When I was in my teens I remember meeting a very old and wrinkled lady named Mel Baker. I wasn't quite sure back then how she was related to our family but several times my mom or dad went to a nursing home to pick up Mel and bring her to our house for a family gathering or holiday. It wasn't until recently when I started filling in blank spots on my Scott/Dubbs family tree that it dawned on me who Sarah Melvina Scott Baker was and how she and I were related.
Our common ancestors were my 3x great-grandparents Caleb Scott (1799-1867) and his second wife, Mary Ivins Scott (1810-1872). Two of Caleb and Mary's sons were Samuel and Isaac.
Samuel was my 2x great-grandfather. Isaac was Mel's father. That made my relationship with Mel to be that of 1st cousins, 3 generations removed. No wonder she had seemed so old to me.
Mel was born on 23 Sep 1879 in Kosciusko County, Indiana, the youngest child of Isaac Scott and Sarah H. Johnson. Isaac had been a member of the 30th Indiana Infantry during the Civil War. The Civil War! I wish I had known that fact about Mel's dad because it might have made quite an impression on me to know she was just a generation removed from a veteran of the conflict I was learning about in school.
Mel married Frank Elmer Baker on 18 Dec 1901. She and Frank never had children so when Frank passed away in 1931 Mel was a widow at 52 years of age. Her sister Carrie died a few years later in 1936 and her brother Earl followed in 1959. Mel's mother had died years before in 1901 and her father in 1913.
Mel was the last one standing in her family. I wish so much that I had been interested in family history back then so I could have talked to her about her family and her life. I can only imagine the stories she might have told me. What a lost opportunity.
Mel lived to be 96 years old. She died on 8 Oct 1975 at the Haven Hubbard Home in New Carlisle, Indiana. She lies in the Highland Cemetery located in South Bend, Indiana. Rest in peace, cousin.
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