Representative women of New England/Julia M. Baker
JULIA MARIA BAKER, wife of William James Baker, of Worcester, was born in that city, October 13, 1830, daughter of Sanuiel and Mary (Harrington) Perry.
In a published article by Professor Arthur L. Perry, LL.D., entitled "An Ancestral Research," whence has been derived some of the early history and genealogy that follows, the Perry lineage is traced back to the Rev. John Perry, of Farnborough (now Fareham, Hampshire), England, who died in 1621. The clergyman's son John, shortly after his father's death, was apprenticed to learn the cloth-workers' trade. He married Johanna, daughter of Joseph Holland, a cloth-worker and citizen of London. Her father's will, dated 1659, printed in Waters's "Genealogical Gleanings," makes bequests to his "son-in-law, John Perry, and Johanna, his wife, my daughter," and their three children. It was this John1 Perry who, accompanied by his son John,2 came to New England and settled in Watertown, near Boston, near the close of the year 1666 or early in 1667.
John2 Perry married in Watertown in December, 1667, Sarah Clary. They had nine children, Josiah,2 born in 1684, being the seventh. Josiah3 Perry married Bethiah Cutter, daughter of Ephraim and Bethiah (Wood) Cutter and grand-daughter of Richard1 Cutter. Nathan4 Perry, born in 1718, was one of their ten children. He married at Watertown in 1746 Hannah Fiske. The Perrys of Watertown in colonial times were engaged in some form of cloth-working, being mostly weavers and tailors. Bethiah, first wife of Josiah Perry and mother of his children, died in 1735, and his second wife, Elizabeth, died in 1748. In 1751 Josiah and his son Nathan settled on a farm of eighty acres on the north-western slope of Sagatabscot Hill (now Union Hill), Worcester, Mass. Of this property they were joint owners. Much of the land remains in the hands of the family at this day.
Nathan* Perry, by occupation a farmer and weaver, was Treasurer of Worcester County fifteen years, also Town Treasurer most of the time, and for many years Notary Public. He was for twenty-three years deacon in the old South Church. A stanch patriot in trying times, he stood high in the confidence of his fellow-citizens. He died in February, 1806. Moses Perry, son of Nathan and one of a family of eight children, was born in 1762, and lived to be eighty years old. He succeeded to the ownership of the home farm, was industrious, frugal, and thrifty, and although his schooling, it is said, had been limited to six weeks, he was much respected as a man of intelligence and influence, a slow speaker, but one whose words carried weight. With a placid temper he combined great force of character. It is related of him that at a church meeting where the members were becoming excited he arose and said: " Brethren, we are getting pretty warm. I think we had better go home, and I shall set the example." He then took his hat and started. He was a deacon in the South Church thirty-five years and in the Union Church six years. His wife, Hannah Hall, whom he married in 1791, died in November, 1861, at ninety-three years of age. She is spoken of as having been somewhat eccentric and "perhaps lacking balance of mind," but of a "kindly, social nature, very fond of her church, and with a wonderful memory for the sermon." They had eight children, five sons and three daughters. Three of the sons were ministers of the gospel, and two were farmers, one settling in Central New York, and the other, Samuel, in Worcester. Two of the daughters married farmers. One was the mother of fourteen children; the other, of twelve.
SamueP Perry, the next owner and occupant of the Worcester farm, was horn November 26, 1796, died Feliruary 12, 1878. His wife, Mary Harrington, whom lie wedded in December, 1823, was born March 20, 1804, daughter of Francis Harrington, Jr. She died Feliruary 18, 1869. Her grandfather Harrington bought land in Worcester, and settled there in 1740. When Samuel Perry married, on three sides of his farm was a dense forest. In preparing to make a home for his bride he cut down the first tree at the north. He .served as a Captain in the militia, and for thirty-five years was a deacon of the Union Church, of which he was one of the founders. He was very benev- olent, a man of good judgment in affairs, and a peacemaker in the church and neighbor- hood. Opposed to the renting of jjews, he took upon himself to secure subscriptions, col- lect the money, and pay the bills. When he could not collect what was pledged, he paitl it himself. He had ten children. One son, David Brainard Perry, D.D., a graduate of Yale, was for some years a home missionary in Nebraska and is now president of Doane College. An- other son was a successful business man, autl three were farmers. Of the five daughters, four became teachers, in time marrying in- telligent, well-to-do business men. The other ilaughter, Mary S. Perry, who died in Worces- ter, August 8, 1902, was much beloved as a "woman of rare qualities of heart and mind, of great synijiathy for the unfortunate, with keen appreciation of the beautiful in nature, a wide range of reading and thought, remarkable knowledge of the Scri|)tures, and great rev- erence for sacred things." A vohune of her poems published during her last illness is held as a precious legacy.
