{{Short description|American lawyer (1820–1909)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2015}} {{Infobox person | name = Floyd Perry Baker | image = Floyd Perry Baker 00601161 (cropped).jpg | alt = F.P. Baker, 1875-1880 | caption = Baker circa 1875–1880<ref>{{cite web|last1=Baker|first1=Floyd Perry|url=http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/312239|website=www.kansasmemory.org|title=Floyd Perry Baker cabinet card|publisher=Kansas State Historical Society|access-date=6 January 2016}}</ref> | birth_date = {{birth date|1820|11|16}} | birth_place = Fort Ann, New York, US | death_date = {{death date and age|1909|5|27|1820|11|16}}<ref name="Obit">{{cite news | title =An Old Timer Dead | newspaper =The Wyandotte Herald | location =Kansas City, Kansas | pages =1 | date =3 June 1909 }}</ref> | death_place = Topeka, Kansas, US | body_discovered = | resting_place = Topeka Cemetery | resting_place_coordinates = <!-- {{coord|LAT|LONG|type:landmark|display=inline}} --> | monuments = | other_names = Fred Baker,<ref>{{cite news | title =The Daily Globe | newspaper =The Atchison Daily Globe | location =Atchison, Kansas | pages =2 | date =28 August 1883 }}</ref> Father Baker | education = | alma_mater = | occupation = Newspaper editor & owner, lawyer government bureaucrat | years_active = | era = | employer = Self-employed, U.S. Government | political_party = Republican<ref name="SecInt">{{cite news | title =Politics and Politicians | newspaper =The Emporia Weekly News | location =Emporia, Kansas | pages =2 | date =24 November 1881 }}</ref> | movement = | spouse = Eliza Wilson, Orinda Searle | partner = <!-- (unmarried long-term partner) --> | children = 6 | awards = | footnotes = }}
'''Floyd Perry Baker''' (November 16, 1820 – May 27, 1909) was an American lawyer, land speculator, politician, government official, farmer, blacksmith, teacher, and newspaper editor well known for his activities as an early resident and community leader in Kansas from the 1860s until 1904 when he moved to Buffalo, New York.<ref>{{cite news|title=Bakers to Leave|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/323182436/?terms=C.C.%2BBaker|access-date=February 15, 2019|work=The Topeka State Journal|date=December 23, 1903|page=1}}</ref>
==Biography== Baker was born at Fort Ann in Washington County, New York to Lois Comfort Chaffee Baxter, age 29, and Reuben Baker Jr., age 36. Because his father, Reuben, was a district school teacher<ref>{{cite book |author=<!--author unknown--> |title=The Chaffee Genealogy|location=New York, New York |publisher=The Grafton Press |pages=[https://archive.org/details/chaffeegenealogy01chaf/page/370 371]–372 |date=1909 }}</ref> on a modest salary while supporting a wife and eleven children, Floyd was sent to live with a neighboring farmer Mathias Whitney from the age of eight until he was eighteen.<ref name="biog">{{cite news|title=The Wandering Ulysses of Kansas Journalism|newspaper=The Weekly Commonwealth|location=Topeka, Kansas|date= 28 October 1886|pages=2}}</ref>
===Early years=== In 1838, at the age of eighteen, Baker taught school for six months in Hamburg, New York. In the spring of 1839 he set up a blacksmith shop in Hillsdale, Michigan, located on Chicago Road.<ref name="biog" /> He pursued that profession for one year then moved to Troy, New York, at which he owned an agency for packet boats on the Champlain Canal and a winter stage line between Albany and Whitehall, New York, a 72-mile route.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Palmer |first=Richard |date=January 9, 2023 |title=Principal Stagecoach Routes in New York State in 1843 |url=https://www.alleganyhistory.org/index.php/culture/transportation/stagecoaches/3283-from-new-york-state-register-of-1843-principal-stagecoach-routes-in-nys |access-date=January 9, 2023 |website=Allegany County Historical Society Local History and Genealogy}}</ref> He operated these businesses for seven years.
