Grant County, West Virginia Biography of Hon. Robert W. BAKER This file was submitted by Elizabeth Burns, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc. Chicago and New York, Volume II, pg. 210-211 Hon. Robert W. Baker. There are certain individuals who seem always to have time to carry on progressive enterprises and movements, whether of a private or public nature. Hon. Robert W. Baker is pre-eminently one of this class, and fortunately for the advancement of his community's best interests does not stand alone. He belongs to the group of able citizens whose civic interest is equal to their business and professional enterprise and who are devoting every energy possible to the improvement of the public service. A man of broad education and fine, sympathetic nature, as well as of strength and capability, Mayor Baker is admirably fitted to be identified with the progressive guard of such a city as Petersburg. Mayor Baker was born September 8, 1880, in the house at Petersburg which he now occupies as his home, and is a son of Bernard J. and Mary C. (Welton) Baker. His grandfather, Eli W. Baker, was born in Pendleton County, Virginia (now West Virginia), in 1809, and came to what is now Grant County as a young man. Near Petersburg he was united in marriage with Miss Frances Shobe, a daughter of Jacob Shobe, one of the early farmers of this region and subsequently established a hat shop at Petersburg, having learned the hatter's trade at Franklin. In politics he was first a whig. When the issue of the War Between the States came up for discussion, he sympathized with the South, but refused to follow to the extent of the secession, although his son James W. went into the Confederate Army and served throughout the struggle in the uniform of the "grey." Eli W. Baker died in 1881, at the ripe age of seventy-two years, the same age as that at which his wife died, although she lived five years longer. They were the parents of the following children: James W., the Southern soldier, who spent his private life as an agriculturist; Catherine, who married George W. Moomau and spent her life at Petersburg; Carrie, who became the wife of William Clark and died at Petersburg; Bernard Jacob, the father of Robert W. Baker; Edward C., a resident of Petersburg; Margaret, who died at Petersburg, unmarried; Henry F., also of this place, a notary public and court commissioner; and Virginia, the wife of Hon. Lewis J. Forman of Petersburg. Bernard J. Baker, cashier of the Grant County Bank was born at Petersburg, March 9, 1849 and spent his more than seventy years of life within the limits of this community. He grew up in the home of a hatter, but his father abandoned that trade after the close of the war between the North and South and turned his attention to merchandising, being at the time of his death a member of the firm of Baker and Company, in which his son was associated with him. Bernard J. Baker was educated in the school common to the community of Petersburg, this being supplemented by a commercial course in Eastman's Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York. When he went into business it was as a merchant in association with his father, and after the elder man's death he continued the business under the firm style of Baker and Company. This enterprise is still in existence and Mr. Baker has been engaged as a businessman in that and other fields for more than fifty years, within 100 feet of the bank where he is now on duty as cashier. Mr. Baker became actively identified with banking affairs when he organized the Grant County Bank, the first banking house in Grant County, this being opened in 1902. Prior to this time the banking of this region had been done at Moorefield and Keyser, but the organization of the Petersburg institution, concentrated banking largely at this point from far and wide. The bank was originally capitalized at $25,000 and was increased to double that capital in 1908. The first president was Lewis J. Forman, the first vice president, J.W. Day and the first and only cashier, Mr. Baker. The presidency, likewise, has never changed, but there have been several vice presidents, A.A. Parks, W.A. Ervin and the present incumbent D.P. Hendrickson. In his politics Mr. Baker voted first for president in 1872, when he cast his ballot in favor of Horace Greeley. In 1876 he voted for Samuel J. Tilden and four years later for Gen. W.S. Hancock, and in 1884 helped to elect the first democratic president after the Civil war. He has continued to support the same ticket without interruption every since. Mr. Baker was prone to political activity as a young man and in 1876 was elected to the State Senate, where he spent four active and useful years, being present at the two sessions of the body and a member, among others, of the judiciary and educational committees. In the matter of electing a United States senator he supported the candidacy of Hon. John McGraw of Taylor County. Mr. Baker has kept aloof from secret orders. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church and one of its elders, a capacity in which he has served for many years, and is the oldest member of the congregation as well as the oldest member of the Official Board in point of service. On November 25, 1875, at Petersburg, Mr. Baker was united in marriage with Miss Mary C. Welton, a daughter of Solomon and Sarah (Clark) Welton, Mr. Welton having been an early merchant of Petersburg. Mrs. Baker was born in what was then Hardy County, but is now Grant County, as was her father. She and her husband are the parents of two sons: Bernard, a merchant and farmer at Petersburg and Robert W. After completing the public school course at Petersburg, Robert W. Baker enrolled as a student at Potomac Academy, Romney and graduated from that preparatory institution at the age of nineteen years. At that time he entered upon the study of law at Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia and in 1904, satisfactorily passed the bar examination at Morgantown, given by the law faculty of West Virginia University, and his license to practice law was issued by the Supreme Court of the state. He began his professional career at Petersburg, among the neighbors and acquaintances of his boyhood and later life, and tried his first case in the Circuit Court. His practice has been largely of a general character, although the defense of those charged with crimes has constituted a considerable proportion of his work, and through his able qualities as a lawyer and his stable, popular traits as a man he has continued his progress both in the development of a professional reputation and a profitable legal business. Ever since the attainment of his majority, Mr. Baker has been a factor in local politics. As a leading democrat he has been party chairman of Grant County, has been the county's representative on the senatorial and congressional committees and attended all the conventions of his party while the convention system was in vogue. He was a spectator at the Baltimore convention that nominated Woodrow Wilson for the presidency, as well as the convention at St. Louis that gave the nomination to Judge Alton B. Parker in 1904. Mr. Baker was first elected mayor of Petersburg in 1909, and served for five consecutive terms, during which almost all of the public improvement done in the city was accomplished, including the installing of water and sewer systems and an electric light plant, the building of sidewalks, etc. and all of this at an expense that was worthy of much credit for the administration's economizing power. He left the mayor's office in 1914 and was absent until January 1, 1922, when he was the unanimous choice of the city for the mayoralty. The preceding city administration had voted a bond issue of $12,000 for improvements in the sewers, water and walks, and this money is being expended by the administration in the construction of these various improvements. Mayor Baker is attorney for the Baltimore and Ohio Railway Company at Petersburg and has numerous other important connections. On February 29, 1908, Mr. Baker was united in marriage at Petersburg with Miss Cornelia S. Taylor, a daughter of John E. and Annie (Wilson) Taylor, of Hampshire County, West Virginia and North Carolina respectively. Mr. Taylor was a tanner by trade and conducted and for a time operated the Petersburg tannery. Mrs. Baker is one of nine daughters in the Taylor family and was educated in the public schools. To Mr. and Mrs. Baker there have been born the following children: John Bernard; Robert W. Jr.; Wilson, who died at the age of five years; Bettie; Edward; William, who died at the age of one year; McDonald; Paul; and Cornelia. ==== WV-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List ==== ********************************************************************** WV-FOOTSTEPS/USGENWEB NOTICE: These messages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. **********************************************************************