George and Arnold Carsten

(Click to enlarge.)

This is George Carsten (the man) and his son Arnold (the boy).
George Carsten is my grandfather Delbert Saunders's step-father.
He married Nora Belle Baker after she and George Saunders divorced.
Arnold is my grandfather Delbert's younger half-brother.

Arnold bears a strong family resemblance to my grandfather,
and also to my grandfather's grandmother, Martha (Woodside) Baker.
Their eyes and "crooked" ears are clearly a Woodside feature.
There is no date on the photo.

George Carsten was born about 1891 in California.  The 1920 Census Tulare, in San Joaquin County, California, lists George Carsten at age 27 and notes that he is a native of California.  It lists his occupation as switchman for a railroad. Nora is also listed as age 27 at the time.  Their children are listed as "Jas" (James) Saunders, age 10, born in Idaho, and D. (Delbert) Marion, age 9, born in Montana. Both James and Delbert are listed as step-sons.  Arnold Carsten grew up to live in Woodland and had three boys.

Great Uncle Frank Baker

 Great Uncle Frank Baker, and his sister Nora Belle (Baker) Saunders.
Nora Belle was my grandfather Delbert's mother.
Frank was younger than Nora Belle, but his birth date is unknown.
Based on the style of the houses, the photo appears to have been taken in Oakland, Calif.
There is no date on the photo.

 A very tiny framed photo (about 1-inch high) of Great Uncle Frank Baker.
There is no date on the photo.

Frank Baker's daughter, Lillian.
Frank married Nola Phipps.  To my knowledge the had only one daughter.
There is no date on the photo.

Nellie (Baker) Jilbert

 My great Aunt Nellie (Baker) Jilbert and her husband, whose name is unknown.
Nellie was the youngest of the Baker daughters.
Her birth date is unknown, but it is likely some time in the early 1900s.
Her older sister, Nora Belle (Baker) Saunders,
was my grandfather Delbert Saunders's mother.

There is no date on the photo.

A small, photo-booth-style of my Great Aunt Nellie.
There is no date on the photo.
Nellie had one son whose name was Jake (nicknamed Jakey).
Jakey married a woman named Rose.
Together they lived in Tracy, raising their two children, Beverly and Richard.

 Great Aunt Nellie with her granddaughter,
Beverly Jilbert, daughter of Jakey and Rose Jilbert.
Also in the photo is my father, George Marion Saunders.
A note on the back of the photo says is was taken in Tracy, California.
From the white picket fence, my father remembers that
this was Jakey's and Rose's front yard.
He and Beverly I spend played together there often.
The photo names the other two girls as Joyce and Diane Calhoun,
though we don't know who these girls might be.
My father remembers Aunt Nellie, but she was not married when he was a child.
He cannot recall whether she was widowed or divorced at the time.

Great Aunt Nellie, with a fish.
The back of the photo is stamped with a July 27, 1937 date,
processed by Bear Photo Services.

Mamie (Baker) Meyers and Her Family

 My great aunt Mamie (Baker) Meyers.
She was a younger sister of my great grandmother, Nora Belle (Baker) Saunders.
Mamie was born Jan 1, 1895 in Glendale, Montana,
to Martha (Woodside) Baker and Fred Baker.

There is no date on this photo, but she appears to be in her thirties or early forties.

 This is a photo of Mamie with her first husband, Joe Michels.
No one can remember why Joe and Mamie's marriage ended.

Mamie with her son Kenneth Michels.

Kenneth died in childhood from polio and was never spoken of

after Mamie married her second husband Henry Meyers.

There is no date on the photo.

Mamie again with her son Kenneth.

There is no date on the photo.

Kenneth Michels.
There is no date on the photo, but a note on the back
places the location as Neptune Beach, Alameda, CA.

Another photo of Kenneth Michels, in childhood.

Mamie with my father, George Marion Saunders.

Mamie and her husband, Henry Meyers, owned the house
across the street from my paternal grandparent's house,
at 624 46th Street, in Oakland, CA.
In her long life, she was "Aunt Mamie" to both her nephew (my grandfather)
Delbert "Bud" Saunders, and my father, George Marion Saunders.
There is no date on the phot, but I estimate it was taken about 1944 or 1945,
when my father was three or four years old.
A note on the back of the photo places the location as 46th Street, Oakland, CA.

