BIO: Leroy Franklin BAKER, Dauphin County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by JAWB

Copyright 2006.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/dauphin/
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/dauphin/runk/runk-bios.htm
_______________________________________________________________ 

Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, 
Containing Sketches of Representative Citizens, and Many of the 
Early Scotch-Irish and German Settlers.  Chambersburg, Pa.: 
J. M. Runk & Company, 1896, pages 280-281.
_______________________________________________________________ 

  BAKER, REV. LEROY FRANKLIN, rector of St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal 
church, Harrisburg, Pa., was born in Mount Pleasant, Wayne county, Pa., 
November 26, 1848.  His father was a native of Orange county, N. Y., a 
descendant of one of the early settlers of Rhode Island.  His mother 
was the daughter of Col. Harry Mumford, an officer in the militia, and 
a descendant of Thomas Mumford, who settled in Rhode Island, and 
married Sarah Sherman, about the year 1650.  From this family sprang 
Hannah Mumford, who became the mother of Bishop Seabury, the first 
bishop of the Anglican communion in America; Paul Mumford, successively 
chief justice and lieutenant governor of Rhode Island, and Augustus 
Mumford, adjutant, who was killed during the siege of Boston, Mass., by 
a cannon shot, August 29, 1775, being the first Rhode Island officer 
who fell in the war of the Revolution; also many prominent citizens of 
Rhode Island and Connecticut.  There is evidence that the Mumford 
family descended from Hugh de Montford; the line can be traced to 
Arnulph, bishop of Metz, who died A.D. 631.
  Mr. Baker was graduated from the Ithaca Academy, Ithaca, N. Y., June 
25, 1869, and spent two years in Cornell University, being president of 
his class during the sophomore year.  He spent two years in teaching in 
his native place, and three years in study in the Divinity School, 
Philadelphia, Pa., graduating therefrom June 21, 1876.  He was ordained 
to the diaconate, in Reading, Pa., June 11, 1875, by the Rt. Rev. M.A. 
De Wolfe Howe, bishop of Central Pennsylvania; and to the priesthood in 
Scranton, Pa., December 20, 1876, by the same bishop. Immediately after 
graduation from the Divinity School, Mr. Baker was sent to Great Bend, 
Susquehanna county, Pa., to take charge of Grace church in that place.  
He remained there three years, serving also St. Mark's church, New 
Milford, during the same time.  He was called to St. Paul's church, 
Harrisburg, and took charge of that parish on July 13,1879.  From that 
time to the present writing (1896), he has remained in charge of St. 
Paul's parish.  With a single exception he is the oldest resident 
minister in the city of Harrisburg, and with the same exception he is 
the oldest resident in the Archdeaconry of Harrisburg.  He has been for 
several years examining chaplain in the Diocese of Central 
Pennsylvania, and a member of the committee on canons.  He was a deputy 
to the General Convention in Baltimore in 1892, the convention that 
completed the revision of the Book of Common Prayer; he was also deputy 
to the General Convention in Minneapolis in 1895, the convention that 
inaugurated the revision of the constitution and canons of the 
Protestant Episcopal Church.
  On June 4, 1877, he was married to Sarah E. Wortman, of Ithaca, N. Y.  
On her father's side Mrs. Baker is descended from German stock, having 
Hesse Cassel as its ancestral home. Some of her nearer paternal 
ancestors in this country are named among the Jerseymen in the 
Revolution; some were among the survivors of the Wyoming massacre.  On 
her mother's side Mrs. Baker is a descendant of Dr. Comfort Starr, who 
was born in Ashford, England, and died in Boston, in 1659.  Rev. and 
Mrs. Baker have one child, Anna May, born February 12, 1882.