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NAVIGATION
Michigan
Histories
Van Buren County
Biographies
Online Biographies
Illinois
Histories
Also see [Railway Officials in America 1906]
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DR. C. T. BAKER was born in Howard village. Steuben Co., N. Y., Jan. 2, 1829, and was the youngest of a family
of twelve children, two having died previous to his birth. When but four years old his father, Andrew Baker, with
his family, then consisting of a wife and six children (the rest having married and left home), moved to Allegany
Co., N. Y. There he lived with his father, attending school and working on the farm, until after the death of his
mother, which occurred March 25, 1844, aged fifty-nine years. After his mother’s death he made his home with a
brother-in-law, William H. Gordon, a merchant and lumberman living in Wellsville, in the same county. There he
attended school and assisted as clerk and book-keeper until a short time before he commenced the study of medicine
with his oldest brother, Dr. Andrew Baker, Jr., of Norwich, N. Y., where he also attended the academy for about
two years.
In 1852—53 and 1853—54 he attended the medical department of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, from which
he graduated March 30, 1854. December 4th of the same year he located in Decatur, Mich., and commenced the practice
of medicine. He has since resided at that place, with the exception of the time spent in the army during the war
of the Rebellion, when he served as contract surgeon, and was assigned to duty at post hospital, City Point, Va.,
General Grant’s headquarters. He was on duty at that place when Petersburg and Richmond were evacuated by the rebels,
and also when General Lee surrendered his army to General Grant, and returned to Washington on the memorable 14th
of April, 1865,—the day of President Lincoln’s assassination.
He has been president, vice-president, and censor of the Van Buren County Medical Society, and has served as health-officer
of the village and township of Decatur ever since the law establishing that office has been enforced. He is now
surgeon to the Michigan Central Railroad at that place. In politics he is a Republican.
His father and two brothers, Hiram and John, with their families, came to Michigan in 1855, locating in Keeler
township, where the father died July 10, 1856, aged seventy-seven years. The brothers are farmers in the latter
township at this time. Three sisters are still living, viz., Mrs. Nancy Naramor, in Macomb Co., Mich.; Mrs. Fanny
Dolbee, and Mrs. Elizabeth Gordon, both in Pennsylvania.
Dee. 31, 1857, Dr. Baker was married to Adelia M. Nutting, daughter of Lucius and Eliza B. Nutting.
FROM:
History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties, Michigan
With Illistrations and Biographical Sketches
of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers.
D. W. Ensign & Co., Philadelphia 1880
Press of J. B. Lippincoff & Co., Philadelphia.
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