Edward J. Baker | |
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| Born | September 30, 1868 |
| Died | January 17, 1959 (aged 90) |
| Occupation | Farmer |
| Spouse(s) | Harriet Rockwell Baker |
| Children | Henry Rockwell Baker |
| Parent(s) |
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| Signature | |
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Colonel Edward John Baker was an American philanthropist from St. Charles, Illinois, regarded highly for his generosity toward his hometown.
Col. Baker was born in St. Charles on a farm west of town to parents Edward and Martha Baker. His father, Edward Baker, was born in New York, but located in Kane County when young.
Col. Baker attended the west side school in St. Charles until he was nineteen years of age. Having an upbringing on a farm, he considered himself to be "first and foremost a farmer."
He attended Bryant & Stratton Business College in St. Louis for one year, taking a commercial course, and subsequently clerked in a hardware store in St. Charles and was connected as a part of the St. Charles Mercantile Company for one year.
At the end of that time he was appointed Inspector of Grain and Railroad as well as being made Warehouse Commissioner by Governor John Riley Tanner. Col. Baker served that position for a period of ten years under the Governors Tanner, Yates, and Deneen, until his resignation in July 1907.
Col. Baker chose not to pursue any career endeavors following 1907—but represented the Republican Party of Kane County, partook in local charities, and harbored a great interest in horse racing.
Baker was married to Harriet Rockwell, daughter of H.T. Rockwell, in St. Charles in December 1889.
Baker's sister, Dellora, married John Warne Gates in 1874. [1] He was nicknamed "Bet A Million" Gates because of a 1900 race track bet for which he actually won $600,000. Rumors raised the sum to $1 million. Gates was said to be willing to wager on anything, including which of two raindrops would trickle down a pane of glass first. [2] [3] Gates sold barbed wire, invented by Joseph Glidden and eventually started his own company to manufacture it. [4] [5] He also ventured into the steel industry. [6] Gates' oil investments led to his founding the Texaco Oil Company. [7] [8] Upon Gates's death in 1911, his fortune was left to his widow, Dellora, and son, Charlie. [9] [10] Charlie Gates died in 1913; Dellora died in 1918. [11] Dellora willed the fortune to her brother, Edward J. Baker of St. Charles, and her niece Dellora Frances Angell. [12]
He was commissioned by Governor Ruby Laffoon of Kentucky as part of the Honorary Order of Kentucky Colonels, of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, in 1935.
Greyhound, Baker's famous trotter, he purchased as a yearling in 1933. Greyhound was the winner of seventeen international records during his racing career.
Col. Baker's wife, Harriet, was two years older than he was, born in 1866. She lived to be 73, dying in 1940 of a sudden heart attack. Col. Baker was confined to Geneva Community Hospital at the time of her death, in between, and undergoing multiple surgeries. She had expressed a wish that she precede her husband in death. Mrs. Baker died suddenly, though she had been suffering from heart trouble for some years. The morning that she died, she was at home planning a cherry picking bee on the Crystal Brook Farm owned by her and Col. Baker.
The Bakers had one child, a son, they named Henry Rockwell Baker. He lived to be 23, dying in 1914 of a tuberculosis infection. His widow, Nina Carlson, remained close with the Baker family.
In 1928, Baker built the Hotel Baker in St. Charles, Illinois. The building is now on the US National Register of Historic Places. [13]
To my friends and neighbors in St. Charles:
I have been asked for a message to give you in this booklet. I will respond by saying, that if, in this my third effort to build beauty and utility in your town and mine, it will bring to you and your children happier moments and make you and them a little more pleased with this lovely old city; if it will cause you and them to think more tenderly of their home town and give them a little more pride in dear old St. Charles, then I will have brought nearer my realization of an ideal which I have held in my heart ever since it was made possible to share with all St. Charles, the beauty and utility which together make for advancement. Trusting that Hotel Baker meets your expectations and that it will be to you and your friends a fulfillment of a cherished hope, I am,
Yours for St. Charles,
Edward J. Baker
The first major donation Col. Baker made to St. Charles was the Baker Community Center, named the Henry Rockwell Baker Memorial Community Center in honor of his son Henry, who had died twelve years preceding the building's 1926 dedication.
Colonel Baker also supported the construction of the St. Charles National Bank Building and his "pride and joy," the Hotel Baker, both opened in the late 1920s.
In 1940 he donated toward the construction of a new town hall building, the St. Charles Municipal Building.
In 1952, in honor of his parents, Col. Baker gave funding for his last major project, the Baker Memorial United Methodist Church. [14]
Two years preceding Col. Baker's death in 1959, a park was dedicated in 1957 next to the Baker United Methodist Church, and was named Baker Memorial Park.
John Joseph Coughlin, known as "Bathhouse John" or "the Bath", was an American politician who served as alderman of Chicago's 1st ward from 1892 until his death. Representing the Chicago Loop and in later years its environs, he represented what was often called the "world's richest ward". Alongside his partner, fellow 1st ward alderman Michael "Hinky Dink" Kenna, he controlled the ward for most of the first half of the 20th century.
