BIO: BAKER, William Joseph, Campbell Co., KY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contributed for use in US GenWeb Archives by the Kentucky Biography Project Date: Wednesday, July 10, 2002 Subject: BIO: BAKER, William Joseph, Campbell Co., KY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ******************************************************************************* USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free genealogical information on the Internet, data may be freely used for personal research and by non-commercial entities as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format or presentation by other organizations or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for profit or any form of presentation, must obtain the written consent of the file submitter, or his legal representative and then contact the listed USGENWEB archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net. ******************************************************************************* HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS, E. Polk Johnson, three volumes, Lewis Publishing Co., New York & Chicago, 1912. Common version, Vol. III, p. 1170. [Campbell Co.] WILLIAM JOSEPH BAKER, of the firm of W. J. Baker & Company, manufacturers of fly screens and sheet metal and wire specialties, Newport, Kentucky, was born on a farm in Campbell county May 26, 1866, a son of William and Lucinda (Nicholson) Baker, the father a native of Bracken county, Kentucky. Matthew Baker, grandfather of the immediate subject of this notice, was born in Pennsylvania and came while yet a young man to Kentucky, locating in pioneer times in what is now Campbell county. It is recalled as an interesting incident in the family history that he made his way down the Ohio river by means of a log raft, on which were packed such few things as he was enabled thus to bring to the new country. He located on a farm, became successful and prominent as a farmer and died at eighty-six, after a life of great activity and usefulness. His wife was Betsy Dye, a member of another pioneer family of Campbell county. She is well remembered by old residents in the vicinity of the old Baker homestead, where she died, deeply regretted by all who knew of her sterling character. William Baker, son of Matthew and Betsy (Dye) Baker, was reared and educated so far as was possible that he became a good and prosperous farmer, and the annals of his neighborhood show that he well met the expectations of his parents in the respect. He died on his homestead in 1904, aged eighty-four years. His widow is living at Clifton, a suburb of Newport. Of the four children of this worthy couple three are living. William J. Baker, second in order of birth of the children of William and Lucinda (Nicholson) Baker, was educated in common schools near his boyhood home and brought up as a farmer's boy of all work. At nineteen he entered the employ of the Standard Carriage Goods Company, of Cincinnati, which later became the Higgins Manufacturing Company of Newport. For this concern, under different organizations, he worked faithfully and intelligently for seventeen years, constantly gaining in usefulness and in earning capacity. On August 15, 1901, he engaged in business for himself in Cincinnati. The smallness of his beginning may be inferred from the fact that his entire business in its first month amounted to only forty-two dollars. Its noteworthy growth is attested by the further fact that now its average monthly aggregate is eight thousand dollars, with the prospect of soon advancing to the ten thousand dollar mark. On August 15, 1904, he moved his enterprise to Newport, where he employs about sixty men the year round. The growth of this fine manufacturing business under his management speaks well for his ability as an organizer and promoter. He has taken his place among the leading manufactures in the Cincinnati district, the products of his factory are sold throughout a wide territory and in some respects his enterprise has already attained to national reputation. In other directions Mr. Baker finds time and inclination to be active and useful. He has long been interested in building association and is a director of two. He was one of the organizers of the Daylight Building and Loan Association and of the Clifton Building and Loan Association, and was a leading spirit in the organization of the Citizens' Commercial and Savings Bank of Newport, of the board of directors of which he is a member. Of the town of Southgate, where he lives, he is one of the trustees. In his political affiliation he is a Democrat and it may be added that he is not without a recognized influence in important public movements of interest to his fellow citizens of Campbell county. It is of record that he was one of the promoters and organizers of the Newport Driving and Fair Association, of which he has been president during all its history, dating from 1909. To this now popular institution he gave five years of preliminary work, meeting objections, overcoming obstacles, smoothing the way and pushing it gradually and with great effort to certain success. He is a Knight of Pythias, identified with Eureka Lodge, No. 7 and as such is widely known in that order. In 1897 he married Miss Elizabeth Burke in Newport, a daughter of Gerhart Burke, a basket maker well known in business circles until his death, which occurred in Newport when he had attained to the fifty-second year. *******************************************************************************