Merced-Stanislaus-San Joaquin County CA Archives Biographies.....Baker, Harry M. 1888 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 13, 2006, 4:20 am

Author: John Outcalt (1925)

HARRY M. BAKER

   The principal of the Elim Grammar School, located between Hilmar and Irwin,
Harry M. Baker is a representative of a San Joaquin Valley pioneer family and
was born in Stanislaus County, on October 11, 1888, a son of Francis M. Baker, a
native of Ohio, born in 1852, and Elizabeth Harmon Baker, who was descended from
Pennsylvania Dutch stock and who died in Richmond, Cal., in 1922, aged sixty-two
years. F. M. Baker is a second cousin of the late President Harding; the Harding
farm near Blooming Grove, Ohio, joined the farm belonging to the father of F. M.
Baker. Both Harry M. and his father have autographed letters from the late
President. The Baker ancestry is traced back to 1450 in England, from which
country the progenitors of the family came to America and settled in the New
England States, where they became wealthy mill-owners. Grandfather Baker was a
Mexican War veteran, having served in that conflict.

   F. M. Baker came to Turlock in the early seventies and started an eating
house; some time after he had become established he returned to Ohio and was
married and returned to California with his bride and took up his work in
Turlock. He next went to Snelling, where he was employed in a flouring mill for
some time; then was engaged in the same occupation with the Merced Milling
Company. In 1896 he ran the Oak Park Dairy, having 200 cows, and superintended
the making of cheese at the factory; he next had charge of the cheese factory on
the Wallace Ranch, near Modesto. In 1900 he had the first irrigated farm in the
Turlock Irrigation District at the Tegner District, having bought this land
several years previous for twenty dollars per acre. He sold it at a handsome
profit and invested in 100 acres in Mendocino County, which he also sold to good
advantage. Then he moved to Richmond, Cal., and bought and sold real estate for
several years until now he is able to retire from business worries and is
enjoying life at his Richmond home, saddened only by the death of his wife.
There were twelve children born to Mr. And Mrs. F. M. Baker. The oldest child, a
girl, met an accidental death by falling down stairs when she was two years old;
the others are living and are: Alta, Mrs. J. M. DeVee; Rov W.; Jesse F.; Harry
M.; Ethel, Mrs. C. O. Fewell; William W.; Hazel, Mrs. Elmer Ridd; Dora, Mrs. W.
T. Woolley; Effie, Mrs. C. W. Friel; Gladys, Mrs. Emmet Dailey; and Estella,
Mrs. Jesse White. An uncle of our subject, James A. Baker, was" connected with
the Southern Pacific Railway for thirty years and is now retired on a pension;
he also receives a pension from the United States Government for his services
during the Civil War and owns real estate in Newman, where he makes his residence.

   Harry M. Baker was reared on a ranch and attended the schools in Turlock and
in the Tegner District, and was graduated from the Turlock High School, class of
1910, and from the Western Normal School of Stockton in 1912. He began teaching
in the Franklin School in Merced County, where he was principal in 1913-1915;
then for one year he was employed as a stenographer for the Moline Plow Company,
in Stockton, and later served as a deputy under Eugene Graham, county clerk of
San Joaquin County. He next put in three years in the office of the Spreckels
Sugar Company in Manteca, beginning as assistant bookkeeper, and advancing to
head bookkeeper and next to auditor. He then resumed teaching as principal of
the Atlanta Grammar School in San Joaquin County, 1919-1922. In the latter year
he came to his present place in the Elim Grammar School in the Hilmar Colony.
This has the largest enrollment of scholars of any grammar school outside of the
incorporated towns in Merced County, the number being 246 in 1925. The pupils
are transported to and from school in three large motor busses. Mr. Baker holds
a State life diploma, also State administration credentials which entitle him to
a superintendency of schools as supervisor of education. He keeps abreast of the
times by reading and study and is thoroughly up-to-date in educational work.

   Mr. Baker was married in 1914 to Mary Alice Carter, born near Manteca, a
daughter of James and Medora (Kiel) Carter, a pioneer family, natives of
Wisconsin who came to California with their parents via Panama and from San
Francisco to Stockton by boat. Mrs. Baker was a student in the Western Normal
School in Stockton and there she met Mr. Baker, and their marriage was the
result. She is secretary of the Ladies' Aid Society of the Methodist Church, of
which she is also a member and a teacher in the Sunday School. They have two
children, June and Ila. Mr. Baker is an athlete of more than ordinary ability,
is a champion sprinter and pole vaulter and could run 100 yards in ten and
two-fifths seconds; even now he keeps up with his athletic exercises and
occasionally wins over those much younger than himself. He is strictly
temperate, and never has used tobacco or liquor. He plays on the violin at
concerts and special gatherings. For some time he edited the Hilmar Enterprise,
now owned by Mrs. Betty Wright, but he severed this connection when he took up
the Boy Scout work, being one of the organizers of the local troop, and is their
Scout Master. He believes in the young boys and does everything in his power to
help them to the right path they should take in future life. He and his family
reside at Irwin, and are the center of a wide social circle.


Additional Comments:
From:

HISTORY OF
MERCED COUNTY
CALIFORNIA
WITH A
Biographical Review
OF
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been
Identified with Its Growth and Development
from the Early Days to the Present

HISTORY BY
JOHN OUTCALT

ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME
HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
1925


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