William Joseph and Elizabeth Baker
History of
Kentucky and Kentuckians, E. Polk Johnson, three volumes,
Lewis Publishing Co., New York & Chicago, 1912. Common version, Vol. III,
p. 1170.
William Joseph Baker, of the firm of W. J. Baker & Company, manufacturers of
fly screens and sheet metal and wire specialties, Newport, Kentucky, was born
on a farm in Campbell county May 26, 1866, a son of William and Lucinda
(Nicholson) Baker, the father a native of Bracken county, Kentucky.
Matthew Baker, grandfather of the immediate subject of this notice, was born
in Pennsylvania and came while yet a young man to Kentucky, locating in
pioneer times in what is now Campbell county. It is recalled as an
interesting incident in the family history that he made his way down the Ohio
river by means of a log raft, on which were packed such few things
as he was enabled thus to bring to the new country. He located on a
farm, became successful and prominent as a farmer and died at eighty-six,
after a life of great activity and usefulness.
His wife was Betsy Dye, a member of another pioneer family of Campbell
county. She is well remembered by old residents in the vicinity of the
old Baker homestead, where she died,
deeply regretted by all who knew of her sterling character. William
Baker, son of Matthew and Betsy (Dye) Baker, was reared and educated so far as
was possible that he became a good and prosperous farmer, and the annals of
his neighborhood show that he well met the expectations of his parents in the
respect. He died on his homestead in 1904, aged eighty-four years. His
widow is living at Clifton, a suburb of Newport. Of the four children of
this worthy couple three are living.
William J. Baker, second in order of birth of the children of William and Lucinda (Nicholson) Baker, was educated in common schools near his boyhood home and brought up as a farmer's boy of all work. At nineteen he entered the employ of the Standard Carriage Goods Company, of Cincinnati, which later became the Higgins Manufacturing Company of Newport. For this concern, under different organizations, he worked faithfully and intelligently for seventeen years, constantly gaining in usefulness and in earning capacity.
On August 15, 1901, he engaged in business for himself in Cincinnati. The smallness of his beginning may be inferred from the fact that his entire business in its first month amounted to only forty-two dollars. Its noteworthy growth is attested by the further fact that now its average monthly aggregate is eight thousand dollars, with the prospect of soon advancing to the ten thousand dollar mark.
On August 15, 1904,
he moved his enterprise to Newport, where he employs about sixty
men the year round. The growth of this fine manufacturing business under
his management speaks well for his ability as an organizer and promoter. He
has taken his place among the leading manufactures in the Cincinnati district,
the products of his factory are sold throughout a wide territory and in some
respects his enterprise has already attained to national
reputation.
In other directions Mr. Baker finds time and
inclination to be active and useful. He has long been interested in
building association and is a director of two. He was one of the
organizers of the Daylight Building and Loan Association and of the Clifton
Building and Loan Association, and was a leading spirit in the organization of
the Citizens' Commercial
and Savings Bank of Newport, of the board of directors of which he is a
member. Of the town of Southgate, where he lives, he is one of the
trustees. In his political affiliation he is a Democrat and it may be
added that he is not without a recognized influence in important public
movements of interest to his fellow citizens of Campbell county. It is
of record that he was one of the promoters and organizers of the Newport
Driving and Fair Association, of which he has been president during all its
history, dating from 1909. To this now popular institution he gave
five years of preliminary work, meeting objections, overcoming obstacles,
smoothing the way and pushing it gradually and with great effort to
certain success. He is a Knight of Pythias, identified with Eureka
Lodge, No. 7 and as such is widely known in that order.
In 1897 he married Miss Elizabeth Burke in Newport, a
daughter of Gerhart Burke, a basket maker well known in business circles until
his death, which occurred in Newport when he had attained to the fifty-second
year.