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PETER BAKERPeter Baker was born August 14, 1833. He was the son of Michael and Mary Cober Baker. He married Mary Ann Sheffer January 28, 1857. James Dick, the Presbyterian minister of Richmond Hill, married them. They bought the two hundred acre farm where Ed Leary now lives and where Adam Wideman, Sr., lived about 1851. They settled on it after their marriage and took care of his father and mother. He had Love feast in his barn in the spring of 1876. He sold the farm in 1899 to Jacob Heise, D. W. Heise's brother, and bought a house in Gormley where Beulah Jones now lives. She is a step granddaughter. Peter Baker had two sons, George, who died quite young, and Jesse, who married Melinda Eyer, who also died and left two sons, George and Ralph, who are still living. Melinda, Jesse's widow, married James Stephens, who was born in Kent Co., England, in 1864. He came to Canada in 1888 and worked for Peter Baker for ten years. He said Mr. Baker was the best farmer he ever worked for and there never was a word of contension between them. Peter Baker kept store at Bethesda for a number of years. He was chosen to the ministry in 1874 and died in February, 1916, in his 83rd year. He was the last minister to preach German. He could preach both languages and was a staunch member of the Tunker church which the early fathers believed and practiced. He was a good farmer and his motto was "A place for everything and everything in its place." The writer well remembers of visiting my uncle and his grandsons, George and Ralph, who were my age. Peter Baker always had family worship morning and evening and would always ask the blessing before and after meals. When he used to come to our place to meeting he used to give out the hymn in our German hymn book, number 272, last verse at the table.
James Stephens, who worked for him, said he always had family worship when the threshers were there. In the morning in English and at night in German. He often used to sing, "The Day Is Past and Gone," and also:
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