George Baker, Cyrus,James,William ,George , George Baker [?], William, John Baker, Hugh Baker, John Baker
George Henry Baker
George Henry Baker (1866-1952) The middle name Henry was after grandfather Henry Smith. George 
was the eldest son of Cyrus and Fanny and born in Chincoteaque, Virginia. He worked alongside of his father for eight years on Assateaque Island at the Green Run Beach station. It is my guess that George worked at the Life Saving Station from the age of 18 through 26. He often told his children stories about walking four miles down the beach in terrible winds and rains to meet a lifesaving man from the next station eight miles down the beach. They would exchange batons to prove that they had made contact and then return to their stations. The ships were hauling great timber logs in those days, and the storms threw them around like match sticks. George had learned the ways of the sea from his father who often took George with him on his trips up and down the Atlantic coast.
In 1891, when he was 26, George married nineteen year old Susan Levicia Richardson (1872-1955). Click here to see a photograph of their 50th wedding anniversary.
Susan's grandfather, Captain James Scott, owned the famous Scott's Ocean House Hotel which was located on Scott's Beach very near Green Run Beach. Susan worked in that hotel, and lived across the bay very near Public Landing (then Spence Landing) where the FAIRFIELD discharged and picked up passengers. George and Susan would have met when he was working on the FAIRFIELD or on Assateaque Island. When they first married, they lived in a house in Boxiron. George gave up the life of a mariner and began to farm. As the family grew, their were more hands for the farm chores. They were apparently farming near Berlin in the 1900 and 1910 census, and moved to Wicomico County by the 1920 census. In his later years, he worked as a night watchman in the large bakery that had been built across from their house.
Susan Levicia Richardson
Susan Levicia Richardson (B1872) was the daughter of John Taylor Richardson and Mary Lisa Scott. She was a direct descendant of Robert M. Richardson who patented 3000 acres called Mt. Ephraim and located just below Public Landing. Robert Richardson was one of the original settlers of 
Somerset/Worcester County. The name Susan probably came from the name Susan Hoffman Scott, the first wife of grandfather Captain James Scott, and her middle name Levicia was after Levicia Bowen who had married grandfather James Richardson. In the census of 1900, George Baker had living with him his wife Susan, children George, "Lawrence", and Fanny. Cyrus and Fanny Baker lived with them. George and Susan were buried in the family plot at Parsons cemetary only about 200 yards from their Salisbury home. Susan's mother and father and buried only about 20 yards north in the Richardson site.
George and Susan had a very large family.
Her Family Links
Their Children
There were ten brothers and sisters, and the last and the youngest passed in the year 2002.
George W. Baker was born near Dover Delaware. His father had moved to Delaware to work some property as a sharecropper. As you may remember, the father had been involved only with the water until this time, and this was the family's first attempt to farm for one or more generations. In 1899, at the age of seven, in a wagon to Berlin to spend the day visiting with her sister, George remembers taking his grandmother, Fanny Baker. In 1902, George remembered sailing in a commercial sailboat with the family to Chincoteaque from Ocean City to see the Richardsons, "Uncle Joe" Baker and his son "Young Joe" Baker. As a teenager, it only cost George $1.00 for a full day at the beach including transportation on the train across the bay, food, and playing the games. George had very little formal education as he helped his father on the farm because his father was in poor health.
George Baker joined the army in 1918 and served in the army in World War I, and then married Bessie Johnson on August 29, 1917. He worked in Salisbury for many years, and then married Lillian Pease 
on January 24, 1948 after Bessie died. Lillian had been born in Philadelphia, and her father operated Conner's Bath House in Ocean City. George rented a house each summer at Public Landing next to the Perdues where the Bakers got to know Mr. A.W. Perdue so well. George worked in Salisbury and maintained a farm, retired to Florida in 1956, and died in 1985. He is buried in Salisbury, Maryland in Parsons Cemetery alongside his first wife. 
Before he died, George Baker sent me the family bible, a written summary of his recollections of the family, and a taped conversation with my parents. From this, I was able to gather much of the information presented here. George is buried in the family cemetary alongside of Bessie with his parents.
Charles Lawrence Baker(1895-1923)
Although listed in the bible as Charles Lawrence Baker, "Lawrence" was born on Green Run Beach. George Baker's first attempt at farming on the mainland must not have been successful as he apparently returned to the beach. Lawrence was a tall man, and joined the army in World War I. He was part of a medical battalion and they drove ambulances from Detroit to the various Eastern ports for shipment to Europe. During one of these trips, Lawrence caught a cold, which led to T.B. and his early death in 1923. He is buried in Parsons Cemetery in Salisbury. 
Aunt Fanny was born in Spence, Maryland. This is just about one mile inland from Public Landing on the road connecting Public Landing to Snow Hill. George Baker had decided to farm again. How much the tragic death of his brother Charles had in sending them back to farming is unknown. Fanny Baker has been a tremendous source of information to me because her recollections of those early years are still very clear to her. Fanny Baker became the judge 
of the Wicomico People's Court for many years. She was the first female to hold such an office in Maryland. As a small boy, I spent many summer days sitting and observing court proceedings. The television version of people's court is nothing compared to the real thing.
