link Autobiography of James Henry Foss (1841-1916)
Ada and her sister where known as "Ada and Ida, the Heavenly Twins" and where popular musical performers.
Ada Foss (born 27 Sep 1876 Rowley, Essex, Mass - died 14 APR 1951 Wellesley, Norfolk, Massachusetts) daughter of James Henry Foss (25 Jul 1841 Charleston, Penobscot, Maine - 1916 Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts) and Mary Hardy Burnham (11 Sep 1846 Gloucester, Essex, Mass - 16 Oct 1876 Rowley, Essex, Mass).
Ada Foss was a singer and daughter of author James Foss. Ada and her twin sister Ida performed as "Ida and Ada the Heavenly Twins" and were very popular around the turn of he century. Ada and Ida's mother died during child birth. They were raised by their loving step-mother Lillian along with their sister Mary and half sister Elizabeth. Lillian and their father took their musical lessons seriously and the four girls originally performed together as they traveled the country on adventure - the source for James Foss's books. Please see the section below from James Foss's book about the birth of Ada and Ida and the death of their mother. She was a graduate from Rollins College in Winter Park, Orange, Florida. She was a concert pianist for 40 years. She was an organist for the West Roxbury Unitarian Church for 17 years.
On 20 Dec 1896 in Boston, Suffolk, Mass she married Frederic Warren Kidder Baker (4 Jun 1872 Amesbury, Essex, Mass - 6 Jan 1941 Concord, Merrimack, N.H) the son of John H Baker a blacksmith in Steuben (23 May 1822 Steuben, Washington, Maine - 1 May 1873 Merrimac, Essex, Massachusetts) and Angeline Lovina "Angie" Kidder (3 May 1839 Georges Mills, Sullivan, N.H. - 28 Oct 1929 Andover, Essex, Mass). Frederic was a pharmacist.
Frederic Warren Kidder Baker and Ada Foss had one son:
1) Captain Roland Henry Baker, Sr (1 May 1897 West Newton, Middlesex, Mass - 27 Jan 1985 Elkins, Merrimack, N.H.). Roland Henry Baker, Sr married first Ethel Gertrude Lenfest (1898 – 1995) and had two children: Col Roland Henry Baker, Jr (1923 – 1994) and Jean Baker (1928 – 2003). Roland Baker, Sr. married second Dorothy Cleveland (1902 – 1995) and had one daughter Ann Cleveland Baker.
In 1921 in Brookline, Norfolk, Massachusetts, USA she married second to Leon Osmund Stewart (1891-1968). She died at her home 57 Kirkland Circle, Wellesley Hills.
"The Gentleman from Everywhere" by James Henry Foss, the father of Ada and Ida Foss page 138 139:
CHAPTER XIII.
THE ANGELS OF LIFE AND DEATH.
BY and by unwonted silence and anxiety reigned in our house. The family doctor remained all night, then a faint cry was heard, and little baby May came into this world of ours,
"The gates of heaven were left ajar ;
With clasping hands and dreamy eyes,
Wandering out of paradise,
She saw this planet, like a star ;
We felt we had a link between
This real world and that unseen."
These beautiful lines of one of the sweetest of earth's singers, came to us like a new revelation at the advent of our first-born, as also those other immortal words —
"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting,
The soul that rises with us, our life's star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar.
Not in entire forgetfulness
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From heaven, which is our home. ' '
Our little vocalist commenced rehearsing for
her chosen profession the very minute that she first saw the light, and she certainly continued the development of her lungs with marvelous persistency. Then her numerous grandparents, uncles, and aunts all vied with each other in petting and spoiling the one pet lamb of the several families, and she basked in the sunshine of unlimited affection.
A few bright years sped by, all roseate with love, prosperity and contentment in this happy valley. Then two little cherubs, just alike as "two peas in a pod" came to us at dawn of day, like twin rays from the rising sun, their blue eyes beaming with smiles which have continued
ever since.
"We named them Ada and Ida: but were obliged to label them to tell "which was which" and said label is essential for distinguishment to this very day, though twenty-four bright summers have passed since the sight of them first
gladdened our hearts.
But almost with the sunbeams came the terrible cloud overspreading all our lives. The mother had scarcely welcomed the twin buds of promise, when she faded away like a flower and was
"Gone beyond the darksome river,
Only left us by the way ;
Gone beyond the night forever,
Only gone to endless day ;
Gone to meet the angel faces,
Where our lovely treasures are;
Gone awhile from our embraces,
Gone within the gates ajar."
There seemed to be no light left on earth ; the sun was blotted out forever,
Oh glory of our youth that so suddenly decays !
Oh crimson flush of morning that darkens as we gaze !
Oh breath of summer blossoms that on the restless air
Scatters a moment's sweetness, and flies we know not where
"A boat at midnight sent alone
To drift upon the moonless sea ;
A lute whose leading chord is gone ;
A wounded bird that hath but one
Imperfect wing to soar upon,
Are like me
Oh loved one, without thee"
but the pitiful wailings of the twin girl babies called me back to earth again, and I took up the cares of existence, though they seemed greater than I could bear.
The largest church in the village was filled to overflowing with sincere mourners, for the sweet face of the departed had brought good cheer into many darkened households in our town. All sectarian barriers were for the time burned away
by the flame of sympathy, and wonderful to tell, the Universalist clergyman who married us was allowed to pronounce the eulogy in an orthodox Congregational church.
