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Oliver Baker’s great-great-grand­mother Gross lived to be 101 years old. As a slave she was actually owned by her sister, and therefore had much freedom.

She witnessed the meteoric shower, known as ‘the night the stars fell” in 1833.

His great-grandmother Baker was also a slave and was well treated by her master. She told of Indians coming to New Market.

After she gained her freedom she washed clothes for hands who built the Burlington Bridge. She saved enough money to buy a farm near New Market north of Monroe. The farm stayed in the family for 90 years.