St. Clair County
Remnants Of The Past

Baker - Wells

Lowry City Quasicentennial
1871-1996

In September of 1869, William and Nancy Baker, John, Alice, and Myrtle came to Missouri from Ohio to settle on a prairie farm two miles west of Lowry City. It was here that O.E., Lois, Flossie, W.E., and Everett were born - and Everett died at age nine.

William and Nancy Baker were charter members of the Concord Baptist Church and served in that church thirty-nine years. After moving to Lowry City, they transferred their membership to the First Baptist Church.

A stained-glass window in honor of William and Nancy Baker is on the stairway of the First Baptist Church, Osceola.

Just one-half mile east of the Baker farm was the 120-acre farm purchased by Holdage H. Wells in the spring of 1882. The Wells family had come from Illinois the year before but had spent several months in Appleton City in order for H.H. and William, a teenager, to work on the railroad.

Wells built a two-room log house for his wife Sarah Mildred and son. Their other child, a daughter Laura, had died before they left Illinois.

William Wells met Myrtle Baker at the Pleasant View School. Their friendship developed into courtship and the couple was married October 21, 1886, and moved into the log house vacated by his parents.

H.H. Wells and Sarah had moved into a new two-room house one-half mile north. They doted on their first grandchild, Winnie Wells, and he enjoyed her five years before his death.

William M. Wells and Myrtle had six children: Winnie W. McMichael, 1889-1962; Ray M. Wells, 1893-1926; Faye S. Wells, 1896-1927; Ried H. Wells, 1898-1978; Ferne W. Duzan, 1901-?; Mildred W. Roberts, 1907-?.

William Henry Baker, 1841-1920 and Nancy Sperry Baker, 1839-1930 are both buried at Concord.

Holden Harrison Wells, 1841-1894 and Sarah Mildred Stevens Wells, 1846-1919 are both buried at Breon, west of Lowry City.

William Marshall Wells, 1866-1949 and Myrtle Baker Wells, 1868-1959 are both buried at Lowry City.