Obituary: Rock County, Wisconsin: Margaret Sayers BAKER

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Submitted by Ruth Ann Montgomery, <rmontgomery@cishome.com> June 2005

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MRS. ALLEN S. BAKER

Evansville loses a good woman

Last Sunday morning the people of Evansville were shocked by the death of
Mrs. Allen S. Baker. While it had been known among her friends that she had
bee ill for nearly three weeks, reports of her condition were not of such a
nature as to arouse any serious apprehension concerning her recovery.
Mingled emotions of surprise and sorrow filled the hearts of all as the
news spread from home to home from the coming of day till the ringing of
the church bells, for this woman had in her gentle, kindly way made for
herself a real place in the community which it now seems no one else can
fill.

Miss Margaret Sayers was born on the Brandywine near Wilmington, Delaware,
October 8, 1844. Here in company with her two sisters and a brother she
received that instruction and guidance which can only come from a true
Christian mother. Her education was in the local school and later in a
school for girls in Wilmington. It was while she was attending this school
that one of those peculiar incidents of the Civil War occurred which
changed the course of her life.

At the bloody battle of Gainesville, the evening before the second battle
of Bull Run, the Second Wisconsin Infantry was sent into action and many of
its men were wounded and sent to the hospital in Philadelphia to recover.
Later when the rebels came into Maryland and the battles of South Mountain
and Antietam were fought the government called for volunteers from the
convalescent soldiers in the hospital to guard the railway between
Philadelphia and Washington. Among others to respond was Allen S. Baker who
was stationed with a small detachment near Newark, Delaware, and near the
home of Mrs. Sayers whose mother heart caused her to give to the boys in
blue those many things which only a mother can give. One morning her son
Robert accidentally shot himself while out where the soldiers were. His
sister immediately came home from Wilmington to care for him and in this
she was ably assisted by the young soldiers to whose care the doctor
atrributed the boy's recovery.

The acquaintance here formed ripened into friendship and love letters
passed between the Delaware home and the distant camp. With his discharge,
Mr. Baker came to Evansville, only to return to Newark where he and Miss
Sayers were united in marriage March 23, 1865.

Mr. and Mrs. Baker came to Evansville in the same spring and purchased the
ground where the home now stands and that fall built their first house.
During all these years she has stood by her husband's side ever faithful
and cheerful and wise in counsel whether in the early days of
discouragement and struggle or in the later years of comfort. While the one
toiled hard and against terrible difficulties to build up a business, the
other toiled just as heroically to build a home.

Outside of her home, Mrs. Baker found her greatest interest and work in the
Congregational church of which she had been a chapter member of the Woman's
Missionary Society through which organization she always did a most
effective work. Wherever there was sickness or sorrow or need there the
expressions of her neighborliness and friendship might be found. Her last
act before being confined to the house was in spending herself in making a
few last hours happier for an old friend.

Together with Mr. Baker she had traveled extensively, making one journey to
Palestine, to the World's Sunday School convention in 1904, and again to
visit Europe and to attend the International Missionary Conference in
Edinborough in 1908, besides various trips in our own land to places and
occasions of interest. And always she remembered by some token to many who
remained at home.

Besides her husband Mrs. Baker leaves two daughters, Mrs. R. D. Hartley of
Evansville and Mrs. B. H. Biglow of Rockford, Ill., and one son, J. S.
Baker of Evansville, and one brother, Robert Sayers of Stanton, Delaware.
An untold number of friends join in extending to these their sympathy.

The funeral services were held in the home and were very simple in
character, there being no music, only the reading of Scripture lesson and
the short address and prayer by the pastor of the Congregational church.
The number and beauty of the flowers sent to the home was unusual. The
Eastern lilies, the violets and roses were especially appropriate. The
employees of the Baker Manufacturing Company sent a magnificent floral
piece, consisting of roses, hyacinths, calla lilies, and smilax on a large
base made of Easter lilies, carnations and palms. The burial was in Maple
Hill cemetery.

After the family returned to the home all of the cut flowers were sent to
the sick, the aged and the shut-ins of the city that they might carry a
still larger message of love.

Truly a good woman has gone to her reward. her unwavering faith in God, her
fidelity, her unselfish losing of self for others may well serve as an
inspiration to those who remain and yet await the invitation to enter into
the joys of our Lord.

The Review extends its sympathy to Mr. Baker and to all the members of her
home.

February 15, 1912, Evansville Review, p. 1, col. 1 & 2, Evansville,
Wisconsin