On February 14, 1844, Baker married Eliza Folger Wilson in Amsterdam, New York. In 1847, Eliza gave birth to their son, Floyd Perry Baker Jr., in Troy, New York
About 1847, Baker entered into a contract to build two miles of the Hudson River Railroad near what was to become Irvington, New York. The venture bankrupted him.<ref name="1879Biog">{{cite book|title=The United States Biographical Dictionary, Kansas Volume|date=1879|publisher=S. Lewis & Company|pages=580–581|url=http://interactive.ancestry.co.uk/7709/BiogDict-KS-1879-0621/621?backurl=http://person.ancestry.co.uk/tree/18592285/person/28093597299/facts/citation/155145913232/edit/record|access-date=8 January 2016}}</ref>
===Wisconsin=== In 1848, Baker relocated his family to Racine, Wisconsin where he studied law and was admitted to the bar. He also farmed and ran an insurance business. In the summer of 1849, while still living in Racine, Baker's wife, Eliza died. Nearly two years later, in the spring of 1851, Baker was remarried to Orinda Searle.<ref name=Wiscvitals>{{cite book|last1=Wisconsin|first1=State of|title=Wisconsin Vital Records Index|publisher=Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services|pages=0158|edition=Volume 1}}</ref> (Conflicting with this is the 1850 U.S. Census, taken on June 1, 1850, listing Floyd and Orinda Baker living in the same household.)<ref name="1850census">1850 United States Federal Census, Year:1850;Census Place:Racine, Racine, Wisconsin;Roll:M432_1004;Page:80B;Image:162</ref>
In 1851, Albert Searle, the couple's first child was born. He died at the age of one in April 1852 in Racine. While in Racine, Baker successfully ran for the positions of Justice of the Peace and Superintendent of Schools.<ref>{{cite news|title=Town Ticket|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/46755735/?terms=floyd%2Bp%2Bbaker|access-date=7 January 2016|work=Racine Advocate|date=April 7, 1852|location=Racine, Wisconsin|page=2}}</ref>
After a 3-year stay in Wisconsin, he moved to San Francisco, California, at which he practiced law for 12 months until 1852.<ref name=ShawneeCounty>{{cite book|last1=King|first1=James L.|title=Shawnee County, Kansas and Representative Citizens|date=1905|publisher=Richmond & Arnold|location=Chicago, Illinois|pages=594–597}}</ref>
===Move to Hawaii=== In June 1853, Baker moved his family to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) where he was appointed as crown attorney and clerk of the district court of the islands. During the journey, which took the family down the Mississippi River, Floyd Perry Jr., Floyd's only child by his first wife, Eliza, died in New Orleans on January 5, 1853.<ref group=note>The circumstances of this trip are somewhat unclear as Floyd was in San Francisco for 12 months prior to it. Perhaps he was there by himself and he traveled back to Racine to pickup his family. A water trip via the Mississippi would have been a more practical way for his wife and son to get to San Francisco than an overland route.</ref> The trip took the Bakers from New Orleans to Aspinwall (Colon, Panama), the Atlantic-side terminus of the Panama isthmus railway, then to San Francisco and on the Sandwich Islands.<ref>{{cite news|title=50th Anniversary|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4061869/the_topeka_daily_capital/|access-date=17 January 2016|work=The Topeka Daily Capital|date=March 8, 1900|location=Topeka, Kansas|page=3}}</ref> In August 1853, Floyd and Orinda's second son, Nestor Reuben, was born. On May 22, 1854, Floyd, residing in Hilo, was appointed by Register of Conveyances, Asher B. Bates and approved by the governor, George L. Kapeau, to the position of Agent for the Island of Hawaii.<ref>{{cite news|title=By Authority|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/49878360/?terms=floyd%2Bp%2Bbaker|access-date=7 January 2016|work=Polynesian|date=June 3, 1854|location=Honolulu, Hawaii|page=2}}</ref>
On October 14, 1854, a notice appeared in the newspaper, The Polynesian, announcing that Floyd Baker, Esq. had been replaced as District Attorney and Clerk of the Circuit Court for the District of Hilo by Richard R. Chamberlayne, Esq.<ref>{{cite news|title=Appointment|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/49878459|access-date=7 January 2016|work=Polynesian|date=October 14, 1854|page=2}}</ref>
One of his endeavors while in Hawaii was a real estate agency. On December 30, 1854, the newspaper ''Polynesian'' published an advertisement from Floyd promoting his law office in Honolulu at the corner of Beretania and Nuuanu Streets in which he solicited legal assistance to those having "houses, stores, farms, or other real estate for sale or rent, or money to loan..."<ref>{{cite news|title=Parties in Honolulu|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/78608096/?terms=floyd%2Bp%2Bbaker|access-date=7 January 2016|work=Polynesian|date=December 30, 1854|location=Honolulu, Hawaii|page=3}}</ref>
On December 5, 1854, Baker appeared before the Chief Justice of the Hawaiian Islands Supreme Court in Honolulu to voluntarily declare bankruptcy.<ref name="Hbankruptcy">{{cite news | title =Notice of Bankruptcy | newspaper =Polynesian | location =Honolulu, Hawaii | pages =3 | date =13 January 1855 }}</ref> In February, 1855, the Baker family left Hawaii, sailing first to San Francisco, then back to the central states via the Nicaragua route.<ref name="1879Biog" />
===Back to Wisconsin=== After returning to the U.S. from Hawaii, Floyd and his family resettled in Wisconsin where his fourth son (his and Orinda's third), Clifford Coan was born in May 1853.
