Background
James Heaton Baker was born on May 6, 1829, in Monroe, Butler County, Ohio. When he was an infant the family moved from Monroe, Ohio, his birthplace, to Lebanon.
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
https://www.amazon.com/Minnesota-Three-Centuries-1655-1908-History/dp/137721172X?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=137721172X
journalist politician miloitary
James Heaton Baker was born on May 6, 1829, in Monroe, Butler County, Ohio. When he was an infant the family moved from Monroe, Ohio, his birthplace, to Lebanon.
The death of his mother caused him to be sent to his grandfather's home near Middletown, where studies in the local academy prepared him for matriculation at Ohio Wesleyan University in 1847. He was graduated with honors from that institution in 1852.
In 1853 after a few months of teaching, he entered the field of journalism by purchasing the Scioto Gazette of Chillicothe, Ohio. This newspaper furnished a bridge to politics, for Baker espoused the cause of the new Republican party after its establishment in 1854. In return for his vigorous support of the organization in Ohio he was placed as candidate for secretary of state upon the ticket headed by Salmon P. Chase in 1855, and, with other candidates of the party, he was elected. After the expiration of his term of office, in 1857, he removed to Minnesota Territory, then on the eve of statehood. His marked gifts as a speaker found a ready outlet in the struggle of the Republican party for political control in Minnesota. The party gained an overwhelming victory in 1859 and Baker found himself for the second time a secretary of state. Acceptable service in this position brought him a reelection. During his second term he resigned to accept the colonelcy of the 10th Minnesota Volunteer Regiment, which was being organized for Civil War service. The Sioux outbreak in the summer of 1862 delayed the departure of his regiment for the South. It was for a time assigned to frontier guard duty and in 1863 formed a part of Gen. Sibley's punitive expedition into Dakota against the fleeing Sioux and gave valiant service in the battle of Stony Lake.
After the return to Minnesota, Baker was ordered to report at St. Louis, where he was placed in command of the post and his regiment assigned to provost guard duty. When the regiment was sent to the front in April 1864 citizens of St. Louis requested that Baker be continued in command of the post, and to his regret he was separated from his regiment. Before the war ended he was made provost marshal general of the military department of Missouri and brevetted brigadier-general. After the war he spent two years at Booneville, Mo. , as register of the land office, and then returned to the farm that he had bought in Blue Earth County shortly after his arrival in Minnesota. In 1871 Grant appointed him United States commissioner of pensions, a position that he held until 1875. In his first report he called attention to the need of consolidating the more than forty laws relating to pensions and his recommendation resulted in the codification act of 1873. For four years after 1875 he held a second federal appointment, that of surveyor general of Minnesota, and did much to arouse popular interest in the state's rich iron deposits. In 1879 he purchased two newspapers in Mankato and consolidated them in the Mankato Free Press, which he published for two years. He was elected state railroad commissioner in 1881, and served as chairman of the Railroad and Warehouse Commission created in 1885. He joined the ranks of the Farmers' Alliance, and was placed on its first Minnesota ticket, in 1890, as a candidate for Congress from the second district, but was defeated. The remaining years of his life were spent in comparative retirement, though his interest in politics never waned and he frequently appeared as a public speaker. A taste for history caused him to publish several studies, including a history of transportation in Minnesota and a volume entitled "Lives of the Governors of Minnesota. The chief value of the latter work, a series of slight sketches in journalistic style, lies in the fact that the author had known each of the eighteen governors portrayed.
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
Baker was twice married: in 1852 to Rose Thurston of Delaware, Ohio, who died in 1873, and in 1879 to Zulu Bartlett, who survived him.
