J. W. BAKER
J. W. Baker was born in Jersey county, Illinois, February 22. 1843, his parents being Ira and Sarah Baker. The family, when J. W. was about seven years old, removed to Chicago and there remained one year, then returned to Lee county, Illinois. The most of the life of the subject of this sketch was spent in the country, and he received a limited education in the common schools of the "Sucker State." He is a person of natural business tact, and in 1868 went to La Salle county and engaged in mercantile trade, handling groceries, dry goods, etc. In 1877 he returned to Lee county and there remained until coming to Iowa in January, 1881. He was married in La Salle county in November, 1878, to Anna E. McDonell, a native of Pennsylvania. They have three children--Charles E., Bertha A. and Willie O. Mr. Baker is a member of the Baptist Church at Lewis, and a man who has the respect of the community in which he lives.
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. 539.