The mother, Mrs. Mary Harrington Perry, a kindly, hospitable woman, with a charm of manner that attracted strangers to her, was a notable housekeeper, bringing up her chiUlren to habits of industry and thrift. In the sick- room she had rare tact and skill. Her simi:»le presence was a blessing.
Julia Maria (Mrs. Baker) was the fourth child of Deacon Sanmel Perry and his wife Maiy. She acquired her educiition in the district school, three-quarters of a mile from her home, the Worcester High School, o])ened in 1846, Leices- ter Acatlemy, and Williraham Academy. For several years she was engaged in teaching, her first school, in a neighboring town, being an ungraded one of seventy-six pupils. She after- ward taught in interm*'diate and grammar schools. Ecjuipped with thorough knowledge of the branches to be taught and with a native force of character that showed itself in emer- gencies, she brought to her work an enthusi- asm that aroused and held the interest of her pupils, and ensured her success as teacher and di.sciplinarian.
On June 27, 1861, she married William James Baker, of Worcester, a son of James and Lydia (Gouldingj Baker. For many years Mr. Will- iam J. Baker was in active business as a mem- ber of the firm of Charles Baker & Co., of Worces- ter, lumber manufacturers and dealers. Owing to failing health he retired from business cares about five years ago.
Mrs. Baker brought up from babyhood a niece of her husband's, a child whose father, a minister, had died. Later God bestowed upon her a baby boy who has since grown to a jjromising manhood, being of strong char- acter and good business ability.
Mrs. Baker is a member of Union Church, of the Congregational denonnnation, and has taken a jirominent part in church work. For eight years she was deaconess under the pastor- ates of Drs. Stlmson and Davis, and during that time she had charge of the women's prayer meeting, and also had the main care of si.xteen families. Her helpers were not suited to the woi'k, or were too busy or were too easily dis- couraged. She has since contimied it, having cared for .some of the families up to this day. Her reward has been in seeing them prosper, become members of the church and useful members of the community. Mrs. Baker keeps up her interest in some of those whom she has thus helped, and still corresponds with those who have moved away from Worcester. She was formerly vice-president of a literary society in Wilbraham, most of the time acting, owing to the sickness of tht> president. She possesses rare tact and skill in nursing, inherited from her mother, and developed by practical experience through long periods of severe sickness in both her own and in her parents' family. For a number of years she has kept a home for teachers of the high school, of both the normal and other grades, having sometimes four in the family, and this because so few are willing to receive them. She has derived much pleasure and benefit by reading and studying with them, thus keeping in touch mentally with the active workers of the younger generation.
Mrs. Baker's reminiscences of her girlhood give interesting pictures of country life in the thirties and forties of last century. "Every daughter," she says, "had her work planned and systematized. Those were strenuous times. The family rose at five in the morning, even in winter, getting and eating breakfast by candle-light." Beside the ordinary work of housekeeping there was much to be done at special times in the course of the year. Among other things she specifies the "cider to be boiled down, barrels of apple sauce to be made for home use and for regular customers, apples to be cut and dried, cucumbers to be pickled, yeast cakes to be made and dried for the coming year, pumpkins to be cooked and dried, sausages to be made, candles to be dipped or later run in moulds."
"I remember the cooking of chickens and turkeys on the spit of the tin kitchen set before the open fire, the baking of johnny-cake on a wooden form, the first rotary stove and the pleasure of turning it. Grandfather was very busy at the shop with his loom in those early days. He wove our woollen sheets for winter use, also the material for our winter gowns. Very warm and strong it was. During vacations we were taught to braid straw, each having her stint of so many yards of braiding, and then knitting so many times round before we could go out to play." Mental diversion was sometimes happily combined with work, so that it was "not always drudgery." Then, too, there were special seasons of festivity and fun. "Thanksgiving Days were times to be looked forward to and prepared for the whole previous year. As years passed on, the tables, bountifully spread, grew larger and larger. In the evening all kinds of games were played, the father, the youngest player of all, the evening ending with singing, Bible reading, and prayer."
Considering herself primarily a home-maker, caring for husband and son, and exercising hospitality, Mrs. Baker continues in her old-time habits of reading and study. For leisure hours she finds congenial employment in making scrap-books. Of these she has "many for many purposes," and she hopes they will be pleasing and useful to the coming generation. Looking back, she says: "Certain physical and mental traits have descended through all the generations—strong constitutions, long lives, large families, habits of industry, good mental abilities, and a high standard of morals."