Posted on: Tippecanoe Co. In Bios Forum
Board URL:
http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/In/TippecanoeBios?read=402
Surname: Baker, Ellis, Gladden, Whitten
-------------------------
Biographical Record and Portrait Album of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, pp.
511-512
Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois, 1888
DR. REUBEN BAKER, formerly of Stockwell, was one of the prominent and widely
known pioneers and professional men of Tippecanoe County. He was a native
of Somerset County in the State of Maine, where he was born February 11,
1811, was the second son of REUBEN and HANNAH (WHITTEN) BAKER, who were
natives of the same State, and who in 1817 moved to the then far west,
and settled in Butler County, Ohio, and subsequently (about 1829) removed
to Montgomery County, in the same State, where the subject of this sketch
received his early education and grew to manhood. He was educated at Cincinnati,
where, even at that early period the facilities for imparting instruction
was very good, hence the doctor enjoyed a better education than most men
of his time. He chose the science of medicine for his profession, and studied
at Alexander, also at Union, Miami County, Ohio, where he practiced his
profession for some time before coming to Indiana.
About 1831 he came to Tippecanoe County, and located at Concord, where
he practiced medicine successfully for a number of years. On the 20th of
June, 1839, he married MISS CATHERIN GLADDEN, a daughter of JOSEPH and
HANNAH (ELLIS) GLADDEN, who were among the very early settlers of this
county. About 1844 he bought a farm, intending to turn his attention to
agricultural pursuits, but so firmly had he become established in the confidence
of the community, that the professional duties forced upon him occupied
all or most of his time. Where the thriving village of Stockwell now stands
the doctor resided for a number of years, the then hamlet being known as
Baker's Corners. Having acquired a considerable fortune by the practice
of his profession he removed in the fall of 1860 to Frankfort, intending
to engage in the banking business, but, on the breaking out of the Civil
War in 1861, he abandoned that idea, and decided to invest his funds in
the better security of real estate, and bought a large tract of land at
Wyandotte, where he carried on farming on a large scale; also milling,
owning then one of the largest flouring mills in the State. In 1866 he
sold this valuable property, and in 1868 removed to Stockwell. He was elected
to the Legislature of Indiana in 1869, and served one term, after which
he returned to Wyandotte,--that estate having fallen into his hands again,--requiring
his personal supervision. In 1878 he again took up his abode at Stockwell,
where he resided till the time of his death, which occurred from mental
paralysis, January 6, 1881.
His was a busy life of usefulness, marked by an honesty of purpose, and
uprightness in all his dealings and a character worthy of emulation. A
successful businessman who had amassed a large fortune, being at his death
owner of about 800 acres of splendid land, besides town and village property.
In his early life he was a Whig, and strong abolitionist, and subsequently,
an active supporter of the Republican party from its organization till
the time of his demise. He was a zealous Abolitionist at a time when there
were but on e other and himself in the county and when it cost something
to be one. The incident that led him to have such decided anti-slavery
views, he frequently related in after life, with some degree of pride,
and it is worthy to mention here. His father was a ship carpenter, and
had charge of a shipyard in Cincinnati when the doctor was yet a boy. One
day a stranger came to the yard seeking employment, and being respectable
in appearance, MR. BAKER hired him, and he proved to be very sober, industrious
and exemplary in all his habits, and to all appearances was a white man,
without any African blood in his veins; but after he had been at work a
few weeks, a southern planter appeared on the scene, and claimed him as
his property, and having brought witnesses to prove his claim, he could
not be prevented from taking him back into bondage under the fugitive slave
law then in existence. This inhuman act so annoyed young BAKER, that he
then and there made a solemn vow that he would oppose the institution of
slavery all his life, or till it was abolished. This vow his sacredly kept,
and at all time and upon all occasions, both in public and private life,
he vigorously opposed the accursed institution. He lived to see the broad
principles of freedom and justice, that he had so faithfully fought for,
embodied in the Constitution of the United States. He was a Liberal in
the truest sense of the word, with charity for all and malice toward none.
He was a prominent member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and a member
of the Masonic order. Few men were so well or favorably known and respected.
His widow, MRS. BAKER, to whom we are indebted for the information contained
in this sketch, is a bright, intelligent lady, and is now comfortably situated
in a pleasant home in Dayton.