Biography of William H. Baker, Jacksonville, Duval County, FL

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Transcribed from:  The History of Florida:  Past & Present, The Lewis Publishing Co., Vol. 
II, page 34, 1923.

BAKER, WILLIAM H., oldest son of the distinguished Judge JAMES M. BAKER, has been a prominent 
member of the Jacksonville bar for a third of a century.

He was born at Jacksonville, March 21, 1868, and as a boy he came to appreciate the dignity 
and splendid ability of his honored father, then at the height of his career as a lawyer and 
judge.  WILLIAM H. BAKER was educated in the public schools of his native city, graduated A.B.
in 1888 from Davidson College of North Carolina, of which his father was an alumnus, and he 
completed his law course in Washington and Lee University at Lexington, Virginia.  He was 
graduated in 1889, admitted to the bars of Florida and Virginia, and since that year has been 
a practicing lawyer in Jacksonville.  For many years he was associated with his brother under 
the firm name of Baker and Baker.

When he was twenty-four years of age he was elected county judge of Duval County, and was 
reelected in 1896, serving on the county bench until 1901.  Outside of service in this public 
office he has devoted most of his time to the strict sphere of his profession.  In 1893 he was 
one of three appointed under an act of State Legislature to establish the Australian ballot 
system in Jacksonville.

Judge BAKER is a member of the Jacksonville Bar Association, the Board of Trade, and has been 
interested in a number of civic movements and organizations in his city and state.  He is 
affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Woodmen of the World, and is a 
member of the Presbyterian Church.  February 12, 1895, WILLIAM H. BAKER married Miss KATE 
L. GRAVES, of Louisville, Kentucky.  The only son of their marriage is JAMES M. BAKER, named 
in honor of his grandfather.