Merced County
Biographies
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON SHAW
The son of an honored pioneer and himself a native son, William Henry Harrison Shaw is one of the progressive and substantial citizens of Snelling, where he has resided since 1895. He was born at West Point, Calaveras County, on April 26, 1868, being the second in order of birth of the thirteen children of W. S. and Henrietta (Stipe) Shaw. The father was born of Scotch-English parentage in Missouri, on February 11, 1835, and coming West in 1861, located near Sacramento, where he worked in the mines on the Calaveras River. He had been accompanied across the plains by Mr. Callameans, there being about one hundred wagons in the train. Henrietta Stipe was born in Virginia, August 13, 1850, of German parents, and she came with her parents from Iowa, landing near Stockton. At Jenny Lind she was married to Mr. Shaw and they started out together on the old Griffith ranch on the Merced River, ten miles below Snelling, in 1873. In the fall of 1874 they moved to Hopeton, where Mr. Shaw was employed on the Ruddle ranch, and in 1880 they went to Washington Territory, but came back to Merced County in the fall of 1891, where they were occupied in extensive grain farming for eleven years. Mr. Shaw was a Democrat, a man highly respected among his fellow-citizens, and was greatly mourned when his passing occurred at Hopeton, on February 23, 1893. Mrs. Shaw died in 1917, likewise missed by her friends and family. In 1923, those who survived the parents were: Sam H. H. Shaw, of Snelling; W. H. H. Shaw of this review; Mrs. E. H. Halstead, of Snelling; Mrs. Dora A. Bloed, of Snelling; Thomas P., also of Snelling; Rachel Poor, of Brewster, Wash.; and R. W. Shaw, a rancher near Snelling.
About forty pupils, with but one teacher in attendance, comprised the student body and faculty of the Hopeton School where Mr. Shaw gained his elementary education. Being reared as a farmer's son, he worked out on ranches as a plow boy, and later on the Bill Grade ranch, driving eight to ten-animal teams. Upon removing to Snelling in 1895, he ran a freight team from Merced to Snelling and Merced Falls, continuing in this business for seven years. Upon the completion of the Yosemite Valley Railroad he was appointed by the American Railway Express as agent at Snelling, and he served from May 21, 1906 until January, 1921.
A fine three-and-one-half-acre plot in Snelling, upon which a residence has been erected, comprises the home place of Mr. Shaw. He has developed his ranch into a splendid income property, it being devoted to berries and fruit, which are shipped to the Yosemite Valley in the open season, and also sold at Merced Falls. He receives good prices, and has little trouble in disposing of his produce. He has harnessed the water in the old Montgomery ditch, which runs through his place, using water-wheel power to lift the irrigation water to a tank seventeen feet above the ditch. This contrivance he made with his own hands. An eight-foot wheel runs the force pump with a ten-inch stroke, affording ample water for fire protection on the ranch.
Mrs. Shaw was formerly Jessie Alice Kauffman, a daughter of the late D. J. and Sarah Kauffman, and was born in Virginia. They came to Washington Territory in 1879 and to Fresno, Cal., in 1891, where they were prosperous farmers. In Fresno, on June 20, 1896, she was united in marriage to Mr. Shaw and their union has been blessed with the birth of two children: Nina, who resides with her parents, and Floris, who is stenographer with the Sperry Flour Company in Fresno. Mr. Shaw is a Democrat in national affairs but he stands for broad community development. He contributes generously to all worthy church organizations, and is a Past Grand and Past District Deputy of Willow Lodge, No. 121, I. O. O. F., having belonged since January 28, 1893; and is also a member and Past Chief Patriarch of Snelling Encampment, No. 83, I. O. O. F. He has belonged to the Woodmen of the World at Merced for over twenty years.
History of Merced County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 581-583
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
WILLIAM NEWTON BAKER
One of the most highly developed fruit ranches' and vineyards located on the State highway in Merced County and situated at the crossing of Cressey Way was improved to its present state by William Newton Baker, who is now residing on the property and superintends its cultivation for his son, Dr. W. A. Baker, of Tuscon, Ariz., to whom he recently sold it. Mr. Baker was born in Boone County, Mo., March 18, 1853, the son of Ambrose Dudley and Hannah (Baker) Baker, both natives of Kentucky, but who were married in Missouri, where the father was a farmer and a stock-raiser. They both died in California, the father at Modesto, at the age of sixty-eight, and the mother at the home of our subject in 1913, aged eighty-three. They came to California in 1864, with their five children, across the plains and arrived at Tuolumne City on July 20, of that year, where an uncle, C. C. Baker, was already located. The children of the family were: Columbus Baker, who died in Santa Ana in 1920; Martha Margaret Hamilton, who died in Orange County in 1918; William Newton, of this review; Pauline, widow of I. C. Grimes of Modesto; and Queen Elizabeth, Mrs. J. E. Clarey of Fruitland precinct, Merced County.
William Newton was a lad of eleven when his parents crossed the plains and he drove the loose stock brought by his father, riding horseback all the way. He attended school in Missouri, and in Stanislaus and Merced Counties, the school in the latter county being taught by Frank Fowler, a well-known teacher at Snelling, when that was the county seat. He grew up in Stanislaus County until 1869, when the family removed to Merced County and located at Snelling. His first business experience was in the sheep business, going out on the old Spence ranch above Merced Falls, where he ranged his band of sheep, which in time increased until he had 3000 head and owned 720 acres of land on the Merced River, having a frontage of one and one-half miles on that stream. This ranch is still known as the Baker ranch. From the sheep business Mr. Baker engaged in merchandising at Snelling and Merced Falls, but as the population was decreasing he left there and went to Modesto where he bought wool for San Francisco firms for several years. His next move was to Delano, Kern County, where he operated a store for about five years, removing at that time to Orange County and engaging in the real estate and insurance business, and in buying wool, for fourteen years. We then find him back in Merced engaged in the real estate business for three years. He had bought ninety acres on the highway and rented it, but the renters did not carry on as he wished and he moved onto the place and since then has been looking after its cultivation. He set out all the trees and vines and erected the buildings suitable for his needs. Now there are seventy-five acres in Malagas, Emperors and Tokays, and seven acres in peaches, also an acre of family orchard. He sold it all to his son, Dr. W. A. Baker, but manages the property for him. While living in Modesto Mr. Baker served as justice of the peace for two years.
Mr. Baker was married in 1872, to Miss Elizabeth Willis, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Willis, ranchers near Sonora, Tuolumne County, where the wedding was celebrated. They had five children born to them: Walter E., a rancher in Fruitland precinct; E. N. Baker, secretary of the Chamber of Commerce at Merced; Edna Elizabeth (twin of E. N.), now the wife of R. C. Balaam of Merced; W. A. Baker, a prominent dentist in Tuscon, Ariz.; and Maud B., who became the wife of B. C. Keister of Merced. The wife and mother died in 1882, at the age of thirty-three. The second marriage of Mr. Baker was in 1883, when he married Mrs. Clara A. Clark, widow of C. A. Clark, by whom she had a daughter, Grace, now Mrs. G. T. Parr, of Berkeley. Mrs. Clara A. Baker was a daughter of A. H. Hall, a lumberman of Truckee many years ago. She was born in Maine and died in Berkeley on June 18, 1923, aged seventy-two. Mr. Baker has always been interested in the development of Merced County and has done what he could to help every worthy project that would be of benefit to the people or make the county a better place in which to live and prosper. He holds the respect of all who know him and his friends are legion.
History of Merced County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 583-584
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler