This file was submitted by Cheryl McCollum,
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,
HON. GEORGE COLEMAN BAKER, of Morgantown, one of West Virginia's prominent native sons, represents a pioneer family of Monongalia County, and has won individual distinction at the bar and in the domain of public affairs. His associates refer to him as a conscientious and as an able lawyer, a thorough scholar and a dignified, accomplished and unassuming gentleman. Mr. Baker represents the fifth generation of the American branch of the family, and members of the successive generation are taken up in chronological order in the following paragraphs.
I. Peter Becker, whose descendants adopted the present spelling of the family name, came to this country about 1740 and settled in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He probably came over on the ship Loyal Judith from Rotterdam,
"Commander Lovell Painter," November 25, 1740. In the ship's list his age is given as twenty-two.
II. His son, George Baker, who was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, February 6, 1762, was founder of the family in what is now West Virginia.
After the Revolution, in which he was a veteran, he traveled westward and southward until he reached what is now known as Cheat Neck, Union District, locating on land at that time partly occupied by the Indians and upon which land are the remains of an old Indian graveyard. He was a gunsmith by trade, and later owned two properties on High Street in Morgantown, one now occupied by Orr's store, the other by W. E. Price's brick business block. George Baker, who died June 27, 1844, at the age of eighty-two, married Elizabeth Norris, who was born January 5, 1771, and died October 13, 1857, aged eighty-six. She was a daughter of William Norris, from whom she inherited the Baker farm. William Norris obtained the original tract of 400 acres under George III of England in 1772, and deeded it to his daughter, Elizabeth Norris Baker, and her husband, George Baker.
III. John N. Baker, one of the twelve children of George and Elizabeth, was born July 17, 1801, died, and was buried July 17, 1894, at the advanced age of ninety-three. He was a man of self-reliance, rugged character, intense honesty and untiring perseverance, and recognized widely as one of the strong characters of his generation. This was exhibited in his relationship to the church of which he was a leader, the Methodist Protestant. His early opportunities for education were necessarily meager, yet his native ability made him recognized as the finest mathematician in the county. He lived his long life honored and respected. On June 29, 1823, he married Nancy Norris, who was born June 6, 1801, and died May 11, 1863. They lived on the Baker homestead, to which he fell heir as the oldest son of George and Elizabeth Norris Baker. By his wife, Nancy, he was the father of ten children. After her death John N. Baker, in his old age, married her sister Elizabeth, better known as Aunt Betsey. There were no children by this union. The family of Nancy and Elizabeth Norris were not related to William Norris, whose daughter married the first George Baker.
IV. Andrew Coleman Baker, father of the Morgantown lawyer, was born January
20, 1832, on the old home farm, and died June 14, 1863. He was a man of attainments and high Christian character and possessed many worthy traits.
During the Civil war he served for a time in the State Militia, and died while that struggle was in progress. March 6, 1860, he married Hannah A.
Vance, who was born August 6, 1841, daughter of the late Col. Addison S. and Mary (Sturgiss) Vance. She was a lineal descendant of John Lincoln, who was a Revolutionary soldier and a distant cousin of President Lincoln. Her father, who was born in Frederick County, Virginia, in 1812, and died in Morgantown in 1883, moved to this city in 1835 from Uniontown, Pennsylvania, where he had learned the hatter's trade, and for many years he manufactured hats in Morgantown. From 1847 to 1851 he was owner and proprietor of the old National Hotel (now the Peabody). He exchanged his city property for a farm (now the West Virginia University Experiment Farm) and successfully operated it for several years, until he retired.
George Coleman Baker was born at the old Baker homestead in Union District of Monongalia County March 4, 1862. His father died, as noted in 1863, and his mother then removed to Morgantown, where his first advantages were secured in the city schools. He continued his education in West Virginia University, graduating A. B. in June, 1883. The following year he read law with the firm of Berkshire and Sturgiss in Morgantown, and then entered the law department of West Virginia University, receiving his LL. B. and A. M. degrees in 1886.
Immediately after graduating he passed his examination before the Supreme Court of West Virginia at Wheeling and received his license to practice law from that court.
