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BAKER John Newton (Jasper)

Date of birth : March 16, 1886, Knox County, Kentucky.

Date of death : September 17, 1951, Hammond, Knox County, Kentucky (,).


Portrait ,


Addresses


* 1918 : 1595 North 21st Street, Los Angeles

* 1920 : 3423 Fifth Avenue, Los Angeles (-)

* 1930 : 199 34th Street, Middlesboro, Kentucky ()

* 1940 : 920 Tennessee Avenue, Pineville, Kentucky ()

* 1950 : 1st Street, Pineville, Kentucky ()

Story

His parents were John Elliott Baker (April 27,  1855, Kentucky - March 31, 1929, Kentucky) and Etta Epperson (September 25, 1866, Kentucky - October 1st, 1937, Kentucky).

On February 2, 1913, he married Gertrude Ritze (September 27, 1894, Highland Falls, New York-September 27,

1961, Highland Falls, New York ), in Highland Falls

().


they had a son Jasper Frederick Baker (December 3,1914, Highland Falls, New York-March 22, 1975, New Windsor, New York).
In 1915 the couple was separated, and the child would be renamed Jasper Engle, when his mother married Charles Engle on March 15, 1920.

He had been in cavalry just after school. When he was released from his duties, he stayed in California.
He bought few apartments in Kentucky, ran by his mother.
In California, he managed a game concession on the beach (dice, bingo, carnival game) at the Pickering

Pleasure Pier à Santa Monica (); he also owned a guesthouse located 26

Westminster Avenue, Venice (;,

). He was also the manager of a guesthouse on 219 South Spring Street, Los Angeles.

This is where Della Monroe settled with her daughter Gladys. Jasper asked Della to run the property while he worked on the beach.
Jasper fell in love with the lovely and smart Gladys, who was only 14 ().
She loved him at first sight, all the more because being attached with him allowed her to move away from Charles Grainger, her mother's companion.


May 17, 1917 he married Gladys Monroe. Della Monroe declared her daughter was aged 18 (while she was hardly

15), under the pretext that there were no proof of her exact date of birth (--

).

Della, all smiling, attended the wedding then gave them the room of Westminster Street to the young couple, and quickly moved in Charles Grainger's bungalow.




January 16, 1918 : birth of Robert Jasper Baker.

Registration Card, September 12, 1918 : -

July 30, 1919 : birth of Berniece Inez Gladys.


On the birth certificate (), the Bakers wrote Della Monroe's address (1410 Coral Canal Court).
If one had discovered Gladys had been pregnant for her wedding, which happened before her legal age, Jasper Baker would have faced a trial for corruption of a minor.
With Della's address mentionned as hers, this meant either Della's agreement, or the fact she presented herself as Gladys and her children's responsible.
Her father's death, her mother's emotional inconstancy didn't lead Gladys to stability. She didn't mean to look for a traditional home.
Soon tired with maternity and its demands, she preferred giving her children to her neighbours's care to attend balls and parties on the beaches. For her husband, he worked for long hours as a salesman.

1921 : Jasper and Gladys visited Jasper's mother in Flat Lick, Kentucky. During the trip, young Robert fell from the car and had his hip injured.
During their stay, Gladys went for a hike with Ardrey, Jasper's younger brother. But Jasper was jealous. When she went back, Jasper beat her. Gladys ran through the streets, screaming and crying, saying she was afraid of her husband.
They went back to California, and as soon as they arrived, she filed for divorce.

June 20, 1921 : Gladys filed for divorce for "Extreme cruelty and extreme mental cruelty (...)"

,,.

She left home and rented a bungalow located 46 Rose Avenue in Venice, she shared with her mother.
Gladys signed the lease under the name of Della Monroe, where she agreed to sublet 2 rooms, to be paid as a manager and to pay $100 a month to the owners, Adele Weinhhoff and Susie Noel.
 
End of June 1922 : the last check of the rent hadn't been paid. There was an argument between Della and Gladys, each of them accusing the other to waste the money. None of them having a job, the main part of their income was provided from Charles Grainger, the rest from a modest amount sent from Jasper Baker.
Their short roommates experience ended in July, after an expulsion threat. Della, with Grainger's permission, went to live in en empty bungalow he owned in Hawthorn.

May 11, 1923 : the divorce was pronounced and Gladys obtained her children's custody ().

One day Jasper came and picked the children up for a week-end custody; he brought them to Flat Lick, Kentucky, at his own mother's home, thinking the children would be better raised by his mother. So he settled there, wanting to start a more quiet life.
Robert was hospitalized in Louisville because he still limped with his injured leg. During his stay at the hospital, Gladys arrived, furious in Flat Lick and wanted her children back. In vain, she asked the help from Myrtle, one of Jasper's sisters. But they kept Berniece hidden and asked Gladys not to go to the Louisville's hospital to see her little boy. Anyway she settled in Louisville, and worked as a housekeeper, waiting for Robert to be in a better condition.

John remarried (between 1923 and 1930) to Margaret J. "Maggie" Mills (June 5, 1874, Kentucky-August 9,

1955, Kentucky)() who ran a grocery store in Flat Lick. He worked as a rela estat agent.



Tired of waiting and not having be able to see her children, Gladys then went back to Los Angeles.

Jasper regularly went to Louisville where his son Robert was hospitalized. The doctors had diagnosed a bone tuberculosis. After 2 years, his condition improved, but he still limped. He had to continue his treatment. He alternated the stays between the Harlan hospital (closer) and the Louisville's one.

The family settled in the town of Middlesboro and Robert was brought back home. But his condition worsened and his kidneys couldn't handle the disease. He died on August 16, 1933, aged 15.

Since he was back in Kentucky, Jasper had pssed some exams and obtained a teacher certificate

(-).

He then ran a house loction company in Wallsend. And there were some flood which destroyed the family house.



Registration Card, April 27, 1942 :

    

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