===Missouri=== Then, Floyd Baker moved his family to Andrew County, Missouri for several years where the couple's fourth son, Isaac Newcomb, was born in 1855.<ref group=note>This move placed Floyd and his family in close proximity to the border conflicts between abolitionists and pro-slavery supporters that led up to the U.S. Civil War.</ref> With a history of moving his household to better living conditions, Floyd moved in about 1860 from pro-slavery Missouri, to free-state supportive Kansas. As a northerner, Baker found community relations difficult in pro-secession Missouri.<ref name="buffalo">{{Cite news|last=Baker|first=Floyd|date=December 23, 1903|title=Bakers To Leave|page=1|work=The Topeka State Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/323182436/|access-date=January 28, 2020}}</ref>
===Kansas Years=== After living in Missouri, he first settled in Centralia in Nemaha County, Kansas, shortly after the town was founded in 1859, then moved again to the capital city of Topeka in 1863 after investing in the ''Kansas State Record''. While he was living in Centralia, Kansas entered the Union as the 34th state. On November 14, 1860, Baker was a delegate to the first meeting of the Territorial Relief Convention in Lawrence, Kansas. One of the purposes of the commission was to aid in the obtaining of relief loans from eastern capitalists to assist those citizens seeking funds for heavy farm mortgages, operating expenses or improvements.<ref>{{cite news|title=Territorial Relief Convention|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/62450007/?terms=Floyd%2BP%2BBaker|access-date=8 January 2016|work=The Topeka Tribune|date=November 17, 1960|location=Topeka, Kansas|page=2}}</ref> While in Centralia, Floyd practiced law with a focus on debt collection and real estate transactions.<ref>{{cite news|title=Advertisement - F.P. Baker, Attorney and Counsellor at Law|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/78662115/?terms=Floyd%2BP%2BBaker|access-date=8 January 2016|work=White Cloud Kansas Chief|date=May 8, 1862|location=White Cloud, Kansas|page=3}}</ref> During this time he was also Nehmaha County Attorney and the Superintendent of Schools.
From 1861 to 1862 Baker was a member of the Kansas State Legislature. During the 1862 session, the legislature passed the first compilation of the laws of Kansas; the preparation of which was accomplished primarily by Floyd Baker and Wilson Davis.<ref name="KansasLaws">{{cite news | title =The Kansas Legislature | newspaper =The Topeka Daily Capital | location =Topeka, Kansas | pages =5 | date =18 September 1886 }}</ref> During this election, Floyd Baker and a group of fellow Republicans ran as independents in opposition to other Republican candidates.<ref>{{cite news|title=An Old Flag|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/62152364|access-date=18 January 2016|work=The Daily Commonwealth|date=May 19, 1982|page=4}}</ref>
In 1864, the Confederacy staged a military operation utilizing cavalry from Tennessee through Kentucky into Missouri in a campaign called Price's Raid. The Kansas militia was activated in response to this activity and on October 11, 1884, a F.P. Baker was mustered in as a private in Company A of the 2nd Regiment commanded by George W. Veal. His unit marched into Missouri and participated in the Battle of Byram's Ford.<ref>{{cite web|title=Kansas State Muster Roles|url=http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/227843/page/55|website=www.kansasmemory.org|publisher=Kansas Adjutant General's Office|access-date=4 September 2017|page=55}}</ref> Floyd Baker's service was short as the unit was only active for about 20 days. Furthermore, when he was mustered out later in October, he was listed as "absent without leave".