January 1, 1887, Mr. Baker became a member of the law firm of Berkshire Sturgiss, thereafter known as Berkshire, Sturgiss & Baker until January 1,
1889. At that date he formed a partnership with Hon. Frank Cox. Mr. Cox then assumed the duties of prosecuting attorney and appointed Mr. Baker as his assistant, and when Mr. Baker was elected to succeed Mr. Cox as prosecuting attorney, January 1, 1893, he appointed Mr. Cox as his assistant.
Their law partnership has been one of mutual profit and advantage for over thirty-three years, the only interruption being two years when Judge Cox was on the bench of the Supreme Court of West Virginia.
March 4, 1909, Governor W. E. Glassock appointed Mr. Baker judge advocate general of the State of West Virginia, with the rank of brigadier general on his staff, an office he filled four years. In and outside of his profession he had exercised a prominent influence in public life, and has welcomed opportunities to use his abilities in behalf of the welfare and betterment of community and state. Especially noteworthy was his part in the struggle for equal taxation during the period when that important question was before the people. Those familiar with the history of the movement credit his efforts with having had a material bearing on the final settlement. For over a period of three years he participated in the public discussions carried on through the press of the state, and also by his arguments before the state courts, and thus was active in the campaign to educate public sentiment, which finally resulted in the legislative enactment providing for tax reform.
This act provided for the taxation of leaseholds for coal, oil and gas which had never before been subject to taxation under the laws of West Virginia, though representing vast millions of untaxed wealth. Mr. Baker has found other important duties and responsibilities in social and religious organizations. He is a member and for many years a trustee of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
September 4, 1889, he married Miss Juliette Boyers. Her father was the late Hezekiah C. Boyers, a minister of the Methodist Protestant Church. Her mother, Elizabeth M. Brock, was the daughter of Rev. Fletcher and Rachel (Stevenson) Brock. Mrs. Baker, who is a graduate of the Morgantown Female Seminary, was prior to her marriage a teacher in the Morgantown High School and in Marshall College at Huntington. In later years, with some relief from the cares and the duties of home and motherhood, she has taken a prominent part in church and social affairs, and is widely known over the state in the Daughters of the American Revolution, having held the office of State Chaplain, Chapter Regent of the Elizabeth Ludington Hagans Chapter D. A. R.,
and has been a member of various state committees of this organization. Mrs.
Baker is the proud possessor of a sixteen hundred hour badge for work during the World war. Mr. and Mrs. Baker have a son and two daughters, constituting the sixth generation of this family.
The son, Charles George Baker, born July 4, 1890, graduated from high school in 1907, then entered West Virginia University as a classical student and cadet, and received his A. B. degree in 1911 and his law degree in June,
1913, and at graduation was also major in the Cadet Corps. For four years he was a partner of Stanley R. Cox in the prosecuting attorney's office, and is now a member of the law firm of Baker & Posten and is assistant prosecuting attorney. For a number of years he has been in active work in the Boy Scouts movement and in other civic organizations, is a steward in the First Methodist Episcopal Church and affiliated with the Odd Fellows and Masons.
July 16, 1913, Charles G. Baker married Charlotte Amy Blair. Her father, William F. Blair, of Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, was for several years a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature. Charlotte Amy Blair, who was born February
25, 1892, was educated in Beaver College in Pennsylvania, is a vocal graduate of West Virginia University and continued her musical studies in voice at Boston. Charles G. Baker and wife have two children: Mary Jane baker, born October 24, 1915, and betty Sure, born November 27, 1917.
The older of the two daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Baker was Grace Juliette Baker, who was born March 21, 1893, she completed her education in the Morgantown High School, West Virginia University and Washington College in the District of Columbia, and life held out its greatest promise to her when at the age of only twenty-five, she passed away March 26, 1918. She was a member of the Episcopal Church.
The younger and surviving daughter, Marguerite Baker, was born January 20,
1897, graduated from high school in 1914, in June, 1916, graduated from Rye Seminary in New York, and received a degree for work in piano at West Virginia University in June, 1917. She then entered Smith College at Northampton, Massachusetts, the largest woman's college in the United States, and June 14, 1921, graduated with the Bachelor of Arts degree and "Musical Honors." She was married to James Offutt Lakin, son of Hon. James S. Lakin, of Charleston, West Virginia, on Wednesday, December 21, 1921.
0 comments:
Post a Comment