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T T - - - - - V ■were not each of them 10 years j younger. He is the first person j ia the .store of a morning and the last to leave at night and Mrs. Baker is still as happy and contented, hustling about her well-! ordered housework, as she was when she first came to live in ; the home on Stale street. ;My appointment was for two o’clock; and when I drove up to the store after pleasant ride over the rolling hills leading to the village, I was met. hv Walter Baker, his youngest son and taken ift to be introduced to Hoy. The elderMcNaught, who helps “J. W.1’ runthe store.Miss Inez, his daughter, by his first wife, who was Miss Mary Patton, is also a full time helper at the store, (which is certainly a family affair!) . . . but I did not meet her then.Sitting in a comfortable chair in the office was J. W. Baker,taking “just a little nap; butWhen his son touched him on the shoulder, he arose at once, a? gallant as a young blade, to meet the “reporter” who had come to talk to him. It was decided weshould go over to the house tomeet Mrs. Baker and have m,;r Visit there. So in the cozy In ingroom, where every thing spoke ot happy, comfortable days, r.o told me the story of the. store which has served the communityDid you go to country dances and picnics and have lots of girls, or hobbies of any kind?‘'Well, he said slowly, “I had a nice enough time, but WORJk was my hobby. I never danced. My family didn’t believe in it. We were rock-ribbed Presbyterians and brought tip pretty strictly, and, to tell the truth. I didn’t have much time for girls or the kind of fun that young people have now. I was so busy getting started in business and driving the huckster wagon around five days a week, I didn't, have much time to do anything else. I was : 28 when 1 was married the first ! time and pretty serious about i everything. My first little store hero burned down. In 1883 I : built the present, store and then 1 stopped driving the wagon and stayed in The store all the time. I got another man to drive, (his name was Wheeler) and that wagon was on the road every week for 45 years, until after the first World War. We had a regular route through Muskingum, Licking and Coshocton counties, making the same stops every two weeks. People would watch for us and give orders for the nextTHE HUCKSTER WAGONWhen he started driving himself, he had a pair of white mares and the little canvas covMr. and Mrs. Jerome W. Baker, a portrait study taken by the Mueller studio in Newark, on Mr. Baker’s 90th birthdav, December 13, 1945.ered wagon, with its boyish driver and the white horses, became a familiar and welcome visitor to remote farm houses and small hamlets through the three roun-lies. Rain or shine, snow or sweltering weather, his customers could almost sot. their clocks by the lt;lav the wagon would come by. With the changing years the merchandise changed too.The good stiff silk and velvet ine ordered by the yardfor a best dress lor a prosperous customer, was supplanted by georgette crepe and eta-mine. Calico, once bought by the frugal mother for children's dresses, gave way to more pleasing gingham, with larger patterns and gayer colors. Overalls were still ordered, but so were shirts with stiff collars, for the mert-folk. All sorts of new fangled gadgets found irtbir way from the shelves of the well-stocked store to the hampers and the shelves of the wagon where they were eagerly pounced upon by the customers. Hats and shoes, rat traps and spades.oatmeal and patented whit* flour, baking powder and fac* powders, cough medicine and hair oil, v?ool sox and real silkstockings, blankets, hair-pins,sheets and chicken feed - . . ail the multitudinous things that can be found in a good old-fashioned general store, wer* ordered and then delivered on the next trip. When anything new came on the market. Baker's produced it for th*customers almost before ihewhile mares could switch th* flies off, on a hot summer day.“THERE WAS AN incident thatsurely tickled me, reminisced the old gentleman. “There was an elderly lady who had bought stuff fiom me from the first trip I ever made. When I told her I was going off the wagon and.st:iv m the store all the time and *that there would be another driver around the next trip, she said she wouldn’t like anyone else so well and he just needn't slop. But he did, and one day she came into the si ore and con-li-ssed she liked the new man better than she did ME!”He was very particular ahout his drivers and unless they were conscientious and interested and courteous to the customers he wouldn't let them take the wagon out. after a trial trip to see how
Newspaper Details
Coshocton News
Coshocton, Ohio, US
Sun, Jan 27, 1946
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Muskingum C.
OH, USA 02 Feb 2020
Other Publications Near Coshocton, Ohio
Coshocton Morning Tribune
Coshocton Daily Tribune
Coshocton Daily Times
Coshocton Daily Age
Coshocton County Democrat
