Robert Lee Baker, Hinds Co., MS., then Assumption Parish, Louisiana Submitted by Mike Miller ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** Robert Lee Baker. Lying two miles south of Napoleonville is a 3,000-acre property known as Madewood Plantation, which is being cultivated and operated along the most highly approved modern lines. The owner and operator of this valuable stretch of land is Robert Lee Baker, who has followed the vocation of planter and manager all in his life, and who has found time to engage in public affairs, having become president of the police jury of Assumption Parish since 1920. Mr. Baker was born October 28, l868, near Cooper's Well, Hinds County, Mississippi, and is a son of Everard Green and Sallie (Fleming) Baker. The Baker family originated in England, where for the greater part they were seafaring people, John Baker being an admiral in the English navy. 0n coming to America during Colonial times the family first settled in Pennsylvania, principally at Philadelphia, whence members went to New Jersey. In the latter state was born the grandfather of Robert Lee Baker, Thomas Baker, who in young manhood made his way to Jefferson County, Mississippi, and there became an extensive cotton planter. He died at Church Hill in that state. His wife was Eliza Green, who was born in Jefferson County, Mississippi, and died at Church Hill. She was a daughter of Everard Green, who was born in Virginia and died in Jefferson County, Mississippi. He was a very prominent citizen and leading planter of his day, and it was at the home of his brother, Thomas Green, that President Andrew Jackson married the charming Mrs. Rachel Bovards. Thomas Mardson Green, the father of Everard Green, fought as a soldier of the Revolution, and this accounts for Robert Lee Baker's membership in the Louisiana chapter, Sons of the American Revolution. Everard Green Baker was born in 1827, at Church Hill, Mississippi, and died at Hazelhurst, in that state, in 1890. He was reared at Church Hill and was given good educational advantages, attending public and private schools and Bardstown (Kentucky) College, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Instead of choosing one of the professions, he preferred to fo1low in the footsteps of his father, and for a the was a cotton planter in Jefferson County, Mississippi. Later he moved to Panola County. Mississippi, where he purchased a plantation on the Tallahatchie River, then to Hinds County, in the same state, where he was an extensive cotton planter, and finally, about 1876, moved to Hazelhurst, where his death occurred. He was a democrat in politics, and in religious faith an Episcopalian and strong supporter of the church. He served throughout the war between the states under the flag of the Confederacy. Mr. Baker's first wife was Laura Alexander, who was born near Natchez, Adams County, Mississippi, and died at Panola, that state. Of their children only one is now living Mary Edith, of Tensas Parish, Louisiana, the widow of Dr. Joseph W. Davenport, who was a physician. Mr. Baker's second marriage was to Miss Sallie Fleming, who was born in 1845, near Natchez, and died at Hazelhurst in May, 1921. They became the parents of the following children: Fred Nash, of Hazelhurst; Alice Jeannette, who died at Glancy, Mississippi, aged fifty years, as the wife of A. Z Hall, capitalist and general business man of Glancy; Robert Lee, of this review; Martha Gordon, who died of pneumonia aged fourteen years; John F., who left home and all track of whom has been lost; Lizzie Antonia, the wife of Wade H. Lowe, a building contractor of Hazelhurst; Sallie Belle, the wife of Mr. Rowe, a citrus fruit grower of Florida; William C., an attorney, residing near San Antonio, Texas; Nellie, who married H. Allen Marsh and resides at Kenner, Louisiana, where Mr. Marsh is a lumber merchant; and Edwin Otis, a sawmill superintendent of Urania, Louisiana. Robert Lee Baker received his education in public and private schools in Copiah County, Mississippi and was reared on his father's plantation, where he remained until 1990. In that year he became assistant manager of a cotton plantation in the parish of Tensas, and continued to be thus occupied until 1893, when he removed to Assumption Parish where he was a plantation manager until buying Madewood plantation in 1916. This is situated two miles south of Napoleonville and comprises 3,000 acres, of which 1,000 acres are under cultivation. He is also a director of the Bank of Napoleonville and president of the South Louisiana Fair Association at Donaldsonville. During the World war, Mr. Baker helped in all the drives for Liberty Loans, Red Cross, etc., and in addition to contributing generously to all funds and war organizations was deputy food administrator of the parish of Assumption. Politically a democrat, in 1920 Mr. Baker was elected president of the police jury of the parish of Assumption, and in 1924 was re-elected for a period of four more years. He belongs to Christ Episcopal Church of Napoleonville and is a vestryman thereof. Fraternally he is affiliated with Assumption Lodge No. 307, Free and Accepted Masons, of Napoleonville, being a past master of the lodge; Ascension Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, of Donaldsonville and Napoleonville Commandery, Knights Templar. 0n January 27, l897, in the parish of Assumption, Mr. Baker married Miss Mary Louise Whittington, a daughter of Capt. Joseph and Mollie (Kittredge) Whittington, both deceased. Capt. Joseph Whittington was formerly a lawyer at Napoleonville. Mrs. Baker died un August, 1901, leaving three children: Joseph Kittredge, a graduate of West Point Military Academy, and now a first lieutenant in the United States Cavalry, stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas; Ralph Douglas, a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, who resigned from the service in 1922 and is now in the employ of the Standard Oil Company at Seattle, Washington; and Mary Louise, a graduate of Randolph Macon College, Lynchburg, Virginia, who is a teacher in the Norfolk(Virginia) High School. On August 1, 1910, Mr. Baker married at Cincinnati, Ohio, Miss Augusta Mills, daughter of Walter and Abbie(Steele) Mills, both deceased. She is a graduate of Agnes Scott College, Augusta, Georgia. A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 380, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.