John T. 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. Page 266

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

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HON. JOHN T. BAKER, whose portrait appears on another page, needs no 
special introduction to the readers of this volume, but the work would 
be incomplete without the record of his life. No man in Beadle county 
has been more prominently identified with its agricultural, industrial 
and political history, or has taken a more active part in its 
upbuilding and progress. Since 1882 he has made his home on the 
southwest quarter of section 31, Richland township, and is at present 
most ably representing his county in the state legislature. 

Mr. Baker was born March 7, 1845, in Huron county, Ohio, a son of Uriah 
and Catherine (Tyndall) Baker. The father came of sturdy Puritan stock, 
while the mother was a Scotch Presbyterian. Both parents died when our 
subject was quite young, and he found a home in the family of Rev. J. 
D. Matthews, a minister of the United Brethren church, then located in 
Seneca county, Ohio, where he lived from his ninth to his seventeenth 
year. Prompted by a spirit of patriotism, he enlisted in Company B, One 
Hundred and Twenty third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in August, 1862, and 
participated in the battles of Winchester, New Market, Opequon, second 
Winchester, Fishers Hill and Cedar Creek. During the year of 1864 he 
was detached from his company to do duty in the quartermaster's 
department of Ord's Twenty-fourth Army Corps, where he remained until 
the close of the war. In the battle of New Market he suffered a slight 
shell wound, and in the battle of Winchester fate was more unkind, as 
he was captured and sent first to Libby prison and later to Belle Isle. 
He was not paroled until the last of August and not exchanged until 
December, when he rejoined his regiment. He received an honorable 
discharge at Columbus, Ohio, June 29, 1865, and then returned to his 
home in Seneca county, Ohio, with a war record of which he may be 
justly proud. 

In his youth, it had been Mr. Baker's intention to prepare for 
professional life, but as he expresses it he "had not the courage to 
begin where he left off in his studies at the time of his enlistment," 
so chose the trade of carpenter, which he has followed as a contractor 
and builder in connection with farming until quite recently. Leaving 
Ohio, in November, 1870, he went to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he 
engaged in contracting and building until 1882, which year witnessed 
his arrival in Beadle county, South Dakota. He filed a soldier's 
declaratory on the southwest quarter of section 31, Richland township, 
his post office address being Huron, and has ever since successfully 
operated his land. 

On the 19th of November, 1866, Mr. Baker married Miss Clara M. Nead, 
who was born in Quincy, Pennsylvania, March 17, 1849, a daughter of 
John D. and Eliza (Obermeyer) Nead, and of this union ten children have 
been born, namely: Anna S., now the wife of Richard Ramsdell, of Huron, 
South Dakota; Harry, who married Jennie Murray; Lottie M., wife of Ira 
S. Harding of Huron, South Dakota; Edward 0., who is serving as captain 
in the Salvation Army at Cleveland, Washington; Homer F., who married 
Louisa Voltz; Louis E.; Charles; Walter; Blanche and Clarence. 

Politically Mr. Baker has been a lifelong Republican, and is a 
recognized leader of the party in his community. He was chosen by the 
people to represent the twenty third district in the state legislature 
in 1897, and again in 1899. The latter session found plenty hard work 
for him in the discharge of his various duties as chairman of the 
committees on the correction of the house journal and federal 
relations. He was also a member of the committee to report on the 
temperance bill, considering the state control of liquors.  Fraternally 
he is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and the Union Veteran 
Union. Mr. Baker has been a resident of Beadle county for seventeen 
years and as a public-spirited and progressive citizen has given his 
support to all measures for the public good. Over his life record there 
falls no shadow of wrong, his public service has been most exemplary, 
and his private life has been marked by the utmost fidelity to duty.