My Genealogy Hound

HON. WILLIAM A. BAKER, M. D. It is a well-established fact that a man of natural ability, if possessed of integrity and energy, can accomplish almost any given purpose in life. Every day furnishes examples of men who commence a business career empty-handed, and in a brief period of time accumulate considerable fortune.

Dr. Baker was born in Wayne County, Ohio, at New Pittsburgh, March 17, 1845, and is the son of James F. Baker, who was born in Grafton, W. Va., in 1809. James Baker was a tailor by occupation, and when twenty-one years of age went to Wayne County, Ohio, on horseback. He was a Captain of State militia and an Abolitionist. He died in Ohio in 1850, leaving a widow and five children, namely: Elizabeth Nicely, now deceased; Rebecca J. Warner, of Kansas; Martha J. Welcher, of Pittsford, Mich.; William A.; and Marietta V. Stevic, of Pittsford. The mother of this family of children was born near Canton, Ohio, in 1810, to the Hon. John Hull, a pioneer of Ohio, and a prominent man in the vicinity where he resided. He erected the first hotel in Ashland, Ohio, and did much toward the progress of that town. He died in Sandusky County, Ohio, since the Civil War, at the great age of ninety years. The mother of our subject, who later married Daniel Kiplinger, a farmer, bore him one daughter, Mrs. A. L. Swartz, and died in the summer of 1888. During her life time she worked faithfully in the interests of the Methodist Church.

When ten years of age. Dr. Baker was bound out for eleven years, but when the war broke out he enlisted in Company K, One Hundred and Second Ohio Infantry, as a private. After reaching Kentucky he was rejected by the United States mustering officer on account of his size, but he re-enlisted August 10, 1864, in Company K, One Hundred and Seventy-eighth Ohio Infantry. This time he was more successful, and was immediately made Corporal, distinguishing himself in the battles of Murfreesboro, and Kingston (N. C.), and participating in twenty-three other engagements. He was discharged at Charlotte, N. C., July 11, 1865, and returned to Ohio, where he attended school at Canaan, after which he began the study of medicine under Dr. James H. Wallace. Not being entirely satisfied, the young doctor took a course of lectures at Ann Arbor in 1867-68, and graduated in the Class of ‘70. After leaving college he located at Coloma, Mich., where he has practiced ever since. In 1882 he graduated from Rush Medical College, and has also finished the courses of a number of other medical societies of minor importance.

Our subject has served in various township offices, filling the office of Justice of the Peace very creditably for two years and serving one term as Supervisor. In the fall of 1886, he was elected to the State Legislature, and in 1888 was re-elected. His services became so well and favorably known, that in 1889 he was a candidate for Speaker, and also acted as Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means. The Doctor was Medical Director of the Grand Army of the Republic in 1890, and at the present time is filling a like position in the U. V. U. of the State.

The honorable gentleman of whom we write was united in marriage to Alice M. Clark, who was born in Medina County, Ohio, to Daniel and Martha (Zuver) Clark. The first-named parent was a pioneer farmer of Berrien County, and enlisted in Company I, Twelfth Michigan Infantry, as Fife-Major of his regiment. Soon after the battle of Shiloh, which is so well known in history as one of the bloodiest conflicts of the war, he took sick from exposure and died.

Our subject has four children. Jessie L. is a teacher in the Benton Harbor School, and a graduate of the college of that city. Allen W., who has been attending college and is now a uniformed guide at the World’s Exposition, is a young man of prominence and served as page in the State Legislature of 1889. The other two children bear the names of Inez W. and Dot, their names having been given them by the Woman’s Relief Corps of the State. Mrs. Baker is a delegate to Indianapolis, and is a valuable and influential member of the society to which she belongs. The Doctor is an honored member of the Ancient Free & Accepted Masons and of the Grand Army of the Republic. He also has full membership with the Knights of the Maccabees. Dr. Baker not only meets all his obligations as a physician, but is an extensive dealer in real estate and owns a valuable farm of one hundred and twenty-two acres (which is devoted particularly to the breeding of fast horses) and twenty-two acres platted in village lots in Coloma. As a successful physician, Dr. Baker has won an enviable reputation, and is accorded high esteem and confidence in this community.