Alameda County Biographies

W. T. BAKER

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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	W. T. Baker is president of the W. T. Baker Company, a large concern engaged in the 
general painting and wallpapering business. Their patronage comes not alone from Oakland, but 
from all over the coast and the excellence of their work insures continued success. Mr. Baker 
is a native of Liverpool, England, born October 2, 1865. He attended the public schools of his 
native country until he reached the age of fourteen years and then went to sea. As a sailor he 
made the trip around Cape Horn to San Francisco, where he arrived in 1880. In that year he was 
apprenticed to the painter's trade in Berkeley under William Lingard, with whom he remained 
until 1888, after which he came to Oakland. In this city he worked at his trade with various 
firms until 1890, when he engaged with W. W. Tucker & Company as a painter. He worked his way 
upward until he became vice president of the company in 1908, and in 1912 he sold his interest 
in that firm and formed what is now the W. T. Baker Company, of which he is the president. In 
March, 1913, they took over the business of W. W. Tucker & Company and are now controlling an 
extensive trade.
	Mr. Baker was married in Oakland to Miss Annie Young, of Virginia City, Nevada, on the 
12th of November, 1891, and they have a pleasant home in Oakland, where warm friendship is 
accorded them by many who knew them. Mr. Baker has never had occasion to regret his 
determination to come to the United States, for in this country he found the opportunities which 
he sought and which, by the way, are always open to ambitious, energetic young men. He worked 
diligently to acquaint himself with the business in which he is now successfully engaged, and as 
the years have gone by he has worked his way steadily upward in this connection until he is now 
at the head of one of the foremost enterprises of the kind on the coast.

Past & Present of Alameda County, California – Vol II, S. J. Clarke Publ. Co., 1914, p. 326