My Genealogy Hound

BAXTER P. BAKER is a well known business man of Yates Center, where he is engaged in dealing in lumber. He is also an extensive land owner and belongs to that class of representative citizens who owe their prosperity, not to a succession of advantageous circumstances, but to earnest, honest labor. He came to Woodson county in 1866 and has since been actively identified with its interests.

Mr. Baker was born in Gentry county, Missouri, in the year 1845. Little is known concerning the ancestral history of the family save that its representatives were residents in eastern Kentucky and western Tennessee and in the latter locality the parents of our subject were born. The father died in early life and the children were therefore bound out, our subject among the others. When fourteen years of age his parents by adoption, being dead, he left his native county and went to Iowa where he remained for a year. He managed to make his way to Illinois where his parents has resided previous to their removal to Missouri. About this time the country became involved in Civil war and with patriotic spirit Mr. Baker offered his services to the government, enlisting in Company B, One Hundred and Nineteenth Illinois Infantry, under the command of Colonel Kenny, the regiment serving with the western department of the army. He participated in the Banks campaign up the Red river and subsequently turned north to Missouri to aid in the defeat of Price’s army. With his regiment he then went south again and took part in the movements around Nashville which resulted in the destruction of Hood’s army. From that point he went with his command to Mobile, Alabama, and participated in the charge on Fort Blakely which led to its ultimate capture. He remained in that state until mustered out of service in August, 1865, his company being disbanded at Springfield, Illinois. After the war Mr. Baker spent six months near Springfield on a farm, and then determined to try his fortune in Kansas. In 1866 he started for this great prairie section of our country, making his way to Iola, Allen county, from Ottawa and thence turning westward to Belmont township, Woodson county. There he made arrangements with a settler for his claim, improved the property and has since made it his home. He turned his attention to farming and stock-raising. He prospered in the undertaking and his financial resources increasing, he added to his property until he now has nine hundred and sixty acres of valuable land, constituting one of the most desirable farms in this portion of the state. He came to Woodson county with a cash capital of one hundred and forty-three dollars and ten cents, a second hand wagon and a good team, and here he has resolutely worked his way upward, the difficulties that he has encountered seeming but to serve as an impetus for renewed effort. Som. years ago he took up his residence in Yates Center and there he erected his home. He has since spent his time upon the farm and in his city residence, but since embarking in the lumber business in 1889, he has resided during the greater part of the time in the county-seat. He is a prominent lumber merchant, carrying on an extensive business, while at the same time his income is materially increased by the profits of his land and stock-raising interests.

Mr. Baker was married in Woodson county, on the 1st of September, 1867, to Miss Sarah Brock, a daughter of Abram Brock, who became a resident of Kansas in 1866. She died in 1874, and Mr. Baker afterward married Amanda I. Brock. The one child of the first marriage is Mrs. S. G. Keck, of Yates Center. By the second marriage there are three children: Sadie I., now the wife of D. W. Fisher; Viola, the wife of C. D. Young, of Yates Center, and Russell, a student in the Agricultural College of Kansas.

Many years ago Mr. Baker was a very active worker in the ranks of the Republican party but he is now a staunch Prohibitionist. He labored earnestly toward securing the location of the county seat at Yates Center, it having been formerly at Kalida and afterwards at Defiance. He is a prominent member of the Methodist Episcopal church and as a citizen he withholds his support from no measure or movement calculated to prove of general good.