Richard 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 1050-1053

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

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RICHARD BAKER. Success and prosperity do not come to the man who 
without exerting his own energies "waits for the turn of the tide." but 
rather to the man of push and progressiveness who goes at his labors 
with a determination to gain the best results. This gentleman is one 
who has entered into his work with "success" as his watchword, and has 
acquired a comfortable fortune and a good reputation. He has one of the 
largest farms in Brown county, and engages in diversified farming on an 
extensive scale. His home is one section 18, township 125, range 60, 
and his residence and other buildings mark the model country home. A 
portrait of him will be found on another page. 

Mr. Baker was born in Buckinghamshire, England, October 19, 1845, and 
is the son of George and Jane (Walker) Baker, both of whom are 
deceased. At the age of twelve years he crossed the ocean with his 
parents and landed at New York, going from thence to Oswego county, New 
York, where they established their home. Our subject enlisted August 8, 
1864, in Company A, One Hundred and Eighty-fourth New York Volunteer 
Infantry. He was engaged in the battle of Cedar Creek and was later 
placed on guard duty, the regiment protecting the flank of the main 
army. He was mustered out of the service in July, 1865, and two years 
later went to Michigan and purchased land, and engaged in farming 
fourteen years, in Ionia county. He went to South Dakota in the spring 
of 1882, and in May of that year made filing on his homestead, when his 
family joined him and were duly installed in a frame house, 18x24 feet, 
which forms part of his present residence. He now possesses nine 
hundred and sixty acres of land, and crops annually from one thousand 
to one thousand two hundred acres of land, and during late years has 
become extensively engaged in stock raising, the Hereford breed of 
cattle being his leading stock. 

Our subject was married in 1873 to Miss Charlotte Catt, a native of 
England. To Mr. and Mrs. Baker the following children have been born: 
George; Bert, deceased; Walter; Hattie; Charles; Emma, deceased; Harry; 
Jennie and Arthur. Mr. Baker has been a close student of the questions 
of the day, and is a man of advanced thought. The class rule of his 
native country has stirred him to a study of those topics, and he is an 
advocate of reform. In political belief he inclines toward the 
Democratic principles, and stands for social reform. He favors the 
state control of the liquor traffic, and also advocates equal suffrage, 
and is a man who wields an influence for good in his community. During 
his residence in Claremont township, Brown county, he has ever been 
found on the side of right and justice, and he has become well known as 
a man of the strictest honesty and integrity, and a man who casts his 
influence for the benefit of his fellow men. He has been loyal to his 
adopted country, and during her most troublesome times risked his life 
for her cause, and endured the privations of a soldier's life to 
preserve our Union. To such loyal citizens is due much credit and 
commendation on the pages of our history, and the position which Mr. 
Baker holds in the minds of his associates is well merited.