Baker, Samuel F.

BAKER

Posted By: Mary H. Cochrane, Volunteer
Date: 6/27/2019 at 18:33:34

BIOGRAPHY ~ SAMUEL F. BAKER
Garden Grove Township, Decatur County, Iowa
Biographical and Historical Record of Ringgold and Decatur Counties Iowa
(Lewis Pub. Co. Chicago. (1887.)), p. 677:

"S. F. BAKER, farmer, section 36, Garden Grove Township, is one of the pioneer settlers of Decatur County, and was born in Steuben County, New York, May 23, 1820. His parents were Joseph and Mary Baker, natives of Kentucky, and of German and English ancestry, their parents on both sides having immigrated to the United States from Germany and England. They were the parents of thirteen children, five of whom are still living. The father died in April, 1848, aged sixty-four years, and the mother died in 1866, aged sixty-seven years. Mr. Baker was reared to the life of a farmer. His educational advantages were limited, as were those of most children in pioneer days. He came to Decatur County in the fall of 1850, and bought eighty acres of land, upon which he has since resided. He built the first school-house in the county. It was a rude structure, with a puncheon floor, and furniture and fixtures of a very primitive character. The nearest mill was at Edgeville, eighty miles distant, and the only mode of conveyance to the mill was an ox-cart drawn by a yoke of oxen. He frequently went to Davis City, sixteen miles away, to purchase groceries and other articles. Mr. Baker relates that the first year of his residence here he caught sixteen wolves in a steel trap, and within twenty rods of his house he shot twenty deer, and from his door he could kill wild turkeys whenever he desired one. He helped to lay out the city of Decatur, in 1852, and at that time there was only one small building in Leon, and that was a small log house, occupied by Doctor Thomas. Mr. Baker was married in Ohio, in 1851, to Caroline L. Smith, daughter of G. G. and Ada Z. (Covey) Smith, born in Steuben County, New York, in 1831. Six of their eight children are living -- Burt, residing in Texas; Louie, wife of Daniel I. Elliott, of Kansas, has two children -- Mary E. and Artie; Mollie L., wife of Henry Geesling of Kansas, has one child - Alvie; Fannie S., at home; Samuel F., and Ralph. Mr. Baker is a member of Garden Grove Lodge, I.O.O.F., and has worthily filled the school offices of his township. Politically he is a Republication."

(Submitted to the Decatur County GenWeb site by Christy Jay, email: Jaygenie@aol.com)