Our Family

Karl Heinrich Friederich Wilhelm Baden (Carl William Baden) was born in 1890 in Adams Township, Ohio in Defiance County.  As a boy he attended the one-room District #7 school, one mile to the east of the farm of his father, Johann Wilhelm Baden, who had come to America from Germany presumably during the 1860's.

After his father's death, Carl inherited the farm and married Erna Bostelman in 1916, and they had five children: Donald, Harlin, Renetta, Lawrence, and Velma.  Though Donald passed away from pneumonia in 1950, Carl and Erna's other children prospered and made a lasting custom of coming together from far and wide with their families.

Carl and Erna passed away within a year of each other in 1979 and 1980, respectively, after a marriage lasting 63 years and two days.

To this day, four generations of Carl Baden's progeny reunite at least once a year up in rural Northwest Ohio.