Los Angeles County

Biographies

MILO S. BAKER

        The subject of this biography was born in Morganville, Genesee County, New York, March 20, 1828, and his parents were pioneers of that county. His father, Remember Baker, was the grandson of Captain Remember Baker, a patriot and soldier of early Revolutionary fame, a native of Connecticut, later a citizen of Vermont, one of the original surveyors of the New Hampshire Grant, and one of the illustrious trio of Ethan Allen, Seth Warner and Remember Baker. Colonel Ethan Allen and Captain Remember Baker were fast friends not only in war but also in peace. Ethan Allen's wife was an only sister of Remember Baker, and where one of these men was known in any enterprise the other was sure to be found his right-hand supporter, as in the case when Allen demanded the surrender of Fort Ticonderoga "in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress," Baker was at his back with a clincher. Crown Point was afterward surrendered to him (Baker), this being one of the last grand efforts of his life, as he was soon taken prisoner by treacherous Indians, decapitated, and his head elevated on a pole in the center of a war dance. He was the first officer killed in the American Revolution. Captain Baker was succeeded in his land-surveying enterprise by an only son, Ozi, who in this capacity had much to do with the surveying and final establishment of the boundary lines between the States of New York and Vermont, and in this was assisted by a son, Remember Baker, the father of the subject of this sketch. This son, however, went to sea, became master of a vessel, subsequently navigated the North River, and piloted the steamboat Robert Fulton on its first trip up the Hudson in 1807. He was a soldier of the war of 1812, and under General Brown held a Captain's roving commission, doing his country valiant service as a scout. While Mr. Baker was but a small boy his father moved from Western New York, with his family, to the wilds of Michigan, in 1836, settling near where the State capitol now stands. In 1845 Mr. Baker's father removed to Portland, Ionia County, Michigan, where he died in less than a year. Although at that time not eighteen years of age, the subject of this sketch assumed entire control of his father's business and continued it for three years, or until the discovery of gold on the Pacific Coast, when he resolved to seek his fortune in far-off California, and in March, 1850, he with four companions commenced their journey with a four-horse team and covered wagon. They took their route through Illinois, Iowa, and to St. Joseph, Missouri, which town was at that time on the extreme western frontier, and was a supply station. Five long months were consumed in making the journey, during which time many distressing incidents occurred, which, in order to be appreciated must be experienced. Severe storms, drouths, scarcity of food and water, encounters with the Indians, and numerous other hindrances occurred to impede the journey. Upon reaching Green River they were compelled to abandon their wagon, make pack saddles for their horses, and accomplish the remainder of their journey on foot. The Rocky Mountains crossed, they found themselves within ten miles of Hangtown, now Placerville, which is located within six miles of where gold was first discovered in California.* Here they disposed of their remaining horses for $127 in cash, which they invested in a miner's outfit at prices as follows: Pick, shovel, and rocker, $35 dollars each. Five men worked two days, the fruits of which were $1.30, provisions consumed during the time costing them $2.00 per day each, which they themselves cooked. A change was then decided upon, each man working for himself, except Mr. Baker, who, with a chosen companion, prospected, with fair success, getting from $9 to $28 per day at first; and later their luck was like that of the majority of other miners,—good, bad and indifferent. They worked early and late, dropping the pick and shovel only when too dark to see to use them. They cooked their meals by campfire on the ground, and rolled up in their blankets at night to fall asleep and dream of untold and unfound riches. In 1851 the two built a log cabin on Dry Creek and went into winter quarters. Thrilling scenes were in those days enacted in the mining regions of California, and offenses against moral and business laws were frequently punished without formality and by methods peculiar to the miners' code. One notable illustration of this fact was the novel punishment meted out to a man at a place where now stands the town of Jackson, in Amador County. He thought to make some money by washing out a pile of dirt that had been thrown up by another miner, which he did. A council of miners decided at once that the offender be tied fast astride a donkey, turned loose on the commons for three days and nights, and if the culprit survived the ordeal he was to be taken off and given a square meal and two hours in which to leave the mines. Another, for stealing money from a miner at Rancho Rea, was, with a rope around his neck, taken to the creek, pulled back and forth in the water, then drawn up to the limb of a tree until life was nearly extinct, after which he was permitted to leave the camp. Mr. Baker now holds a note taken from a party for money lent him to repay a theft, which money Mr. Baker lent him as the only show of saving the fellow's neck. Mr. Baker spent three years in the mining regions of this State, and, in that time having secured sufficient means with which to embark in business, he returned home by the way of the Panama route, going from San Francisco to Panama on the Winfield Scott. She was subsequently beached on the coast between here and Santa Barbara, where she still lies. Machinery had always been his chosen business, and he now entered into it again with a will at his old home. Success seemed to crown his every effort, even in the wooing and winning of a loving and most estimable wife, Miss Phebe Beers, whom he married in September, 1854, but was permitted to enjoy her smiles and affection only two brief years. She died in 1856. Enterprising and public-spirited, Mr. Baker was soon surrounded by a host of friends. In the year 1860 he was unexpectedly called from business and elected to the Michigan State Legislature from Ionia County. Those were exciting times. The war cloud bad commenced to gather. During the first session of that body Fort Sumter was fired upon. The news reached the House while joint resolutions to compromise with the South were under consideration. At this juncture the famous letter of Zach Chandler reached the Legislature, which decided the matter at once to make no compromise with treason. It is needless to say that Mr. Baker's position on the war issue was solid for the protection