During the 1860s and 1870s Baker was heavily involved in his community. In 1862, while living in Nemaha County, he served as the temporary presiding officer during the formation of the Kansas State Agricultural Society, precursor of the Kansas Department of Agriculture, and later served as treasurer. Later he was a founding member of the Kansas Historical Society. In 1865 he was a founding member of the Sons of Temperance, Grand Division, State of Kansas.<ref>{{cite news|title=Grand Division of the Sons of Temperance|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/60236207/?terms=F.%2BP.%2BBaker|access-date=4 September 2017|publisher=The Daily Kansas Tribune|date=October 3, 1865|location=Lawrence, Kansas|page=4}}</ref>
In 1868, Floyd was appointed to a three-year term as a trustee of the Kansas State Blind Asylum in Wyandotte, Kansas (now part of Kansas City, Kansas).<ref name=Blindasylum>{{cite news|last1=Taylor|first1=R.B.|title=Editorial Section|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/95921808/|access-date=18 January 2016|work=Wyandotte Commercial Gazette|date=May 2, 1868|page=2}}</ref> Starting in 1873 he was the editor-in-chief and publisher of the ''Topeka Commonwealth''<ref name="forest">{{Citation | last =Miller | first =Char | title =French Lessons, F.P. Baker, American Forestry, and the 1878 Paris Universal Exposition | journal =Forestry History Today | year =2004 | issue =Spring/Fall 2005 | pages =10–15 | url =http://www.foresthistory.org/publications/FHT/FHTSpringFall2005/FHT05_Baker.pdf | isbn =0-89030-062-3 | access-date =November 29, 2015 | archive-date =December 8, 2015 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20151208102224/http://www.foresthistory.org/publications/FHT/FHTSpringFall2005/FHT05_Baker.pdf | url-status =dead }}</ref> (later absorbed by The Topeka Capital-Journal).
===Texas=== Floyd relocated with his family (later reports state that just Floyd and one son moved for two years) to Denison, Texas, where he founded the ''Denison Journal''.<ref group=note>Denison was founded in 1872 simultaneously with the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad.</ref> On January 24, 1874, he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as postmaster for that community.<ref>{{cite news | title =Nominations Confirmed by the Senate | newspaper =The New York Times | location =New York, New York | pages =1 | date =January 24, 1874 }}</ref>
===Back to Kansas=== Returning to Topeka, Baker was immediately involved in local affairs as a founding board member of the Kansas Historical Society on December 14, 1875.<ref>{{cite news|title=List of Members|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/64758823/?terms=floyd%2Bp%2Bbaker|access-date=7 January 2016|work=The Topeka Daily Capital|date=October 23, 1898|page=16}}</ref>
: <u>Paris Universal Exhibition of 1878</u> : On February 10, 1878 Floyd Baker was appointed Additional Commissioner for the U.S. to the Paris Universal Exposition - 1878 by President Rutherford B. Hayes.<ref name="forest" /><ref name="Atchison">{{cite news | title =Washington - Commissioners to Paris | newspaper =The Atchison Daily Champion | location =Atchison, Kansas | pages =1 | date =10 February 1878 }}</ref>
: To fulfill that mission Floyd sailed from New York on April 18 (or possibly the 20th), 1878 arriving at the Exposition in Paris on May 1. The Exposition was incomplete so he took one month to travel to Italy. When he returned to Paris at the end of May, he commenced an assignment to write a report on the topic of forestry for the U.S. government. He remained in Paris until the middle of August then spent four weeks traveling western Europe visiting England, Scotland, the Netherlands and Belgium.<ref name="1879Biog" /><ref name="forest" /><ref group=note>While traveling in Europe Floyd wrote about 50 letters to his newspaper, The Weekly Commonwealth, Topeka, Kansas. Many were published. One such letter from the May 30, 1878 edition describes a 29-hour train trip from Paris to Genova.</ref>
Baker was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF). In 1872, he was elected in Topeka as Grand Patriarch of the Grand Encampment.<ref>{{cite news|title=Odd Fellows|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/58507159/?terms=Floyd%2BP%2BBaker|access-date=9 January 2016|work=Fort Scott Daily Monitor|date=October 10, 1972|location=Fort Scott, Kansas|page=1}}</ref>
