Bio:  James T. Baker, Claiborne Parish, LA
Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana
The Southern Publishing Company, Chicago & Nashville, 1890
Submitted for the LAGenWeb Archives by: Gwen Moran-Hernandez, Jan. 2000


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James T. Baker is a gentleman who has rapidly and made his way to the front
among the energetic business men of this community, and has built up a large
business that is constantly on the increase.  His birth occurred in Chambers
County, Ala., December 25, 1843, to Leroy and Mary (Cook) Baker, both of whom
were Georgians.  They were married in Alabama, and there followed farming up
to 1856, when they moved to Louisiana, and opened up a farm in Claiborne
Parish.  Mr. Baker enlisted in the Twenty-fifth Louisiana Infantry, and served
as sergeant until the close of the war, being killed at Spanish Fort after the
surrender of Gen. Lee.  His widow survived him a number of years, then she too
passed away.  J. T. Baker is the eldest of their four sons and two daughters,
and has been a resident of this parish since his thirteenth year.  In 1861 the
clash of arms caused him to cast aside personal considerations to espouse the
Confederate cause, and served with the Twelfth Louisiana Infantry until the
close of the war, being regimental musician.  He was in the fight at Belmont,
Mo., Island No. 10, Fort Pillow, second Corinth, Baker's Creek, and was in the
Atlanta (Ga.), campaign under Gen. Johnston, afterward being with Hood at
Franklin and Nashville, Tenn.  His last engagement was at Benton, N. C., and
he afterward surrendered and was paroled at Greensboro N. C.  He returned to
Claiborne Parish, La., and engaged in milling and lumbering, continuing up to
1880, when he changed his business and clerked in Athens for about three
years.  At the end of this time he purchased an interest in a mercantile
establishment, but in 1885 began doing business alone, remaining at Old Athens
up to 1887.  He then built the store building where he now is, and put in a
complete stock of general merchandise, and the trade which he has succeeded in
obtaining is in every respect satisfactory.  He increases his stock of goods
from time to time, and now has one of the most complete general mercantile
establishments in this section of the country.  His marriage, which took place
December 5, 1869, was to Miss Victoria Marsalis, a Mississippian, reared and
educated in this parish, and a daughter of P. Marsalis.  To Mr. Baker and his
wife five sons and four daughters have been born: Leon (a clerk in his
father's store), Reese, Enos, Claude, Terrel, Jennie, Addie, Gertrude and
Carrie Bell.  Mr. Baker and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal
Church South, and he belongs to the Masonic order, and is junior deacon of his
lodge.  He is postmaster of Athens, having served since 1882.

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