OBITUARY: John Follett; Batavia, Genesee co., NY 
surname: Baker, Cowdin, Weeks, Hewitt, Hartley

submitted by Marny Howe (marnyhow @ wa.apana.org.au) 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.org/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.org/ny/nyfiles.htm

This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/nyfiles/
File size: 4.2 Kb
************************************************
Batavia Daily News, 16 May 1898

DR. JOHN FOLLETT BAKER
OLDEST PRACTICING PHYSICIAN IN BATAVIA DEAD
Demise From the Effects of Old Age of One Who Had Been a Resident of Batavia 
For Half a Century - Events of a Well Spent Life, Which Began in 1815.
Dr. John F. Baker, a practicing physician in Batavia since 1848, and the
oldest in town, died at 7 p.m. yesterday of old age at his home, No. 2 Bank
street, in the 88d year of his age.   He had been in falling health since last
fall, but he continued the practice of his profession up to the day before he
was obliged to take to his bed, four weeks ago yesterday.   He retained all of
his faculties up to last Friday afternoon, when he suffered a chill and
immediately afterward lapsed into an unconscious state, from which he never
fully roused.   

He was visited during his last illness by several Buffalo and Batavia 
physicians, all of whom agreed that he was entirely free from disease, his 
trouble being a general breaking up caused by old age.

John Follett Baker was born at Roxbury, Delaware county, on September 14, 
1815.  When but a mere boy he resolved to study medicine and while a pupil in
a district school he secured and mastered various works on physiology and 
anatomy.   He graduated with high honors from the Geneva (N.Y.) Medical 
College, an allopathic institution, on January 21, 1830, and is said to have 
been at the time of his death one of the oldest practicing physicians not only 
in the State, but in the country.   In 1847 he was converted to homeopathy and 
was the first physician of that school to establish himself in Batavia, and is 
acknowledged to be the oldest in the State.

The doctor opened his first office in Otselic, near his birth place, 
immediately after his graduation, and he remained in that vicinity until 1848, 
when he came to Batavia.  In 1835-37 he was School Inspector of the town of 
Roxbury and latterly was elected School Commissioner for Delaware county, but 
declined to discharge the duties of his office on account of the increase in 
his professional business.   In 1841 he was appointed Postmaster of Otselic by 
President William Henry Harrison.   At that time he was the youngest
Postmaster in the country.   At the time of his death he was the oldest living
ex-Postmaster.  For four years after he came to Batavia he was in partnership
with his brother, the late Dr. Cyrus C. Baker, and for two years his son, Dr.
John W. Baker, has practiced with him.   A treatise on cerebro-spinal
meningitis and hernia written by Dr. Baker is accepted as an authority by the
medical profession.   A number of years ago he took up the study of cancerous
diseases and evolved a mode of treatment which he had since practiced with
success.   He had been a member of the New York Homeopathic Medical Society
for many years.  He was a 32d degree Mason, having joined that order in 1854. 
He had been a member of the Good Templars since 1887.

Dr. Baker was a man who made personal friends readily, as well as friends in a 
professional way, and he enjoyed the esteem and respect of everyone in his 
community, where he has lived for half a century.  He is survived, besides his 
widow, Mrs. Jennie Cowdin Baker, and his son, Dr. John W. Baker, by three 
daughters, Mrs. James A. Weeks, of Rochester, Mrs. Henry Hewitt of Batavia and 
Mrs. Charles W. Hartley of Bath.

The funeral will be held from St. James' church at 2 p.m. on Wednesday and the 
burial will be in Elmwood cemetery.   The casket will not be opened at the 
church, but those who wish to view the remains may do so at the house between 
10 a.m. and 1.30 p.m. on Wednesday.

Additional Comments:
Dr. John F. Baker married three times and had five daughters and two sons.