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HENRY
BAKER
There are few men in
Sonoma county who have a wider acquaintance than has Henry Baker, who was
formerly and for years the chief of the Santa Rosa fire department, one of the
leaders many years ago in the organization of the Sonoma County Fair
Association, the leader of the first cornet band organized in Santa Rosa and
one of the best known horse men in this section of California. He was also for
many years engaged in blacksmithing and wagon making in Santa Rosa, where he is
now living retired in the pleasant "evening time" of his life, being one of the
honored octogenarians of the county.
Mr. Baker is a native
of Germany but has been a resident of this country since the days of his
childhood and of Santa Rosa since he was fifteen years of age and thus may very
properly be regarded as one of the pioneers of the county. He was born in
February, 1845, and is a son of William and Dorothy Baker, both of whom also
were natives of Germany and whose last days were spent at Santa Rosa. William
Baker came to the United States with his family in 1849, following the
unsuccessful political revolution which so greatly stirred his native country
in 1848. He settled in New Jersey, where he remained for six years, at the end
of which time he came to California, making the trip by way of the Isthmus, and
became a member of the Windsor settlement in this county. He was an expert
blacksmith and upon taking up his residence at Windsor opened the first
blacksmith shop at that place. Two years later, attracted by what seemed
greater possibilities at Santa Rosa, he moved his forge to the latter place and
there became established in business, continuing thus engaged until 1859, when
he sold his shop and returned east for his family. In the next year, 1860, he
brought his family to California and established his permanent home at Santa
Rosa, setting up a blacksmith shop and building a home on what is now First
Street. Two years later, seeking a more advantageous location, he moved his
shop and dwelling house to a point near the present site of the library on
Fourth street, and there he continued to follow his vocation until his
retirement when about sixty years of age.
Henry Baker was but
four years of age when he came with his parents to America in 1849 and was
fifteen years of age when he came to California in 1860. He had become
thoroughly Americanized curing his school years in New Jersey and his education
was completed in the schools of Santa Rosa. Under his father's direction he was
early trained in the blacksmith's trade, and he also became a competent wagon
maker, that being in the days before the great wagon making plants had driven
the local craftsman out of business. When he was about twenty years of age and
observing that by this time the town had grown to proportions to admit of
competition, he became associated with another young man and opened a
blacksmith shop at the corner of Third street and Hinton Avenue, the site now
occupied by the county jail. A few years later the business was moved to the
corner of Main and Second streets, where he and his partner, Bob Ross, bought
the old frame building which had been used as a meeting place for the Masonic
lodge and converted it into a wagon shop, in which they carried on at the same
time a general blacksmithing business. The concern prospered and came to became
to be recognized as the largest wagon making establishment in the county. At
the height of this energetic and prospering firm's activities their plant was
destroyed by fire, entailing a serious loss and so greatly impairing the firm's
capital that it suspended business. Mr. Baker then bought an interest in the
Smidley blacksmith shop and two or three years later bought out his partner's
interest, carrying on the business alone at the same old stand until that
property was sold, and he then moved his shop to a point on Fifth street, where
he continued operations until that building was sold to make room for a
business block. Moving his plant to a nearby point on Fifth street, he there
continued in business until his retirement in 1908.
From the days of his
youth Mr. Baker has had an earnest interest in good horse flesh and had long
been recognized as one of the most active promoters of movements dealing with
the betterment of equine standards in this section of the state. Years ago, in
association with Jack Atkins, he interested a dozen or more horse lovers in a
proposition they had carefully thought out and thus started the Santa Rosa
Fair, an institution which through the years has come to be recognized as one
of the leading local exhibits in the state. Mr. Baker also became a breeder of
trotting horses and his imported stable, headed by his famous "Jupiter," had a
much more than local reputation in its day, the animals being widely
distributed hereabout with the result of a general improvement in the strains
of horse flesh. As a boy Mr. Baker became a skilled musician and when it seemed
desirable to organize a brass band in Santa Rosa many years ago it devolved
upon him to lead in that organization, he being unanimously elected the leader
and trainer of the band, which in its day had a fine reputation for the
spirited character of its music. For many years he also was the chief of the
local fire department, back in the days when this fire fighting force was made
up of volunteers, and it is recalled that he was a very effective director of
the not altogether well equipped organization, making the most of the meager
facilities then at hand. When the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks secured
the organization of a lodge of that popular order at Santa Rosa, Mr. Baker
became one of the charter members and has ever retained a hearty interest in
its affairs. After a residence of some sixty-five years in Santa Rosa. Mr.
Baker has many interesting tales to tell of the days long gone, and when in one
of his reminiscent moods he is a most entertaining companion.
In 1872 at Santa Rosa,
Henry Baker was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Ann Colgan, who was born
in that city in 1851, a representative of one of its pioneer families. In 1922
Mr. and Mrs. Baker celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage and
the occasion was made one of general felicitation throughout this community,
for this venerable couple enjoy the esteem and affection of all. To them were
born five children, namely: Florence, who died at the age of eight years;
Emily, who married R. F. Allen and is now living in San Francisco; Rebecca, the
wife of Bertrand Stickel, also now living in San Francisco and who has three
children; Harry E. Baker, who died at the age of forty-two years; and Mrs. Ruth
E. Bradbury, now living at Los Angeles, who has one child. Mr. and Mrs. Baker
have a pleasant home at No. 17 A street and are there living in quite
comfort.
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I am not not clear where he is buried, according
to Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery, 1853-1997: A listing of burials in Fulkerson,
Moke, Rural, and Stanley Cemeteries now known collectively as Santa Rosa Rural
Cemetery (Heritage Books Inc. / Sonoma County Genealogical Society, Inc.,
Santa Rosa, CA: June 1997, revised and expanded edition of 1987 listing), page
8, there is a Henry Baker in Rural Cemetery Plot 62 (same as Henry's wife and
children) with no marker and listed as being born in 1852 (!) and dying in 1911
(the same year as his wife). An obituary for Henry Baker still needs to be
located.
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