The
following is a short biography of Charles Baker and a history of the Settlement
of Kindersley, Saskatchewan, Canada, as written by Clarke & Marion Baker of
In the summer of 1906, the following group of men from the Brethren In Christ Church (then known as Tunkards) - Elder Isaac Baker & Bishop Charles Baker of Collingwood accompanied by William Hahn of Delisle & Sam Swalm of Regina - made the first democrat trip into the Merrington district (a few miles north of Kindersley) looking for homestead lands for their friends, and to establish a church.
During
the trip they nearly died of thirst as they could find no water. Finally, they
decided to let the horses have their heads and as a result, were lead to In June
of 1907, the following party arrived in Saskatoon via train from the East -
Messrs. J.C. Baker, F.N. Baker, F.V. Copeland, H. Winger, W. Carter, G. Sheffer, & C.W. Baker (father of Clarke & Marion -
see top). As On C. W. Baker's homestead was two miles further west and Messrs. Winger, Sheffer and Carter accompanied him and stayed for the night in his tent, which was the first "home" on the homestead. The following day, they all accompanied each other to locate their homesteads. The homestead maps of those days showed a proposed railway line to run across C.W.'s land. With
the lumber brought from C.W.
(25 years old at this time) was selected to be the postmaster for the Merrington district but, as he returned East
that fall, the post office was moved to Isaac Baker's for the winter. Mail
delivery in those days was very slow as it was carried via team in relays. It
would take a week to arrive from The
following year, C.W. returned to his homestead and assumed the duties of
Postmaster once again. During one of his trips to During the treks across the prairie, to entertain himself he would compose poetry. (Writers Clarke & Marion Baker had one entitled O Prairie Land which he put to the tune of O Beulah Land.) The rail now being extended to Zealandia meant a shorter haul for supplies. During one of his stopovers there, he met his future wife who was teaching there at the time. This courtship started via stone boat before he later acquired a buggy. Her family was at Speers which is about 50 miles east of Battleford. C.W.
often recalled that on When the rail line reached the district in the fall of 1909, it was located four miles south of C.W.'s homestead. In this area a tent town had been set up in anticipation of the railway selling town lots. On Groceries was the big item then, so they were placed at the front as well as occupying the whole north side. Shoes were on the back shelves while a line of staple dry goods occupied most of the south shelves. Among C.W.'s many tales of his experiences of the early west, it
appears C.W. and a few of the boys went shooting to On the
first day the town lots were up for sale, the C.N.R. (Canadian National
Railway) realized sales of over $60,000, with the most expensive lot selling at
$1,200 to the Seymour Hotel. Thus, prospects for the town appeared very bright.
C.W. was a spokesman for a group trying to persuade the C.N.R. to call the new townsite Merrington, but as Sir
Robert Kindersley was a heavy stockholder in the railway, the company favoured the name Kindersley, as it was the first
divisional point between Charles W. Baker and Isabel Burke were married in February of 1910 and Isabel was the first bride to take up residence in the town. The townspeople held a chivari for them which was long remembered. Their first home in Kindersley was above the store, where many of the family were born. C.W.
was a great community supporter and was forever seeking ways and means to promote
the town. On the couple's 50th anniversary in 1960, the people of the community
honoured them. Among the honours
was a park to be named
Charles is a descendant of Samuel Baker & Catharine Doner, which is where he makes
Regards, Perry Doner, Vernon B.C. doner@telus.net |
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Submitted by From: "Perry Doner" doner@telus.net To: kindersleygenweb@yahoo.com Subject: Charles W. Baker Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2003 17:12:10 -0700
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