Fairfield California Newspaper

Lake County 150: The life of Helen Wilmans Baker Post

What does Lake County, Calif., have to do with Daytona Beach in Florida?

This story begins during the Gold Rush.

The Gold Rush … many men joined it. And the stories of the land, the climate, the possibilities of this new area, were also reasons for migration. Did the women want to come to California? Or, were they just expected to come with their husbands?

Helen Wilmans was born June 14, 1831, in Fairfield, Ill. She was raised in an atmosphere of aristocracy, her ancestors being very wealthy. She was highly intelligent, a college graduate, and valedictorian of her college class.

In later life she was an American journalist, publisher and the leader of the mental science movement which stressed control of mind over matter. She started her own paper, The Woman’s World, and published a weekly magazine, Freedom.

She married, in 1856, John Caldwell, Baker, M.D. She may have expected to live a comfortable life as a doctor’s wife, somewhere in the eastern or Midwestern states.

But Dr. Baker got caught up in the stories of California, where Helen was taken as a bride. Dr. Baker purchased part of a Spanish grant in Solano County and they are listed in the 1860 census as living in Suisun, Solano County.

By 1870, Dr. Baker and his family, which now included four children, Ada, Florence, Claude and Jennie, had relocated to Lake County. Their property was located at the western edge of Morgan Valley and five miles from the closest community of Lower Lake. There, they farmed and Dr. Baker had Baker Quicksilver Mine.

In her book, “The Conquest of Poverty,” Helen wrote: “I was tortured day and night by fear of actual want. Where the next dollar was to come from was my continual thought. It was the last thing in my thought at night; it haunted my dreams, and in the morning I would be awakened by becoming gradually conscious of a weight at my heart. Arising and sitting on the side of my bed the day would face me with threats that I had no courage to meet. A thousand times in my weakness and inability to resist the present, my tears would fall all the minutes I was hastening to clothe myself. There was no valid reason for all this torture except that which existed in my mind. I had been so unappreciated that I had come to regard myself as an inferior creature. But at last my reasoning powers showed signs of awakening and I began to see light.

Fairfield, California To Welcome Several New Businesses

Fairfield, California To Welcome Several New Businesses

FAIRFIELD, Calif., May 19, 2011 - The San Francisco Bay Area city of Fairfield, California continues to reap the rewards of its results-driven economic development program which proactively promotes doing business in Fairfield.

New businesses coming to the city include: UBS Manufacturing, TenCate Advanced Composites, Sports Authority, and Chick-fil-A.

“Our commitment to long-range planning and the fact that we have available land, approved business parks and value priced real estate is a significant factor in businesses choosing to locate here,” says Curt Johnston, City of Fairfield’s economic development division manager. “We are pleased to add these new companies to our successful business community.”

UBS Manufacturing, a designer and manufacturer of light gauge steel, residential and commercial buildings, and components, is planning to open a west coast production facility in the former Fiberbond building at 299 Beck Avenue in Solano Business Park. The company is in the process of acquiring, rehabilitating and equipping the building. Fall 2011 is the projected move in date with production being ramped up over the course of the next year. When operating at full capacity, UBS will add 200 new jobs to the local economy.

TenCate Advanced Composites, which has3,500 employees in 15 countries and annual sales in excess of $1 billion, is expected to employ about 100 people when it begins operations at 2450 Cordelia Road in the former Tri-Eagle Beverage facility. The company is a leading supplier of specialty materials ranging from ballistic armor protection to advanced composites for aerospace and industrial sectors. Its prepregs are found on almost all satellite programs in the Western world.

Sports Authority is moving into the space vacated by Mervyn’s at Westfield Solano Mall. The sporting goods retailer has 450 stores in the U.S., with several in the San Francisco Bay Area. The store is expected to open in mid-October 2011. New additions to the mall also include the recent opening of a new dining court.

Chick-fil-A restaurant, which has a location in the mall, will soon open a second location in Fairfield. A new Chick-fil-A, is under construction in the Gateway area of the city. The restaurant will take up part of an old Marie Callender’s building. August 2011 is the expected opening date.

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