Gift of the Past

About the Book

Poems and Stories written by my Grandparents, Webster and Maggie Baker during the 1880s brings that part of History to life.

Maggie was 18 and Webster 23 when Webster’s dad moved his family to Kansas to Homestead. Webster had to leave his girl friend back in Indiana. That is the heart ache behind the poem “Separation”. How he came back and married his formal sweetheart is part of the story.

My dad, Chester Baker, grew up on this Sugar Maple farm and he had many adventures as a farm boy in the early Nineteen Hundreds. How he lost his pig down a sink hole and was able to retrieve it is part of history.

Many of the stories of Mitchell were written by Jack Colglazier.

My life as an airplane pilot brings history to the modern day. I was able to fl y my plane from the Pacific to the Atlantic, from Alaska to Florida and many places in between. My experience of racing airplanes is unique and very different from the normal way of life.

About the Author

Nellie was born near Spring Mill before it was a State Park. Most of her married life was spent in Indianapolis, Indiana.

She became a widow at the age of fifty two and then her life was divided between her work as Food Director for Warren Township Schools and her life as an airplane pilot. Her adventures in the airplane took her all over North America. She is past Chairman of the Indiana Chapter of Ninety Nines (International Organization of Women Pilots).

She came back to her roots in Bedford, Indiana in 1988 and developed a new life in her Art (oil paintings and colored pencil drawings). Making Teddy Bears for children in Hospitals is a top priority. She and members of her church make about 450 teddy bears a year. She enjoys writing about her many experiences.