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THE BENCH AND BAR. William H. Baker, born in Lenox, Madison county, January 17, 1827,
came to West Monroe with his parents; studied law in Mexico and Fulton;
was admitted in 1851, and has practiced in Constantia village ever
since. He has held various important positions. FAMILY SKETCHES. William H. Baker was born in Lenox, Madison county, N. Y., January
17, 1827. Samuel P. Baker, his father, a native of Marcellus, N. Y., was
a son of Joseph Baker, who was born in Massachusetts, and whose wife was
Phoebe Elliott, of Pompey Hill, Onondaga county. In 1821 he married Mary
H., daughter of Samuel Atherton and Betsey Henny, natives of
Massachusetts and Chesterfield, N. H., respectively. In 1829 he settled
permanently in West Monroe, where he lived at the time of his marriage
and where all but their second and third children were born. Of the
family seven attained maturity and six are now living: Mary M. (Mrs.
John Rill) deceased; Olivia L. (widow of James Armstrong, of New
Hartford, N. Y.); William H. ; George O. (first), who died aged four; S.
Park, a lawyer of Youngstown, Niagara county: George O., a lawyer of
Clyde; Alonzo E., a manufacturer of New Hartford; and Ashley Delos, a
lawyer (and ex-county judge), of Gloversville. Samuel P. Baker died in
Gloversville, April 21, 1888. His wife's death occurred in West Monroe,
October 4, 1882. William H. Baker, the eldest of the sons, was educated
in the common schools and at the academies of Red Creek and Mexico,
attending one term at Red Creek and one half a term at Mexico. He was at
first a salt barrel cooper, and then a carpenter and joiner. He also
taught school four winters, his last term being at Pulaski. He studied
law with judge Cyrus Whitney of Mexico, and finished with Seth Burton of
Fulton, being admitted to the bar at Syracuse in November, 1851. The
following January he began practice in Cleveland, N. Y., but in August,
1852, removed to Constantia where he has since resided. He continued the
active practice of law until 1874, since which time he has devoted his
attention mainly to his farm of 400 acres on the west side of the
village. and bordering on the north shore of Oneida Lake. In a political
capacity Mr. Baker has been specially prominent. "Sired by :1 Whig and
nursed by a Whig mother," he naturally became a Republican upon the
organization of that party. He was elected district attorney of Oswego
county in 1862, appointed to a vacancy by Gov. Reuben E. Fenton in 1866,
and re-elected in the fall of that year, serving until December 31,
1869. In 1874 and again in 1876 he was elected to Congress from the 24th
Congressional district, comprising the counties of Oswego and Madison
and served in the 44th and 45th Congresses. In 1893 he was elected a
delegate from the 22d Senatorial District to the Constitutional
Convention, which met in Albany in May, 1894. October 27, 1850, Mr.
Baker married Sarah, daughter of William and Sarah (Boots) Barnes,
natives of England. Mr. and Mrs. Barnes settled in Constantia in 1830
where the former still resides. Mrs. Barnes died October 25, 1893. Mrs.
Baker was born in Constantia December 15, 1834. The children of Mr.
Baker are as follows: Sarah C., wife of Selah W. Hallenbeck, of
Gloversville, born February 22, 1864; William Barnes, born January 30,
1869, admitted to the bar at Syracuse in April, 1894, now a practicing
lawyer in Oswego; and Mary Adeline, born May 2, 1873, now a student at
Syracuse University. (p. 165) Source: Churchill, John C. Landmarks of Oswego County, New York. Syracuse, N. Y.: D. Mason & Company, Publishers, 1895, pp. 165 & 255. |
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