Show baker reunion scheduled for august if 16 and 17 dr and mrs airs 13 R mckinnon will attend a family reunion of 0 the descendants ants of 0 the late george NN baker grarld grandfather father ot of mrs mckinnon on aug 16 and 17 in salt lake city relatives are expected from canada texas and from each ot of the western states to observe the centennial of the daker baker family arrival in utah A full two day program with dinners trips and programs has been planned for the occasion I 1 mrs airs mckinnon has been chosen to tell the fam ilys history from the time they left england as converts to the church to their settling in the rocky mountains like many of the early pioneers the story of the baker family Is an interesting te one I 1 mrs airs jean rio baker had been a widow for several years left with six sons and one daughter in lonion london england when she decided to come to utah being wealthy she paid passage for herself adl children an uncle and an aunt a brother and a mr air and mrs dereck and their tour four children during the long sea voyage over one of her children took sick died and was buried at sea when the party reached america and joined the cormons mormons Mor mons mrs baker bought wagons and ox teams and everything necessary tor for their trip across the plains one wagon alone contained musical instruments and the first piano ever brought to utah this wagon was coated with black tar to pro protect hect its contents front from the elements arid and from rivers which they had bad to cross it was called the black box and is at the present time in a museum in california taken there by one of the sons who later made his home on the coast the baker family if lived v ed in S salt a it lake city for three or tour four years and then bought a farm home near ogden but had to give that up alter after struggling with ground that was alkaline and produced nothing george W baker son of jean baker was 16 years of age when they arrived in the valley in 1851 ile he later settled in ili richfield where he reared amarge a large family and it is his posterity that will meet in this family reunion |