Wapello County IA Archives Biographies.....Baker, Lorenzo D. 1845 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 July 8, 2013, 11:27 pm

Source: See Below
Author: S. J. Clarke, Publisher

LORENZO D. BAKER.

Lorenzo D. Baker, busily engaged in general agricultural pursuits, his farm
being on sections 22, 26 and 27, Highland township, was born in Chautauqua
county, New York, on the 1st of March, 1845, a son of S. P. and Jane (Wood)
Baker, the former a native of New York and the latter of England. In girlhood
days the mother came to the United States and was married in Chautauqua county.
Thinking to have better opportunities in the middle west, the parents removed
from New York to Illinois, settling twenty-two miles north of Chicago.
Subsequently they went to V ill county, Illinois, and in the '50s came to Iowa,
establishing their home in Mount Pleasant. In 1867 Mr. Baker came to Wapello
county with his family and after five years removed to Nebraska, in which state
he passed away at an advanced age. His life work was that of farming and he
handled many cattle. During the period of the Civil war he enlisted for service
at Mount Pleasant with the Fourth Iowa Cavalry and went to the front, doing
active duty in defense of the Union through the darkest period in the historv of
the country. His religious faith was that of the Methodist Episcopal church, and
his well spent life won him respect and honor. In his family were nine children,
seven of whom reached adult age, namely: Lorenzo D.; O. W., now a resident of
Nebraska; Lydia, the wife of Abe Berry of Nebraska; J. K., Charles, and
Elizabeth, all of whom have now passed away; and Elzada.

Lorenzo D. Baker was very young at the time of the removal of the family to the
middle west. He accompanied his parents to Mount Pleasant and in the fall of
1861, when a youth of sixteen years, he ran away from home to enlist as a
soldier in the Civil war. He enlisted about four miles west of Burlington as a
member of Company K, Fourteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, with which he served
for eighteen months, and was then honorably discharged on account of physical
disability He was taken prisoner at the battle of Shiloh on Sunday, April 6,
1862, and was thus held for fifty-two days, after which he was paroled and later
exchanged. He then returned to the family home in Mount Pleasant and two or
three years later came to Wapello county. Here he remained until 1870, when he
went to Howard county in southern Kansas, where he lived for about eight years.
While in the Sunflower state he preempted a claim of one hundred and sixty acres
on the Osage Mission Reserve. This he sold and then returned to Wapello county
in the fall of 1879. Two years passed and he then went to Webster county, Iowa,
where he also spent two 5-ears. In 1883 he purchased his present farm on
sections 22, 26 and 27, Highland township, upon which he has since resided, and
he is today the owner of three hundred and ninety-five acres of rich, arable and
valuable land, upon which he has made nearly all of the improvements. There is a
creek called Big Cedar upon his place, also some brush land, and he likewise has
some splendid prairie land, which responds readily to the care and labor he
bestows upon it. He carries on general farming and stock-raising and both
branches of his business are gratifying sources of revenue. Diligence and
determination have ever been numbered among his sterling characteristics and
constitute the chief features in his growing success.

In 1869 Mr. Baker was united in marriage to Miss Mary Stoughton, who died in
this county. Their children were: Jessie and James, who are residents of
Nebraska; Nellie, the wife of John Eby of the same state; Samuel, of Highland
township; William, a resident of Idaho; and Ellsworth, who makes his home in
Oregon. For his second wife Mr. Baker chose Mrs. Sarah Dennis, who also passed
away in this county, survived by a daughter, Eva, now the wife of Cliff Bourlan,
of Eldon, while a son, Fred, died at the age of two years. On the 28th of
February, 1893, Mr. Baker married Miss Rhoda McCormick, a native of Highland
township and a daughter of William and Elizabeth (Stevens) McCormick, the former
a native of Kentucky and the latter of Indiana. For a time they resided in
Illinois, whence they came to Iowa during the early period of development in
this state. The children of Mr. Baker's third marriage are: Searle, of Highland
township; and Warren and Noel, both at home.

The political indorsement of Mr. Baker is given to the republican party, but,
while he gives stanch support to its principles, he does not seek nor desire
office. Fraternally he is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows
and with the Grand Army of the Republic, and in the latter organization
maintains pleasant connections with his old army comrades—"the boys in blue,"
who defended the Union. He has ever been as true and loyal in citizenship as
when he followed the old flag upon the battlefields of the south.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:
HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY IOWA
ILLUSTRATED
VOLUME II
CHICAGO
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1914


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