Mamie and Henry lived well into their seventies.
She was alive when I was a child old enough to remember her.
I can recall visiting their home when I was around five years of age (approx. 1968),
which would have made Mamie about seventy-three.
She made me this sleepy-time puppy which I cherished all my childhood,
and still have tucked away in a memento box.
Once, when I had to sew up a tear in its threadbare cloth,
I discovered that she had stuffed it with her old silk stockings.
No wonder it was so soft.

Ruby (Baker) Finney as a Young Woman

A portrait of Ruby (Baker) Finney.
There is no date on the photo, but it is likely from around 1915,
When she would have been in her mid-teens.

Ruby (Baker) Finney, as a young woman.
This photo is undated, but judging from the clothing, her hair and age,
it is likely from around 1918.

Ruby was the youngest child of Fred Baker and Martha (Woodside) Baker.  She married Bedford Finney with whom she had two children -- Barbara and Bedford Jr.  Though I am not certain of her exact age, I estimate she was born around 1900.  My grandfather, Delbert Marion Saunders, describes his Aunt Ruby as "like a sister to me."  Ruby and Bedford originally lived in Long Beach, but moved to Oakland when my Delbert was in Junior High School.  At the age of 14, Delbert had quit school to work in a wire factory, in order to support his family.  Ruby and her husband talked him into quitting work and returning to school.  They tried their best to support him.  He says of her, in a letter to us the year before he died, "Ruby was so good to me, I hope that where ever she may be, that she will know how much I love and always appreciated what a fine person she was."

Ruby died early in life.  She had joined a fundamentalist church that persuaded her to give up all medications.  In an advanced stage of pregnancy, she was rushed to the hospital with uremic poisoning.  Unfortunately, she did not survive. 

Ruby (Baker) Finney Nursing Photos

Ruby (Baker) Finney, training as a nurse at Alta Bates Sanitorium.
Ruby was my great grandmother Nora Belle (Baker) Saunders's sister,
and my grandfather Delbert's aunt.
The photo is dated February 6, 1920 with a greeting in her own hand on the back:
"Love to all, from Ruby."

Ruby (on the right) with a nursing school classmate, Eng Daniels,
at Alta Bates Sanitorium.  This photo is dated May 1920.

Ruby in training at Alta Bates Sanitorium.
This photo is dated March 11, 1923.

Ruby's nursing school graduation photo.
Unfortunately, this photo is not dated, but it is likely from the mid-1920s.

Another of Ruby's nursing school graduation photos,
Likely from the mid-1920s.

Alta Bates Sanitorium, now called Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, in Oakland, CA, was founded  in 1905 as an eight-bed hospital for women and their infants, by Nurse Alta Alice Miner Bates.  Alta was a prominent early California Nurse Anesthetist, having been one of the first graduates of a nurse's training program out of Eureka, CA.  Alta administered over 14,000 anesthetics during a career lasting more than fifteen years.  Early in the 1900s, she opened her family's home to women and children medical needing care.  Soon after that, with about one hundred dollars, a building design from her father and credit from local merchants, she founded the eight-bed hospital that came to bear her name.  Throughout her career, Alta was active in the nurses' training program at her hospital and likely taught Ruby and her classmates during the early 1920s, while the hospital was expanding its capacity and services.

Delbert "Bud" Marion Saunders

My paternal grandfather, Delbert "Bud" Marion Saunders, as a small child
with his aunt, Ruby (Baker) Finney, who was Nora Belle (Baker) Saunders's sister.
The back of the photo indicates it was taken in Dillon, Montana, but there is no date.
Judging from the approximate age of Delbert (2-3 years), this photo is probably around 1912-1913.

My paternal grandfather, Delbert "Bud" Marion Saunders,
with his grandmother, Martha (Woodside) Baker.
The back of the photo says it was taken in Bannack, Montana.
There is no date on the photo but it is likely from around 1915.

My paternal grandfather, Delbert "Bud" Marion Saunders
(standing with his hand shading his eyes).

