Person Page - 437

     George BAER 1852 - 1941……………As told by his wife Kitty
http://www.coronagensoc.org/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/georgebaer1852.doc
I am Kitty Baer, George Bear's wife. I died in 1933 from a sudden heart attack at our home on Cota. Of course George buried me here at Sunnyslope Cemetery knowing that someday we would be here together.

George lived in Corona for 51 years. We came here in 1891 before Corona was a town. George saw this town grow faster than a rabbit can run! He was a blacksmith for a long time. The shop was on the corner of Seventh and Main. It was called Acme Carriage Manufactory. George sold carriages, repaired them and did all kinds of blacksmith duties.. In 1905 he bought over $600 of machinery for the shop including a power drill, electric motor, blower, band saw, latent power grindstone and a double clipping machine. The shop had the newest equipment! Oh! He was so happy with the new equipment. George took pride in keeping it neat.

His full name was George Gilbert Nickey Baer. George was born on a cold day in January 1852 in Spring Green, Wisconsin. He was named after Rev. George Gilbert Nickey, who is an uncle by marriage. George lived in Wisconsin all his life until we moved to South Riverside. He was a blacksmith in Wisconsin, so naturally he continued the business here but made it much better. In Ithica, Wisconsin I married my George 1875. We were married by Rev. Simon Spyker at the Congregation church. We had three children: Olive, our only girl. Then Delavan, who also went by the name George, followed by Beauford: these are our sons. All our children were born in Wisconsin and all came to California with us and settled here. Of course grandchildren eventually followed as well as great grandchildren.

George has a great family history and likes to likes tell about it. His mother was born at sea, on the American side of the Atlantic Ocean as her parents were on ship emigrating from Germany in 1819. Her full name was Elizabeth Cornelia Morione Goont Keifer. Elizabeth was the name of the ship, Cornelia, the name of her mother and Morione Goonet, the name of the ship's captain. Her family immigrated to Ohio with a large German community. Of course Germans often did this. It was a plan made in Germany. A whole community would immigrate together and start over together in the US. In 1838 Elizabeth, my mother in law, married George's father, Andrew Baer. He comes from a very long line of Swiss. Andrew was born in PA but his family can be traced back to 1333 in Zurich, Switzerland. George's father died when he was only two years of age, so he didn't get to know him. But we were told that he was one of the first settlers of Sauk County, Wisconsin and a teacher at the first school. He was also an influencial man on church matters. All of Andrew's sons, including my George, spell our last name B_A_E_R, but our forbearers spelled it B_E_A_R. They did that to avoid confusion with other families. But I think it caused more confusion.
George's great grandfather was a gentleman named Jacob Bear. He was a soldier in the American Revolution. He had a large homestead near Newville. PA. There is a book written about our family. This book has sketches of the homestead and pictures of his grandparents David and Esther Bear.

After George's father died his mother married Joshua Simpson. From this George acquired a large brewd of siblings. Elizabeth had a total of 18 children.
Living in Corona in its early years kept my husband very busy. He was a member of many civic organizations including IOOF (International Order of Odd Fellows) in which he was an officer. He sold carriages to many people in this community, made necessary repairs, shoed horses and helped in any way he could.
We had a lovely home built on west 6th street. It was built by Leo Kroonan who built so many of the nice houses here in town. We later move to Cota Street, that is where we lived when I died from a sudden heart attack.

I am very proud that we were to early pioneers here in Corona. Thank you for coming and hearing our stories!! In June 1931 George N and Catherine (Zintz) Baer 56th wedding anniversary celebration. In September 1931 Mr and Mrs George N Baer of Corona, Mrs Daisy Craig of Monrovia, Mrs S L Bloom and Mrs W C Drush of Hugo, Oklahoma spent Sunday with C T Zintz and family in Van Nuys. Mr Zintz is a brother of Mrs Bloom and Mrs Baer. It was a reunion after eighteen years separation.

     In June 1931 George N and Catherine (Zintz) Baer 56th wedding anniversary celebration.

     Jacob Stark immigrated with Carl Stark and Margaretha Schick in August 1857 at left from Bremen, Germany on ship Asia, New York; origin: Hesse; final destination: Wisconsin.⁶ Jacob Stark was a architect in 1900.

     Edith May Stark had 3 with 2 living in 1900 children. She had 5 with 4 living in 1910 children.

     In 1958 at included in Who's Who in Oklahoma.

     William C. Drush obtained US Social Security Card at Oklahoma; last residence Hugo, Choctaw, Oklahoma. He was a Western Union construction in April 1920.

     Carol Andrew Bloom obtained US Social Security Card at Oklahoma; last residence Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Oklahoma. On 12 September 1918 at World War I Draft Registration, Choctaw, Oklahoma.

     Verna D. (?) obtained US Social Security Card at Wisconsin; last residence not specified.

     Carl R. Stancer obtained US Social Security Card at Minnesota; last residence Seattle, King, Washington.

     Howard Oran Stancer obtained US Social Security Card at Minnesota; last residence North Bend, Coos, Oregon. On 5 June 1917 at farmer, Wetonka, South Dakota, WWI Draft Registration.