John Wesley Baker

As a young man, John worked as a cattle feeder for Charlie Wilcox. He wanted to take his sister Mary Alice out for a date but didn’t have a car or even a horse so Charlie lent him a horse and buggy. Mary liked John very much and they were married on 4 March of 1914 in Phillips County, Kansas. Mary Alice had been a nurse. He was 26 and she 22 at the time.

Soon after they were married they lived with her parents and soon found it wasn’t working out very well as two families usually have a hard time living under the same roof. They rented a place for 5 years until they moved onto the Spratan place in 1920 and farmed there for fourteen years.

Their first of 7 children, Roy Earl, was born on 24 November 1914. But on 18 March 1917, he tragically died at two and a half when kicked by a horse. Six days later Mary Alice gave birth to their first daughter, Ruth Mary and the same day, Grandpa Baker’s father, Oliver Hazzard Perry Baker, died. They some very weathered some very difficult times in their life together. Through everything, both of them were known for being happy and content with whatever they had. They were loving people and each of their children had a special place in their hearts. Faith was their cornerstone.

In 1934, Grandpa Baker stopped farming because banks wouldn’t lend them anymore and they were close to starving. They moved into Phillipsburg at 1555 Cable Road and he got a job at the Works Progress Administration (WPA) which was a part of the New Deal under FDR. Don was only three so he never knew farming as a part of his life but Uncle Johnnie would have been sixteen. In March of 1935, a dust storm hit town in mid-afternoon and by evening the power was off and it was pitch dark. Johnnie’s memories of the severe deprivation of living through the Depression and the Dust Bowl left an indelible mark on him and the family. But through it all, John and Mary continued to live in the land of their birth. Oil was discovered in Phillips County in 1939. The Co-op Refinery Association opened a facility soon after in Phillipsburg where he worked until his retirement on 25 May of 1961.