Fanny Baker married George C. Murphy on May 7, 1919, and they had one son, William Murphy ( born on February 3, 1925 - died 2000). Bill retired in Washington D.C. after being employed by the Federal Department of Education. He was cremated and his ashes spread at the inlet in Ocean City. 
Ralph R. Baker was born across from the Ocean City mainland on a farm. Ralph Baker went on to develop his own plumbing company in Salisbury, which was very successful. Ralph married Edna V. Hammond on January 16, 1923, and they had two children:
Ralph G. Baker (Born February 15, 1925). Ralph died as a small child and is buried in the Baker burial lot in Parsons Cemetery.
Fanny Janette Baker (Born November 24, 1923 - died 2000). Janette Baker married Olen Lokey who had helped Ralph in his pluming business. Olen and Janette Lokey had a child:
Nell Gosnell was born on a farm near Berlin. Her given middle name was May but she had it changed to Raye. She was born with the wit of her grandmother Fanny. Aunt Nell has also provided a great deal of information for my research. In 1925, she married Frank Gosnell (1898-1944) and they moved to Newport News, Virginia where he continued to sell products for Gulf Oil Company. Frank Gosnell was the son of Stewart Gosnell and Katherine Haugh, both deceased before 1937. Aunt Nell died in 1995. Aunt Nell and Frank Gosnell had one son before his untimely death.
Richard Gosnell was born on December 29, 1926. He served in the Marine Corps. Dick later married Dottie Hearn (1929-1994) and they had three children.
Richard Gosnell Jr. (D1953) Richard Jr. died on Christmas Eve as a small child.
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Mike Gosnell is living near Salisbury and married Nancy Townsend (daughter of Arthur Townsend) and they have two children; Michael "Barry" Gosnell (B May 22, 1985) and Britanny Patricia Gosnell (B Dec. 19, 1992).
Pat Gosnell. Pat Gosnell first married Tony Gilhickson, Curtis Weaver, and now Gary Outten. They have an adopted child, Joshua Outten.
Dolly remarried William Brittingham and became very active in the United Methodist Church regarding Conference Lay Leader as one of her greatest accomplishments.
Dick Gosnell worked for many years in the F.A.A. training air traffic controllers and is now retired in Florida.
Ruth B. Baker(1908-1925)
Ruth was born in Whaleyville, Maryland. The Farrell farm was on the east side of the Pocomoke River, just south of Whaleyville. I have little information about Ruth, but she apparently had some birth defects as a child and was a deaf/mute. She is pictured in the family picture above. The family apparently moved to Berlin in 1908 just after Ruth was born.
Mildred was also born in Berlin with some of the fun loving genes of her grandmother Fanny. Mildred married Hugh Thomas Cropper II on November 14, 1934. Hugh Cropper served as the mayor of Ocean City for about fifteen years, 
and owned several hotels. The city of Ocean City named the parking lot at the famous Ocean City inlet in his honour after he died in the year 2000. He was the son of a well known and respected citizen of Ocean City, Hugh Thomas Jr. They had three children:
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Virginia Lee Cropper (Ginny). The first child of Mildred and Hugh was Virginia Lee and she was born on February 24, 1936, and she married Harold Phillips. They had one child, Karen Phillips.
Carol Cropper Carol is the younger sister of Virginia Lee. She married Bill Smith and they had four children. Those children are; Debora Smith, Roger Smith, Jennifer Smith, and Dianne Smith. It would be interesting to determine if this was the same Smiths from which Fanny Smith descended.
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Hugh Thomas Cropper III. Hugh is the youngest son of Mildred and Hugh. Since college, Hugh also learned the hotel business and lives in Ocean City. He married Sue Taylor, and they have two children. Hugh Thomas Cropper IV is their eldest son, and Amanda is their daughter. Hugh Thomas Cropper IV is studying to be a lawyer, but the genetic saltwater has drawn Hugh IV back to the sea and he became one of the youngest deep sea fishing captains in the business. Today, he is a well respected attorney.
Franklin A. Baker (1916-1917)
Franklin A. Baker II (1919-2002)
Frank Baker was born in 1919 when his oldest sister was already twenty one and married! Frank graduated from Wicomico High School in 1937, the same year he was part of a small group of friends who estabh3shed the Community Players, and attended Sah3sbury Teachers College before entering the army in 1941 to 1946 where he pulled duty in the Aleutian Islands. Frank worked in Salisbury for Salisbury National Bank then Farmers and Merchants Bank. Frank took a cruise in 1956 aboard the S.S. United States to England and France from where he tourned Europe and Italy. In Florence, he met up with the writer Truman Capote with whom he had served in the military.
Later Frank became an auditor for several companies including The Mariott Corporation. Frank retired in Salisbury in 1983, and was an active leader in AA. He was associated with the Peninsula General Hospital, and the Hudson Center, and a founder of the Salisbury Substance Abuse Community Center. He was presented the Book of Golden Deeds Award in 1994 by the Exchange Club of Salisbury for his work at the Wilh3s Hudson Center and the Twelve Steps Program. He is pictured above in photographs when home on leave from the service. In his retirement, he helped many people find themselves and has received several significant citizenship awards for his work in charity. Frank passed on June 3, 2002 and was cremated.
