CHARLES BAKER
Charles Baker was born June 26, 1830, in Green Island parish, Canada East. His grandfather immigrated to that country from France. Charles removed to Broome county. New York, in 1849, and there received his education at Binghamton. He then went to Texas, prospecting, and worked in a saw-mill most of the time there until 1853, when he went to New Orleans. He remained there but a short time, and continued his journey to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was employed for a short time in the marble works. During the war he was employed in the Quartermaster's department. After the close of hostilities, he settled in Northumberland county, Virginia, where he was married, in 1866, to Sarah A. Denny. They removed to Iowa in the spring of 1839, and settled in Pottawattamie county, and purchased eighty acres of land four miles west of where Griswold now is. From there they removed to Grant Township, Cass county, in the spring of 1878, where his wife died the following autumn. They had five children, two of whom, Charles W., the first, and Emma J., the fourth, are dead; the others are: Mary J., James F. and William H. In September, 1880, he was again united in marriage with Maria Harris, a native of Ohio, and daughter of Israel and Mary Ellen Harris. By this union there is one child, Mattie. In 1881 he bought eighty acres of land in section 3, and later, forty acres in section 23, all of which he still owns. The family are prominent members of the Congregational church.
Contributed by Lisa Varnes-Rex from "History of Cass County, Iowa. Together With Sketches of its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens." Springfield, Ill.: Continental Historical Company, 1884, pg. 692.
