Great-Grandma Lucinda Catherine Williams Baker

For the past few months I've been doing research on both Dan's and my ancestors. I'm not really a dedicated researcher, but more of a sporadic one; I go at it fairly diligently for a while, then feel the need to take a break for a few weeks. Last week I was concentrating on Dan's family.

As I mentioned in a recent post, the Baker side of Dan's family has some strong ties to Bell County, where we now live. His grandfather, Charles Monroe Baker, lived in Oenaville, just outside of Temple, and some of his children, including Wiley (who raised Dan and his brother after their parents passed away), were born there. There are five Bakers buried in the Oenaville Cemetery, and my research has revealed that they were all great-nieces and great-nephews of Dan's great-great-grandfather, Littleton Baker. I guess you could call them Dan's kissing' cousins, but definitely not direct ancestors.

Last week, however, I was surprised to make a new discovery - that Dan's own great-grandmother, Lucinda Catherine Williams Baker was buried in a small, private cemetery - Arthur Cemetery - outside of Troy, Texas, which is about 11 miles north of Temple. So, last Sunday afternoon Dan and I drove up to Troy. Once we found the cemetery, on the edge of some farm land, we had no problem locating Great-Grandma Lucinda's headstone among the 30, or so, others. We found three more Baker graves there, as well, one of them belonging to an infant daughter of Lucinda Catherine and James Moses. My research indicates that Lucinda, who died at the young age of 43, bore her husband 11 children, including Dan's grandfather, Charles Monroe Baker.

Arthur Cemetery (Also known as Bottoms Cemetery), near Troy, TX.

Below is a photo of Dan standing beside his great-grandma's headstone. We hope to go back sometime soon with some flowers. There was something sweetly poignant about finding this marker, knowing that Dan's great-grandfather stood right here, 115 years ago, to lovingly lay his wife to rest.

Lucinda Catherine Williams Baker; Born July 17, 1855, Marion Co., Arkansas; Died August 17, 1898, Bell Co., Texas.