While it is in the office of county judge of Blaine County [Oklahoma] that Mr. BAKER is best known to the public, having administered that position with impartial ability and efficiency since 1912, he has for more than twenty years been identified with this section of Oklahoma, having come in as a pioneer, and has lived a life of usefulness and honor as a teacher, farmer, homesteader, and has been in the active practice of law at Watonga since 1901.

Of an old American family, the BAKERS originally came from Germany and settled in Maryland prior to the Revolutionary war. Judge BAKER was born in Creston, Iowa, September 23, 1866. His father, Britton Robert BAKER, who was also a pioneer in Blaine County, was born in Maryland in 1827, and died on his homestead in Blaine County, Oklahoma, December 25, 1910. From Maryland he removed to Eastern Iowa, and was married near Burlington to Louisa Jane ANDERSON. She was born in 1832 in that portion of old Virginia now West Virginia, and died at Watonga in October, 1911. After his marriage Britton R. BAKER moved to Creston, Iowa, and in 1872 to Mount Ayr, Iowa, where he changed his vocation as a farmer to that of a merchant. He also lived in Nebraska and Kansas, and in 1887 went to Benton County, the center of the great fruit growing district of Northwestern Arkansas, and was a farmer there until 1893. In that year he joined the early colonists of Blaine County, Oklahoma, and bought a farm on which he lived until his death. As a young man he gave four years of active service in the Federal army during the Civil war, enlisting in the Twenty-ninth Regiment of Iowa Infantry. As a young man he had been an active worker in the Methodist Episcopal Church. The children were: Ulysses R., who was last heard of in 1880, and is thought to have been killed by the Indians in Arizona; Ida F., wife of William H. BOYCE, a retired farmer living at Watonga; Ira L., a blacksmith at Colgate, Oklahoma; and Judge Ed BAKER.

Judge BAKER has been identified with the new West during most of his active life. He gained his education in the public schools of Mount Ayr, Iowa, up to the time he was fourteen. He helped his father in farming a Nebraska homestead in Knox County until 1885, and then went with the family to Ness County, Kansas, engaged in farming there two years, and after removing to Benton County, Arkansas, in 1887 taught school for three years. He continued his vocation as a school teacher for one term after going to Barber County, Kansas, in 1891, and from there came to Blaine County, Oklahoma, in August, 1892. Here he first identified himself with the primary work of developing homesteads, and secured for himself a claim of 160 acres in the north end of Blaine County. That was his home and the scene of his labors as an agriculturist for ten years. In the meantime he had taught a number of terms in the local schools, and while teaching diligently pursued his studies in the law, until admitted to the bar at Watonga in 1901. In 1902 Mr. BAKER sold his farm and has since lived in Watonga. In that year he was elected county attorney, and the two years spent in that office were engaged in a creditable fulfillment of his public duties and also proved a valuable experience in his career as a lawyer. Judge BAKER conducted a large general practice in civil and criminal law until 1912, in which year he was elected county judge of Blaine County, and in 1914 was re-elected for another term of two years. His offices are now in the courthouse at Watonga.

Judge BAKER is a democrat, and fraternally is affiliated with Watonga Lodge No. 176, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Geary Chapter No. 59, Royal Arch Masons; Weatherford Commandery No. 17, Knights Templar; India Temple of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine at Oklahoma City; with Watonga Camp of the Modern Woodmen of America; and with the Knights and Ladies of Security at Watonga. In Benton County, Arkansas, in 1891, Judge BAKER married Miss Lula B. LOCKE, whose father, S. B. LOCKE, was a farmer in that part of Arkansas. Two children have been born to their marriage. Britton R., who graduated from the Watonga High School in 1913, spent the next year as a teacher in his home county, and is now a member of the freshman class of the University of Oklahoma in Norman. F. Locke, the second son, graduated from high school in 1915 and is now a teacher in the public schools at Hitchcock, Oklahoma.

SOURCE: THOBURN, Joseph Bradford. A Standard History of Oklahoma: An Authentic Narrative of Its Development. Vol. V. Pp. 2033-34. American Historical Society. 1914.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, November of 2010