Mack N. Baker Biography


	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1899. Pages 593-594

	Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998. 

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MACK N. BAKER, a prosperous agriculturist and stock raiser, was one of 
the first settlers of Faulk county, and has been one of its foremost 
citizens from the early history of that region. He is a native of Cedar 
county, Iowa, and was born July 24, 1851. His father, John Baker, is of 
English descent and moved from Ohio to Iowa in 1821, following the 
calling of a farmer. The mother of our subject, who bore the maiden 
name of Sarah Anne Howe, was born and reared on a farm in Indiana, 
where her father, Nathan Howe, settled in an early day. The family was 
of English ancestry. 

Our subject was the third in a family of ten children, and was given a 
good schooling, attending the common schools until eighteen years of 
age. He remained at home until he reached the age of twenty two years, 
and then went to Moscow, Iowa, where he clerked in the drug store of 
his cousin, Marion Baker, for a year and a half. He then farmed a short 
time, and again worked for his cousin in his general store at Lonetree, 
Iowa, and remained in his employ, overseeing his farms and mercantile 
business for five years. He went to Faulk county, South Dakota, in 
November, 1883, and took the northeast quarter of section 22, township 
120, range 68, and erected a 10 x 20 house, story and a half high. The 
following spring he moved his family to the new home, and with 
resources consisting of two mules, one horse, a plow, drag, and wagon 
he began work on his farm. He lived on his homestead about eight years, 
and then moved to the southwest quarter of section 23, township 1 20, 
range 68, where he resided until 1892, when he removed to the estate of 
Doctor S. S. Wentworth, on the northeast quarter of section 25, 
township 128, range 68. He now owns three hundred and twenty acres, of 
which one hundred acres is under cultivation and the remainder is in 
pasture. He operates eight or nine quarter-sections of land annually, 
and engages principally in grain raising, and during the last few years 
has become interested to some extent in stock raising. He now owns 
about fifty-four head of cattle and sixteen horses. His farm is well 
fenced and well stocked, and a small grove of forest trees adds to the 
beauty of the farm, as well as the entire landscape. He has met with 
success in the raising of grain, and his first crop of wheat was a fair 
yield and was raised on land twelve miles from his home. He has had 
loss of grain by hail, in 1897 losing about one thousand bushels of 
wheat, and also in 1888 he suffered a heavy loss. Shanties were the 
only dwellings to be seen at the time he became a resident of Faulk 
county, and he has helped to transform the country and improve the 
conditions almost beyond what was hoped. 

Mr. Baker was married at the age of twenty-two years to Miss Sarah Ann 
Monroe, a native of Keokuk county, Iowa. Mrs. Baker is the eldest of a 
family of five children, all of whom are well educated and several are 
teachers. Her father, John V. Monroe, was of Scotch descent, and served 
as an officer three and a half years in the Civil war. He was a farmer 
by occupation. Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Baker, four 
of whom are living and are named as follows: Earnest, an agriculturist 
in Dakota; Nellie, now Mrs. Clark Burgess, a farmer of Dakota; Maud and 
Alice. Mr. Baker is a Democrat in political faith, is an industrious 
and respected citizen, and has a wide acquaintance.