James McNair Baker

Background

James McNair was born on July 20, 1822, in Robeson County, North Carolina, United States. He was the sixth son and eighth child of Archibald and Catherine McCallum Baker.

Education

Baker graduated from Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina, in 1844.

Career

James McNair Baker practiced for a time at Lumberton, North Carolina, but on account of failing health, due to an attack of typhoid fever, he sought the milder climate of Florida. He came to Florida on horseback and first practiced at old Columbus, then at the head of navigation on the Suwannee River. A short time later he removed to a town then known as Alligator, and he was largely instrumental in securing its change of name to Lake City. Here his work as a lawyer brought him a reputation that rapidly spread over the state, and he became a recognized leader of the bar.

About 1852 he was made state's attorney for the Suwannee Circuit, and in the same year, he was a delegate to the Whig National Convention at Baltimore, where Winfield Scott was nominated for president. This nomination was strenuously opposed by the Florida delegation. General Scott had been in command in Florida for a time during the Indian war and had made himself extremely unpopular with the people of the state. Up to that time Florida had been one of the doubtful states, but the nomination of General Scott turned it definitely from the whig party. In 1856 Mr. Baker was nominated by the whigs for Congress, and he stumped the entire state, traveling on horseback. In 1859 he was elected judge of the Suwannee Circuit.

During the tumultuous Election of 1860, Judge Baker supported the failed Constitutional Union ticket of Bell and Everett and opposed Florida's secession after the election of Abraham Lincoln. But, once the secession ordinance passed, he loyally supported the decision of his adopted state. Judge Baker was still on the bench in 1861, when the Florida legislature created Baker County in his honor.

The following year, the same body selected him to serve as one of the state's two senators in the Confederate Congress.

He moved to Richmond, Virginia, for the duration of the United States. Civil War. Returning to Florida after the defeat of the South in 1865, Baker returned to Florida after the war and in 1866, upon the election of David South Walker as governor, he was appointed associate justice of the Supreme Court. He was on the Supreme Bench until 1868 when as a result of reconstruction measures he resigned and took up a private practice. In the following year, he earned his greatest reputation as a lawyer in the litigation growing out of the disposition of the lands of the internal improvement fund of Florida and the bonds and other indebtedness contracted by the railroads built under the terms of the act of 1855, creating that fund.

After the war, Baker was a democrat, and he served as a member of the executive committee of the state in 1876. He was prominent in redeeming the state from the terrors and misgovernment of the reconstruction period. In 1881, at the almost unanimous request of the bar of his circuit, he accepted the appointment of a judge of the Fourth Judicial Circuit. He was appointed by Governor Bloxham, and in 1885 was reappointed by Governor Perry. As a result of failing health Baker resigned from the bench in 1890, and he lived quietly until his death on June 20, 1892, when almost seventy years of age and after nearly fifty years of activity as a citizen, lawyer and statesman of Florida.

Achievements

• James McNair Baker served as a member of the Senate of the Confederate State and for many years was a member of the Circuit and Supreme Courts of Florida, is one of the first-named among the great public men of this state in the last century. Baker County Florida is named for him which was established on February 8, 1861.

Religion

Baker was a ruling elder of the Presbyterian church and often attended the church councils. In 1885 he represented the Synod of South Georgia and Florida at the Pan-Presbyterian Council in Philadelphia.

Politics

In 1856, Baker ran unsuccessfully as a Whig for the United States House of Representatives from Florida. Baker supported the constitutional unionist John Bell for president in 1860.

At first, he fully supported the policies of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, but by 1864, he developed strong opposition to the high taxes and conscription of skilled workers that imposed hardships on the states.

After the war, Baker became a Democrat.

Interests

• Sport & Clubs

  Horse Riding

Connections

In 1859, James married Fanny Gilchrist, by whom he had seven children, two of whom died in infancy.

Father:

Archibald Baker

1769-1842

Mother:

Catherine McCallum Baker

1777-1859

Brother:

John C. Baker

1805-1881

Brother:

Archibald Baker

1812-1878

Wife:

Fannie Perry Gilchrist Baker

1838-1901

Daughter:

Fannie James Baker Stockton

1862-1950

Son:

William Hoge Baker

1868-1932

Son:

James Duncan Baker

1870-1943

Daughter:

Susan Gilchrist Baker Jones

Son:

Adam Gilchrist Baker

Son:

James McCallum Baker

Son:

Robert Alexander Baker

References

• Biographical Register of the Confederate Congress
  1975
• Biographical Dictionary of the Confederacy
  1977