and maintenance of the Union at whatever cost. About this time he sold his foundry and machine works at Portland, and commenced the erection of new and more extensive works at Lansing. Mr. Baker married Miss Cordelia Davis, a resident of Lansing, and in less than a year's time his life was again embittered by her untimely death, after which Mr. Baker also suffered a long and critical sickness. Thus afflicted, his business came to a halt, and upon his recovery some months later, he spent the following winter in Washington, D. C., where he saw much of the inside workings of the war. In the spring he was called home to attend an extra session of the Legislature to raise funds for carrying on the war. The summer which followed was spent in travel in the Lake Superior regions. A previous engagement recalled him to Washington the next winter. At this time, January 19, 1863, he was united in wedlock to Miss Harriette V., daughter of William Lawrence, one of the sterling citizens and active business men of Yonkers, New York, the marriage taking place at St. John's Church, in that city, and was solemnized by the Rev. Dr. Carter, its rector. Mr. and Mrs. Baker spent that winter in Washington and returned to Lansing in the spring. He entered upon the completion of his iron works with a renewed zeal. Baker's Eureka Iron Works was a three-story brick structure of large proportions, equipped with new machinery, and he at once built up a large business, turning out machinery and architectural iron work for Lansing and surrounding towns. About this time he built for General L. C. Baker, a brother, the Lansing House, one of the largest hotels in the State, and added to his foundry a large flouring-mill and a saw-mill. The two latter establishments were a few months later destroyed by fire, entailing a very heavy loss. Mr. Baker, however, rebuilt on the same spot, and this time put in machinery for the manufacture of sash, doors and blinds. This establishment he subsequently leased, and, being in poor health, made a second trip westward, traveling over the same route at thirty miles per hour, that lie had taken twenty-five years previously at three miles per hour. On this tour he visited Chicago, St. Louis and Salt Lake City, and spent several months in the Geyser and Yellowstone country, which at this date was slow and hazardous business. The next country to claim his attention was Southern California, and he arrived in Los Angeles, January 1, 1874. His faith in a brilliant future for Southern California is evinced by the fact of his permanent settlement here, and the manner in which he has so thoroughly identified himself with her growth; and his letters concerning this point, published in Lansing, were the means of exciting the first emigration from that place to Los Angeles. This glorious climate and the gorgeous natural beauty of this country had for Mr. Baker a wondrous charm as a health. restorer, and he located at Santa Monica, where he remained about three years. With a shattered constitution almost entirely restored, Mr. Baker removed to Los Angeles, and in 1877 built a foundry and machine-shop on Spring street, opposite the old court-house. The business was opened on a modest scale, but soon assumed lively proportions, and in a short time he removed to and purchased the corner of Main and Second streets. In 1886 the business having outgrown these accommodations, Mr. Baker purchased the present site of the "Baker Iron Works," adjoining the Southern Pacific Railroad depot, and commenced the erection of buildings thereon. A stock company was at this time incorporated under the name "Baker Iron Works," of which Mr. Baker is president and his son, Fred L. Baker, superintendent. The institution is, without exception, the largest and most complete of its kind in the State, outside of the city of San Francisco, and is of great credit and a source of much pride to Los Angeles. Mr. Baker's high appreciation of the grandeur of Nature's handiwork is manifest by the judicious selection he has made of a location for a future home, and upon which he has just completed one of the finest family residences in the "City of the Angels." We perhaps can give no better idea of this beautiful home and its location than to copy the following from one of the leading daily papers of the city, printed about the time of its completion. "M. S Baker, President of the Baker Iron Works, has just completed one of the most elegant and attractive residences in the city, on the site of the old Fremont fort, at the corner of Rock and Fort streets. Mr. Baker was his own architect, and the result is a high compliment to his good taste and judgment. The house being on an elevation, a retaining wall is necessary, and for this work the Sespe brown-stone was the material chosen, which presents a very handsome effect. The entrance at the corner is by broad easy steps, artistically cut and laid, and the historical site is retained by a tablet of raised letters cut in the stone, "Fort Place." The front and side porches are fine broad arches of brown stone, which add much to the beauty of the house, and at the same time are a reminder of the old fort. The structure is two stories, with basement and high attics, from which a fine view of the surrounding country can be had, and is finely finished throughout in hard wood, the reception hall being especially worthy of notice. Altogether, it is a model residence and an ornament to the city." Mr. Baker has ever been fortunate in his domestic relations. Mrs. Baker is a lady of culture and most noble qualities. She is active in her society circle, and prominently identified with the charity institutions of the city, being one of the directors of the Orphans' Home, and an officer of the Los Angeles Humane Society. She is a lady of great fortitude, and is full of good works. They have two sons and one daughter. Fred L., before mentioned in this sketch, was recently married, and is settled in a beautiful cottage, also on the hill. Arnet, who, with his older brother, has grown up with the business of the iron works, is an expert mechanic, and foreman of the pattern shop. Their daughter, Miss Belle, a young lady of culture and modest demeanor, is just merging into womanhood. No man in the city stands higher in business circles as a safe, conservative business man of strict integrity and candor than does Mr. Baker, and of such men no city can possess too many.

* Mr. Baker has a diary in which he noted among other things his estimate of the distance traveled to this point, and his figures varied only nineteen miles from the record made at the time by a " roadometer."

An Illustrated History of Los Angeles County, California –  Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company, Page 394

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler