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- JOSEPH BAKER, (deceased), Janesville. The subject of this
sketch
- was born at Concord, N.Y., June 13, 1806; his father shortly
afterward removed to Canada, and engaged in farming in that new
and primitive country. Here the boy grew up to manhood, with
no educational advantages except such as the district schools
of that time afforded, save, perhaps, one term at an academy.
At the age of 21, he shouldered his pack and made his way back
to New Hampshire. After hard work and many discouragements, he
returned again to Canada. In time, he studied theology with Rev.
Joseph WARD, a Universalist minister, and was ordained at Stanstead,
L. C., Oct. 3, 1833, as a minister in the Northern Association
of Universalists.
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- He married Alzina WARD, a daughter of his preceptor, May
12, 1836; preached in Vermont,
- Canada, and different points in New York, coming to the village
of Janesville in June, 1850, from Glens Falls, N.Y. He was for
ten years or more, the Pastor of the Universalist Society in
Janesville, the services being held in the old wooden Court House
surmounting the hill, which primitive temple of justice was finally
destroyed by an incendiary fire. In January, 1853, Mr. BAKER
entered upon his duties as editor of the Janesville Free Press,
a paper published by an association of Free Democrats. By a notable
coincidence, the first number of the sheet in question was issued
on the day of the celebration of the first arrival of a train
on the railroad, then the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad.
He remained at the head of this paper until 1866, striking vigorous
blows for human freedom, and against the exactions of the slave
power. Afterward, he was editor of the Delavan Messenger, Albany
Times and Janesville Republican, from the sanctum of which last
paper he went into the army, enlisting as a private in Co. E,
13th W.V.I., notwithstanding that his age, 55, exempted him.
As a soldier, he did duty in the hospital department, caring
for his sick comrades until his health gave way, and he was mustered
out in 1863.
- [There seems to be a little missing as I turn the page
- it starts...]
the war, he was twice elected Justice of the Peace, in Janesville.
He died Feb. 20, 1873, and his funeral services were conducted
by the Odd Fellows, of which Order he had been many years a prominent
member. His remains rest in Oak Hill Cemetery.
- "After lifes' fitful fever, he sleeps well."
- Joseph BAKER, in the language of his cotemporaries, was "a
clergyman of unusual power, and
- a vigorous newspaper writer;" "a man of ability
and influence; his integrity and moral character were never called
in question." He was a self-made man, working his way up
in the face of all the obstacles incident to pioneer life, such
as we in the later day know nothing of, except by hearsay. His
widow died in November, 1878. His son, C. W. BAKER, is still
a resident of Janesville.
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- Taken from "The History of Rock County, Wis."
(c)1879, pp. 695-696, lithograph p. 343.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
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