinary smith. He not only prospered and raised his family in Halifax; he became one of its leading citizens. The smithy he operated was also a relay station for the teams carrying Halifax products to Brockton shoe factories, and he ran it for over 50 years. His shop is still "the" blacksmith shop - except that it is used now for auctions. He was a selectman for over 25 years, and he was the first chief of its fire department.
Mrs. Baker was instrumental in founding a women's auxiliary for the fire department, but she did something else of quite some moment. She became the first woman member of the Halifax school committee, elected in 1910. This doesn't seem so out of the ordinary now; but there's just one thing to remember. Universal suffrage (giving women the right to vote) did not come into effect until 1919. However, in Halifax women were allowed to vote on school matters and to hold office, as Mrs. Baker did. They attended all the town meetings, though, vote or no vote. "We needed a course of study," said Mrs. Baker, "so the children could go on." Education almost literally ended for all at grade 8, and, Mrs. Baker remarked with indignation still warm "they just weren't doing anything for a course of study so they could go on." Since there was no high school, nor any provision for transportation to a neighboring high school, it required considerable effort and sacrifice to go on beyond grade 8. The first thing done to help was to hire a girl, a college graduate, who could teach algebra. With this and a new course, it was possible to give Halifax children the equivalent of high school freshman work, enabling them to enter as sophomores. "It doesn't sound like so much now," said Ella Baker, "but I made them clean up some things - clean the toilets, throw out some old tattered books and things in the hall. And we made some provision for bringing the lunches in so they wouldn't freeze."
Of her children, three continued a lifelong interest in education. Mrs. Bryant has just retired after a career culminating as principal of the Indian Head School in Hanson. Guy Baker retired a few years ago after teaching in the Newton schools - retired to become a selectman in Halifax, its town historian and a library trustee. James teaches at Gardner High School (and he was also town moderator for 10 years). Mrs. Baker was also a charter member of the Halifax Grange, was a member of the Halifax Sewing Circle, only recently inactive after continuing in existence for over 125 years, is a member of the Halifax Congregational Church (now the United Church of Christ), and was active in Republican circles. When Halifax observed it's bi-centennial in 1934, it was Mrs. Baker and the late Mrs. William Barnes who patiently went through the town records, and sources in Plymouth, for town history. Preservation of these sources of town history is of concern to her, knowing at first hand now difficult it is to reassemble them. "There are going to be children - students - college students - who will need these things!" She wants to see them collected in one place, a conviction which has begun to be expressed from several quarters in town lately. But talking with Ella Baker shows that although she wants these things preserved, it's not to make a monument out of them. They're interesting; as all life is interesting. And most of all a grand lady, Ella Baker.
Written by: Beatrice Binns Mrs. Jared Baker was a descendant of the first Sturtevant's in Halifax. 04 Jul 1893 in Whitman, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA, daughter of ANDREW STURTEVANT and ELLEN JENNESS. She was born 19 Nov 1877 in East Bridgewater, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, USA, and died 14 Mar 1969 in Middleboro, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA.
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