Baker was appointed as chief of the Bureau of Forestry for the Mississippi valley west to the Rocky Mountains in 1882 by George B. Loring, U.S. Commissioner of Agriculture (precursor of the United States Forest Service) .<ref name=forestappoint>{{cite news|title=Kind Words form the Brethern|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/62155483/|access-date=18 January 2016|work=The Weekly Commonwealth|date=August 17, 1882|location=Topeka, Kansas|page=1}}</ref> During the same year he was elected as president of the Kansas State Editorial Association.<ref name=editorsassoc>{{cite news|title=The Free Press belongs to no "Editorial Association",..|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/62129647/|access-date=18 January 2016|work=The Osage City Free Press|date=June 22, 1882|location=Osage City, Kansas|page=4}}</ref>
==Move to Buffalo, New York== In 1904, Baker moved, along with his wife and his son Clifford C. to Buffalo. It is likely that the move was initiated by Clifford as he had sold his interest in the Topeka City Railway and joined a gentleman named Kinne as a partner in the coal business.<ref name="buffalo" />
==Appointments and Offices==
{| class="wikitable" |+ Appointments, Offices, Positions ! Year !! Organization !! Title !! Term |- | 1852 || Racine, Wisconsin || Justice of the Peace || - |- | 1852 || Racine, Wisconsin || Superintendent of Schools || - |- | 1853 || Kingdom of Hawaii || Crown Attorney || - |- | 1853 || Kingdom of Hawaii || Clerk - Hilo District Court || - |- | 1860 || Kansas Territorial Relief Commission || Delegate ||- |- | 1860 || Public Instruction - Nemaha County, KS || Superintendent || 1860 |- | 1861 || Kansas counties of Nemaha, Marshall and Washington || State Representative ||1861 - ? |- | 1862 || Kansas State Agricultural Society || Presiding Officer ||- |- |1864||2nd Kansas Militia Infantry Regiment, Co. A||Private||1864 |- |1865||Sons of Temperance, Grand Division, State of Kansas||Grand Worth Associate||1865 |- | 1866 || Independent Order of Odd Fellows - Kansas || Grand Master || |- | 1868 || Kansas State Blind Asylum || Trustee || - |- | 1872 || Independent Order of Odd Fellows - Topeka Grand Encampment || Grand Patriarch || - |- |1874 || U.S. Postal Service ||Post Master-Dennison, TX||- |- | 1875 || Kansas Historical Society ||Founding Board Member||- |- | 1878 || U.S. Delegation to the Paris International Exposition || Additional Commissioner||1878 |- | 1882 || Kansas State Editors Association ||President||- |- |1882 || Brush Electric Light and Power Company - Topeka || President<ref>{{cite news|title=Mr. Baker and the Dam|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/418240381/|access-date=9 January 2023|work=Kansas Democrat|date= April 18, 1891|location=Topeka, Kansas|page=2}}</ref> ||- |- | 1882 || U.S. Bureau of Forestry - Western States Division ||Chief||- |- | 1891 || Parsons Water Supply Company || Director<ref>{{cite news|title=Topeka Men and Money|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/79835110/|access-date=18 January 2016|work=Phillipsburg Herald|date=June 11, 1891|location=Phillipsburg, Kansas|page=2}}</ref> || - |- |1898 || U.S. Postal Service ||Post Master-Station B-Topeka, KS<ref>{{cite news|title=Father Baker Quits|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/8219975/|access-date=18 January 2016|work=The Hutchinson News|date=July 3, 1903|location=Hutchinson, Kansas|page=7}}</ref>||1898-1903 |}
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==Notes== {{reflist|group=note}}
==References== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Floyd Perry}} Category:1820 births Category:1909 deaths Category:Kansas Republicans Category:Politicians from Topeka, Kansas Category:People from Fort Ann, New York Category:People from Racine, Wisconsin Category:19th-century American newspaper editors Category:Kansas lawyers Category:Texas Republicans Category:People from Denison, Texas Category:Kansas independents Category:New York (state) Republicans Category:Burials at Topeka Cemetery Category:Sons of Temperance Category:Temperance activists from Kansas