BAKER, John Edwin, Rev. 1831-1920
BAKER, VOSBURG, ROBBINS, CONOVER, HALLOWELL, CAMPBELL, CUTHBERTSON, LADD, LEE, PERRY, CASS
Posted By: S. Bell
Date: 7/31/2012 at 12:36:55
[Waterloo Evening Courier - Friday, March 19, 1920, Waterloo, Iowa]
REV. J. E. BAKER
Rev. John Edwin Baker, pioneer minister in Upper Iowa M. E. conference, and father of Mrs. A. B. Hallowell of this city, died at his home in La Cygne, Kansas, March 8, 1920. Rev. Mr. Baker moved to Waterloo in October, 1865, from Wisconsin, where he had labored thru the period of the Civil war, recruiting for the union army and exhorting the people to patriotism, in addition to his other duties.
The year following his arrival in this city he began work in Upper Iowa conference, being assigned to Buckingham, and later serving at Le Grand, Shellsburg and Grundy Center.
He retired from work under the conference in 1874, but continued to preach on many occasions until 1890, when he returned to the conference and worked in Walker and St. Ansgar, retiring from active service in 1890 returning to Waterloo, where he lived until 1907 when he moved to La Cygne. On account of age and infirmities his life in the latter place was one of comparative retirement, although he conducted his business and other affairs with rare ability for one of his years. His last illness was of short duration.
Rev. Mr. Baker was born December 6, 1831, at Ancran, N. Y., the son of Richard and Catherine Vosburgh Baker, who died when he was six years old. He then made his home with his grandparents who died when he was 16. He secured his education by his own efforts, attending Amenia Seminary. In 1863 he was licensed to exhort and in 1854, while teaching at Freehold Seminary, was given a regular appointment on Freehold circuit. At the conference that year he was licensed to preach and appointed to Mount Zion, New Jersey, leaving in 1857 for Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, where he was admitted to Wisconsin conference and served at Concord and Summit, before moving to Waterloo.
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[Exerts from History of Black Hawk County, 1904, pp. 370 - 372, at which time Rev. Baker was still living]
Rev. John E. Baker, a noted biblicist and retired clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of Waterloo, Iowa, was born December 6, 1831, in Columbia County, New York, the son of Richard and Katherine (Vosburg) Baker.
The Baker family is one of the old established ones of the Empire State, where both parents of Rev. Mr. Baker were born. The father followed the trade of carpenter and had developed into an architect and contractor, with excellent prospects for the future, which were never realized, as he died at the early age of 28 years. His widow survived for a long period, finally passing away in 1900, at the home of our subject, aged 89 years, two months and 15 days. They had four children - two daughters who died in infancy, and two sons. Rev. Mr. Baker had one brother, Milton Baker, who is connected with the Trenton, New Jersey Gas Light Company as collector and solicitor. Milton Baker married Henrietta Boozer and they have three sons: William, who is manager of the California Borax Company, in New York City; Fenimore, who is president of the Thompson Chemical Company of Baltimore, Maryland; and John E., who is manager of a large boot and shoe house in New York.
In 1855 Rev. Mr. Baker was married to Rebecca Robbins, who is a daughter of Andrew and Lucretia (Conover) Robbins, of Somerset County, New Jersey. To them were born 10 children, namely: Mary, who married F. H. Campbell and has two children - Estelle, wife of William Cuthbertson, and Francis; Cathetia, who married A. B. Hallowell of West Waterloo and has two children - Clifford Ray and Mavorette; Charlotte R., deceased in 1899, who was the wife of William J. Ladd, of Traer, Iowa; Richard C., a practicing physician of Oelwein, Iowa, who married Nettie Lee and has one child - Merle; Louise, who is engaged in teaching in Texas; Isabelle M., who married F. H. Perry and has three children - Mildred, Edwin N. and Isabella; Rebecca C., who is a stenographer and bookkeeper; Edwin U., a very promising young man who was killed by the kick of a horse in 1889; Charles M., who married Nellie Cass, of Independence, Iowa, and has one child - Harold; and Esther A., who has been a teacher in the Lowell school for the past five years.
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Burial at Fairview Cemetery, Waterloo, Iowa.
Black Hawk Obituaries maintained by Karen De Groote.
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