Bio: John Henry Baker, Franklin Parish, Louisiana Submitted by Mike Miller ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** Hon. John Henry Baker. Among time substantial men of Franklin Parish, one who has contributed to the beauty and prosperity of his community while advancing his personal interests is Hon. John Henry Baker, proprietor of the handsome and productive Nashdale Plantation. located in the Delhi community. For nearly a quarter of a century he has served as a member of the police jury and during this time has been instrumental in effecting many improvements that have aided its citizens to the acquirement of better things. Mr. Baker was born on his present plantation, September 14, 1871, and is a son of Bushrod Washington and Eliza (Nash) Baker. His maternal grandfather was Newton Nimrod Nash, for whom time plantation was named, who came from Alabama in 1854, and bought and developed considerable land in Ward 5, Franklin Parish, and around the present location of Crowville. Bushrod Washington Baker was born in Alabama and during the war between time states served with time Alabama troops in the Confederate army. Later he became a commission merchant at Mobile, whence he came to Louisiana and engaged in planting, also taking a prominent part in public life and finally being elected from Franklin Parish to the State Legislature, in which body he served one term. He died when his son, John Henry, was eleven years of age, his widow surviving him until 1911, when she passed away at the age of seventy-two years. They were the parents of six children, of whom two grew to immaturity: John Henry and Lola. The latter, who is now deceased, was the wife of W. R. Vivrett, an attorney of Weatherford, Texas. At the time of the death of her husband, Mrs. Baker moved to Tharp Springs, Texas, in order to secure better educational advantages for her son, who attended Adrian College at that place. In 1893 he returned to Louisiana to take personal charge of the home place, and since then has opened many acres, now having 2,000 of his 3,500 acres under a high state of cultivation. He has built a modern home, one of the most beautiful in the Parish of Franklin, and no plantation in Louisiana has a better class of tenant houses. It has always been his desire to keep his labor contented and happy and to surround his tenants with as many comforts as possible. As a result he is greatly popular, and his work has served as an example to other landowners in aiding modern methods and sanitation. An evidence of his progressive and enlightened views is found in the fact that he was the first to introduce and use modem road building machinery in the parish. For twenty-four years Mr. Baker has been a member of the police jury of the parish, and in point of service is the oldest official of this kind in Franklin. He is a charter member of the Bank of Delhi and a member of the board of directors of the Macon Ridge National Bank. He has never cared for lodge membership or for participation in secret organizations of any nature. In 1896 Mr. Baker was united in n-marriage with Miss Louise Lanning, a daughter of W. A. Lanning, of Mexia, Texas, and to this union there has been born one son, John Henry, Jr., born in 1910, who is now attending Central High School. Mrs. Baker is a member of the Presbyterian Church. NOTE: The referenced source contains a black and white photograph of the subject with his/her autograph. A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 23-24, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.