The others in this third photo include Delbert's grandmother, Martha (Woodside) Baker (standing) and her second husband Dan Dwight (standing, cropped) whom she married after her first husband, Fred Baker died.  The younger woman sitting in the center of the photo is Delbert's aunt, Maime (Baker) Myers, who was Nora Belle (Baker) Saunders's sister.  The child on he lap is her son Kenny Michaels, who was a child of her first marriage to Joe Michaels.  Kenny died in childhood and was not spoken of after Mamie remarried Henry Myers, whom she remained married to until death.  The man in the lower right corner is Frank Baker, my grandfather's uncle and Nora Belle (Baker) Saunders's brother.  There is an unknown boy poking his head into the frame of the photo on the left.  There is no indication on the photo who this child is, but I love the expression of curiosity on his face.  There is no location or date indicated on the photo, but it is likely from around 1918.

Nora Belle (Baker) Saunders

Three portraits, at different ages, of my paternal great grandmother,
Nora Belle (Baker) Saunders,
my grandfather Delbert Saunders's mother.

Nora Belle married my father's namesake, George Marion Saunders, on May 6, 1908 in Blackfoot, Bingham County, Idaho, when she was just 17 years old.  Their first son, James "Jimmy" Robert Saunders was born when she was 18.  My grandfather, Delbert "Bud" Marion Saunders, was born in Roundup, Montana, in 1911, when Nora Belle was 19.  Though she loved George Marion very much, he was (in the words of my grandfather), "a failure as a husband and father, " and the marriage ended in divorce. Nora Belle later married George Carston, a native of California and a switchman on the railroads.  With George Carston, she bore another son, Arnold.  She, George, Jimmy, Bud and Arnold eventually moved to California and settled in Tracy, CA, along with the families of Nora's sisters (Ruby, Nellie and Mamie).  Nora remained married to George Carston until her death.

Nora became diabetic and, as my grandfather describes, "had it under control by way of a new drug -- insulin -- and her diet."  Unfortunately, she died quite early in life, on January 1, 1925, at the age of 33 after a friend talked her into joining a fundamentalist church that practiced faith healing and she stopped taking her insulin.  This incident, as well as the death of Nora's sister Ruby, who also fell under the influence of the fundamentalist teachings and died from uremic poisoning after a difficult pregnancy, caused my grandfather to reject all forms of organized religion and live by his own philosophy of "trying not to make too many trespasses or hurt anyone."  Ironically, thought I never saw him attend church, I consider my grandfather to be the most Christian person I have ever had the privilege of knowing.

Nora Belle & Nellie Baker

Nora Belle Baker (standing) and her younger sister, Nellie Baker.
Daughters of Fred Baker and Martha Emily (Woodside) Baker.

Nora Belle is my paternal grandfather's (Delbert "Bud" Saunders) mother and my great grandmother.  She was born May 2, 1892 in Glendale, Beaverhead County, Montana.  The photo was taken in Dillon, Montana, but there is no date on it.  Judging from the age of Nora Belle, it was probably taken around 1907 when she was about 15. I'm lucky enough to have been passed down the locket that Nora Belle is wearing around her neck.  My grandmother, Irma D'Angeli (Delbert's wife), gave it to me the Christmas I was 13 years old.

The Baker Family

The family of Fred Baker and Martha Emily (Woodside) Baker,

my paternal grandfather's (Delbert Saunders) maternal grandparents.

Fred is the man on the right side of the group.  His wife, Martha, is the woman standing in the doorway with her arms folded.  Their children are Nora Belle (in the white shirt, next to Martha), Nellie (standing between Martha and Fred), Frank (the boy standing in front of Martha), Ruby (the girl in white at the left-front of the group) and Mamie (the girl in the dark dress at the right-front of the group).  Nora Belle Baker was my grandfather Delbert's mother - my great grandmother. The photo was taken at their family home in Dillon, Montana.

Fred Baker was born in 1858 in Summit County, Utah.  He died in 1910, in Dillon, the year before my grandfather was born.

Martha Woodside was born January 22, 1866, in McDonough County, Illinois, to parents Nancy Jane (Seybold) Woodside and John Robinson Woodside.  As a young woman, Martha taught school  in Illinois.  She died February 4, 1939 in Stockton, California.  After her first husband, Fred, died, Martha married Dan Dwight.  Because Fred Baker died before my grandfather  Delbert was born, Dan Dwight is whom he called "grandfather."

Martha and Fred had a child who died May 11, 1887 following what the Glendale Gatherings social column listed as "a measles epidemic [that] has been engulfing the neighborhood."  I think the child's name was Bessie.  She would have been the oldest of their children.