face, was generally known and remembered as a good friend and husband, but was also known to have a bad temper. de Stearns Baker's grand-nephew Ricardo Bandini Johnson told a reporter from the Santa Monica Mirror that Abel was "often away" from home and thus "did not pay a lot of attention to Arcadia.” The couple did not have any children. Stearns died in 1871, at age 72, leaving all of his fortune (in land and money) to de Stearns Baker. To Colonel Robert S. Baker In 1875, the widowed de Stearns Baker married Colonel Robert S. Baker (1826–1894), a wealthy Anglo American from Rhode Island who owned Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica, where they settled. Colonel Baker had come to California in 1849 during the Gold Rush and worked in the San Francisco mining supplies business, as the company Cooke and Baker. He then worked in the cattle and sheep trade in Northern California, before purchasing Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica from the Sepulveda family for the opportunities in the cattle trade it offered. With this purchase, he moved to Los Angeles, where he met and married de Stearns Baker. Baker's possession, through the marriage, of the Bandini family's holdings of Rancho La Laguna and Rancho La Puente further expanded his ranching business. The couple moved to Santa Monica, where they played a crucial role in the development of the community (see below in "Santa Monica" section). They resided in "Ocean Cottage" by the pier. At the home, de Stearns Baker continued to do what she had done so well in Casa de Bandini and El Palacio - entertaining and hosting many elite guests and influential political figures. The Bakers did not have children. Colonel Baker died in 1894, leaving his money and estate to the again widowed de Stearns Baker. de Stearns Baker continued to live in their home on Ocean Avenue until her death in 1912. Landowner, businesswoman, and benefactress Though she married two Anglo-American men and during her lifetime California came under control of the United States, de Stearns Baker reportedly never spoke English, but rather did business in Castilian Spanish. Thus, she required an interpreter; for many years, her husband Abel Stearns filled this role. de Stearns Baker's choice to continue to speak her native tongue links her to other elite california women like Rosalía Vallejo, who famously refused to speak in English.