Shawnee-Nemaha County KS Archives Biographies.....Baker, Floyd P. 1820 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com November 20, 2006, 12:33 am

Author: James L. King (1905)

HON. FLOYD P. BAKER.

    In the capital city of Kansas there are men now living retired from active
participation in the shaping of passing events, who are able to regard with v
justifiable satisfaction the results of their long years of leadership and
honorable devotion to the public's welfare. In Floyd P. Baker is found such a
citizen, whose life has been closely identified with the interests of Kansas
since 1860.

    Floyd P. Baker was born November 16, 1820, in Washington County, New York,
and is a son of Reuben and Lois (Baxter) Baker. They married in 1811 and reared
11 children. The father was a self-educated man, preparing himself for the
profession of teaching by study by the light of a pine-knot fire. He lived to
the age of 82 years and his widow survived until i860. The Bakers are of
Massachusetts extraction and the Baxters belong to the old families of New York.

    The educational advantages enjoyed by Mr. Baker in his youth were meager,
three months in the year being all the time he could claim for schooling and
during these months he daily waded through the winter snows of that region, but,
nevertheless, he prepared himself for teaching and started out on his own
account when 18 years of age. After six months experience as a schoolmaster in
Erie County, New York, he went to Michigan where he spent the next two years
farming, blacksmithing and teaching a private school in which he was expected to
instruct in astronomy and botany, advanced branches which he was obliged to
privately study to keep ahead of his class, his own instruction not having
included these.

    In 1840 a new line opened up for him and he engaged as agent for the lines
of packet boats and stages which ran from New York City to Montreal, Canada, in
which he continued until 1848, when he went to Racine, Wisconsin. Here he
completed his law studies and was admitted to the bar and here followed farming
and also engaged in an insurance business until 1851, when he went to San
Francisco where he practiced his profession for 12 months. Circumstances then
arose which took him to the Sandwich Islands, where he became the crown attorney
and clerk of the District Court at Hilo, Hawaii, where he remained three years.
Upon his return to the United States, he located in Andrew County, Missouri,
where he engaged in agricultural pursuits until i860 when he came first to
Kansas, locating in Nemaha County, where he was shortly after made
superintendent of schools.

    It was in the fall of this year that he became well known to the people of
this State, in a public capacity, being appointed one of a committee of five of
an organization which had been formed at Lawrence, with S. E. Pomeroy as
chairman, to take means to help the people of Kansas then in dire need on
-account of the failure of the crops. At that time Mr. Baker had his
headquarters at Atchison, although his home was at old Centralia. His duties
were manifold and during this time every energy was exerted by him to better the
condition and relieve the necessities of the hundreds who were living with 
famine staring them in the face with the rigors of an unusually severe winter to
add to their sufferings. It was during this period that he underwent an
experience which came near terminating not only his career of disinterested
usefulness but his life as well. On January 18, 1861, when he left his
headquarters at Atchison for a visit to his home, he found that all the teams
were loaded heavily as they could stand with provisions that had been sent from
the East in answer to the efforts of his committee, and he decided to walk the
distance. This was considerable of an undertaking but would probably have been
safely accomplished had not a blinding snow-storm arisen which caused him to
lose his way over the old Indian trail he was following. He was almost exhausted
with cold and weariness when the light of a log cabin came into view and he was
welcomed by its owner with the true and hearty hospitality which always marked
the Kansas pioneer. Here he learned that he had probably been wandering for
hours in a circle and that he was within a quarter of a mile of the place whence
he started, and here he received the best entertainment that the owner of the
humble cabin could command.

    In 1863 Mr. Baker came to Topeka, having served in the State Legislature
during the previous year, and here entered upon his long and pregnant career as
a journalist. In association with S. D. McDonald he purchased the State Record,
which he continued to issue until 1871, when he sold his interest to the
Commonwealth and went to Texas, locating at Dennison just at the time when
business enterprises were being pushed forward there. During his three years
residence in the South, he became one of the leading men of that section, and
edited and published the Advocate at Dennison, and also during that time
organized the State Historical Society of Kansas, of which he was first
secretary and later president.

    In 1875 Mr. Baker returned to Topeka where his family were still residing.
In this year Mr. Baker bought the Topeka Commonzvealth, a paper which, under his
able management and experienced direction, took a very prominent position in
State literature and politics, and he continued its issue until 1888 when it was
consolidated with the Topeka Capital. In the meantime, Mr. Baker operated a
wholesale paper and type house. During the year 1878 he received the appointment
of assistant commissioner to the World's Fair at Paris, the duties of which he
filled with becoming dignity, serving in the forestry department.

    Mr. Baker was married, first, to Eliza F. Wilson, of Montgomery County, New
York, who died at Racine, Wisconsin. Their one son, Floyd, died at New Orleans,
aged five years. Mr. Baker was married, second, to Orinda Searle, in 1850, who
was a member of one of the prominent families of Racine. They had five children,
namely: Albert, who died aged 15 months; Nestor, who was born in the Sandwich
Islands, formerly a prominent citizen of Topeka, now of San Francisco; Clifford
C, who has been interested with his father for 25 years in the newspaper
business and for four years secretary of the-Senate and subsequently State
printer; Isaac, connected with the Standard Oil Company, who is a resident of
Bay City, Michigan; and Minnie, who is the wife of H. W. Sharp, division
superintendent of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway at Kansas City, Missouri.

    Mr. Baker organized the State Historical Society of Kansas, of which he was
first secretary and later president. Since 1844 he has been an Odd Fellow and
has attained high place in this organization. He served as grand patriarch of
the Encampment, grand master of the Grand Lodge of the State of Kansas and was a
representative to the Grand Lodge of the United States. In 1846 he was made a
Mason.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF SHAWNEE COUNTY, KANSAS
AND
REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

EDITED AND COMPILED BY
JAMES L. KING
TOPEKA, KANSAS 

"History is Philosophy Teaching by Examples"

PUBLISHED BY
RICHMOND & ARNOLD,
GEORGE RICHMOND; C. R. ARNOLD.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS,
1905.

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