An artist, Baker a candlestick maker

HUMBOLDT — When times were tight — and they often were — Melvin Baker got to work and started creating, even as a child.
No money for toys?
No problem there. Melvin built his own, from wooden cars and wagons to more sophisticated farm implements and grain thrashers.
Couldn’t afford a new power saw or drill?
No problem there, either. He built those, too, some when he was still in high school.
And finally — after marrying childhood sweetheart, Doris — Melvin was all too aware that he most certainly couldn’t afford to buy a new house.
So he built his own.
A walk through his still immaculate home nestled in the heart of Humboldt reveals a perfect blend of history, artistry and a heaping helping of ingenuity.

NOW 86, Melvin doesn’t spend as much time in the woodshop as he used to.
Not because his considerable skills have eroded. Not at all.
“I just don’t have as much time as I used to,” he noted.
Doris, his wife of 64 years, suffered a fall recently, and isn’t as stable on her feet as she was in her heyday, “so I spend quite a bit of time with her,” Melvin said. “I don’t want to be too far away.”
Melvin showed off an assortment of trinkets he’s crafted through the years, using little more than his mind’s eye and rough sketches as his guides.
Certain pieces stand out immediately.
Three wooden replicas of antique cars adorn his living room mantle. The replicas — a 1930 Plymouth, a 1926 Model T Roadster and a 1920 Model T Touring car — are spot-on representation of the same cars he has parked in his backyard garage. (He’s also a crackerjack in the garage, having restored several antique autos).
“I have a couple of others, but I may not get to do those,” he said.
The wooden replicas required hours of painstaking measuring, carving and shaving and delicately assembling to stay true to their life-size inspirations.
Melvin usually cranked out a replica car every few weeks, then handed them off to children or grandchildren as Christmas gifts.
That was before his wife came forward with a single request.
“You’ve given away all those cars to others,” she told her husband. “How about one for me?”
So sits Doris’ car, nearly twice as large as Melvin’s other replicas, built to replicate the 1920 Model Melvin had purchased from Doris’ father.

TIMES WERE tough on the Baker household, not unlike most others in the 1930s, and in the heart of the Great Depression.
While most kids his age were content to find a ball and bat to fill their idle time, Melvin took to the woodshop.
“I just always liked making things out of wood,” he said. “I have since I was yay tall.”
Young Melvin would make his own wooden cars, tractors, wagons, whatever was needed.
When certain pieces became too much to make with a pocket knife or hand saw, Melvin turned to his keen mind in engineering and create his own power tools. He still has — and uses — a homemade band saw.
“You just did what had to be done,” he said. “
Fresh out of high school, Melvin got a job as a carpenter, working for his brother-in-law, Orrin Frevele. Among their projects was construction of what became the old Wonder Bread store on the north edge of Humboldt.
Melvin worked alongside Frevele until the latter retired in 1980.
From there Melvin and a co-worker, Larry Brock, went into business together, staying busy until they, too, retired in 1999.

BUILDING HIS own home became an exercise in persistence.
He knew he couldn’t afford to buy a house, or even build his own home all at once, so Melvin and Doris decided to take their time — seven years in all.
It started by building what is now his garage, immediately west of his home.
He started the garage in 1954, finishing it in 1955, then moved in to live there while the home’s construction took place.
“Once we got into the garage, we took a couple years off,” Melvin said, building a second garage in the interim so they had a place to keep their cars.
Construction of their home at 402 Charles St. began in 1958.
“I’d get paid every two weeks,” he recalled. “One week’s paycheck would go to our monthly expenses. I’d take the second and hook up a wagon and go to Diebolt’s and buy whatever I could.”
Then, during evenings and weekends or whenever else he had spare time, Melvin would build.
“Doris helped, too,” he said. “She’d drive nails or do whatever she had to.”
The home was finished in 1961.
The Bakers had four children, sons Richard and Ron (chief executive officer at Allen County Regional Hospital) and daughters Judy Kiehl and Iolan Lori Moran.

MELVIN’S ingenuity didn’t stop once his house was built.
He and Doris decided early on that if she needed a piece of ornate furniture, he could build it — just as valuable — at a much lower cost.
“I’d just tell him what I wanted, and he’d come up with something,” Doris said. “He spoiled me.”
Some stand out more than the others.
Doris’ favorite is a teacart still stationed prominently in their dining room.
Melvin also built a pair of end tables and coffee tables in their living room, with nary a blemish to be found.
One end table has a set of candlesticks and a wooden scale Melvin built using his wood lathe.
Each consists of various shades of wooden pieces, assembled perfectly so each has an identical design.
“That was tough,” he admitted. “If one piece was barely off center, you had to start over.”
Likewise, a series of jewelry boxes sit nearby. One features Queen Anne legs he carved meticulously in his garage.
“That’s the trick — taking your time,” he said. “I’ve spent a lot of time in my woodshop. And I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.”