Background
Baker was born in Summertown, Glengarry County, Ontario, and raised from a young age by her aunt.
Baker was born in Summertown, Glengarry County, Ontario, and raised from a young age by her aunt.
She pioneered the development of the western Canadian settlement. Her teaching career was as varied as it was wide-ranging. She first worked in Dundee, then held classes in New Jersey for a women"s school.
She moved to New Orleans not long afterwards to co-own another women"s school just before the American Civil War.
In 1878, she returned to Glengarry County to teach a private school. She accepted the offer, and trekked cross-country to arrive at the western territory in 1879.
She earned a permanent teaching grant at the mission school in 1880. In 1890, Baker relocated to the Makoce Washte reserves in present-day South Dakota, where she served as chief instructor at a school for Sioux refugees.
She remained teaching at Makoce Washte until her retirement in 1905.