Michael Kenna, also known as "Hinky Dink", was an American politician who served as alderman of Chicago's 1st Ward from 1897 to 1923 and again from 1939 to 1943. In addition to his position as alderman he was committeeman of the 1st Ward for the Democratic Party from 1893 to 1944. Representing the Chicago Loop and later its environs in such capacities, he led what was often called the "world's richest ward". He and his partner, fellow 1st Ward alderman "Bathhouse John" Coughlin, controlled the ward for most of the first half of the 20th century.
Charles Young was an American soldier. He was the third African-American graduate of the United States Military Academy, the first black U.S. national park superintendent, first black military attaché, first black man to achieve the rank of colonel in the United States Army, and highest-ranking black officer in the regular army until his death in 1922.
Edward Dickinson Baker was an American politician, lawyer, and US army officer. In his political career, Baker served in the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois and later as a U.S. Senator from Oregon. He was also known as an orator and poet. A long-time close friend of the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, Baker served as U.S. Army colonel during both the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War. Baker was killed in the Battle of Ball's Bluff while leading a Union Army regiment, becoming the only sitting U.S. senator ever to be killed in a military engagement.
William Jenkins Worth was an American officer during the War of 1812, the Second Seminole War, and the Mexican–American War.
John Warne Gates, also known as "Bet-a-Million" Gates, was an American Gilded Age industrialist and gambler. He was a pioneer promoter of barbed wire. He was born and raised in what is now West Chicago, Illinois. He did not enjoy farm life and began offering neighbors various business propositions at an early age, including the sale of firewood to homes and to the local railroad. When he started a local grain brokerage that failed, Gates began spending time at the local railroad station and became reacquainted with the men he previously sold firewood to. He was invited to join their poker games and through this, Gates' aptitude for cards and other games of chance was developed.
The rickey is a highball made from gin or bourbon, lime juice, and carbonated water. Little or no sugar is added to the rickey. It was originally created with bourbon in Washington, D.C. at Shoomaker's bar by bartender George A. Williamson in the 1880s, purportedly in collaboration with Democratic lobbyist Colonel Joe Rickey. Its popularity increased when made with gin a decade later.
St. Paul's Church is an evangelical Anglican church in downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia, within the Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island of the Anglican Church of Canada. It is located at the south end of the Grand Parade, an open square in downtown Halifax with Halifax City Hall at the northern end.
Doctor Thomas Hinde was Northern Kentucky's first physician, a member of the British Royal Navy, an American Revolutionary, personal physician to Patrick Henry, and treated General Wolfe when he died in Quebec, Canada.
Colonel Thomas Brooke Jr. of Brookefield was President of the Council in Maryland and acting 13th Proprietary Governor of the Province of Maryland. He was the son of Major Thomas Brooke Sr. and Esquire (1632–1676) and his second wife Eleanor Hatton (1642–1725) who later remarried Col. Henry Darnall (1645-1711).
Hotel Baker is a historic landmark in St. Charles, Illinois, listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been in and out of the hotel business since 1928.
The St. Charles Municipal Building is a historic building and civic center in St. Charles, Illinois, United States. It was constructed in 1940 and donated to St. Charles, and has since served as its seat of local government. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1991.
Edward Brickell White, also known as E. B. White, was an architect in the United States. He was known for his Gothic Revival architecture and his use of Roman and Greek designs.
James Keith "Jimmy" Marshall was a Confederate Army officer during the American Civil War. Marshall commanded the wounded J. Johnston Pettigrew's brigade during Pickett's Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg and died during the assault.
Ada and Minna Everleigh, born Ada and Minna Simms, were two sisters who operated the Everleigh Club, a high-priced brothel in the Levee District of Chicago during the first decade of the twentieth century. Ada, the eldest, was born in Greene County, Virginia on February 15, 1864, and died in Charlottesville, Virginia on January 5, 1960. Minna was born in Greene County on July 13, 1866 and died in New York City on September 16, 1948.
The Star and Garter Hotel in Richmond was a hotel located in the London countryside on Richmond Hill overlooking the Thames Valley, on the site later occupied by the Royal Star and Garter Home, Richmond. The first establishment on the site, an inn built in 1738, was relatively small. This was followed by several other buildings of increasing size and varied design as the site changed from family ownership to being run by a limited company. Some of the rebuilding or extension work took place following fires that by 1888 had destroyed most of the original buildings. At various times architects were commissioned to build grand new buildings or extensions to take advantage of the famed view over the river and valley below, with the largest being the 1860s chateau block by E. M. Barry.
Mikhail Mikhailovich Kozakov was a Soviet, Russian and Israeli film and theatre director and actor.
Sherry's was a restaurant in New York City. It was established by Louis Sherry in 1880 at 38th Street and Sixth Avenue. In the 1890s, it moved to West 37th Street, near Fifth Avenue. By 1898 it had moved to the corner of 44th Street and Fifth Avenue, before moving to the Hotel New Netherland on the corner of 59th Street in 1919.
The Winchester College War Cloister is a war memorial at Winchester College, in Hampshire, designed by the architect Sir Herbert Baker. The roofed quadrangle is said by Historic England to be the largest known private war memorial in Europe. It became a Grade II listed building in 1950, and was upgraded to Grade I in 2017, as one of 24 war memorials in England designed by Baker that were designated by Historic England as a national collection.
Dellora Frances Angell Norris was an American philanthropist and heir to the Texaco fortune. She gave generously to the communities of her hometown St. Charles, Illinois, and vacation home Naples, Florida.
