E. F. Baker Biography


	This biography appears on page 186 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				E. F. BAKER. 

	E. F. Baker, a representative and substantial citizen of 
Minnehaha county, South Dakota, has for the past seventeen years held 
the important position of manager of the E. A. Brown Elevator & Grain 
Company at Garretson. His birth occurred in Prince Edward Island, 
Canada, on the 6th of April, 1862, his parents being Jesse and Jane 
(Leard) Baker, who were there born, reared and married. The father, an 
agriculturist by occupation, died in 1914, and the mother passed away 
there in December, 1907. 

	E. F. Baker was reared under the parental roof and acquired a 
limited education in the common schools. In 1884, when a young man of 
twenty-two years, he left home and came to South Dakota, locating at 
Valley Springs, where he worked as a carpenter for two summers, having 
served an apprenticeship at that trade in Prince Edward Island. 
Subsequently he embarked in the butchering business at Beaver Creek, 
but his establishment was destroyed by fire in 1889 and for about three 
years afterward he was engaged in well drilling. On the expiration of 
that period he again turned his attention to the butchering business, 
conducting an enterprise of that character at Luverne, Minnesota, for 
two years. In 1898 he was placed in charge of E. A. Brown's grain 
business at Garretson, South Dakota, and in that capacity has ably 
served to the present time or for a period of seventeen years. In this 
connection he has manifested excellent business ability and sound 
judgment, his efforts contributing in no small degree to the continued 
growth and success of the concern which he represents. 

	In 1886 Mr. Baker was joined in wedlock to Miss Mary Rogers, a 
native of Prince Edward Island, by whom he had two children: Jessie 
Margaret, who died when sixteen years old; and Ethel May, who graduated 
from Yankton College in 1915. He gives his political allegiance to the 
republican party and in 1911 and 1912 served as mayor of Garretson, 
while for eight years he was a member of the school board and served by 
appointment one year on the council. Fraternally he is identified with 
the Masons, belonging to Unity Lodge, No. 130, and his wife is a 
devoted member of the Presbyterian church. During the period of his 
residence in Garretson he has become widely and favorably known and he 
holds the esteem and confidence of all with whom business or official 
relations have brought him in contact.