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James A. Baker
KENTUCKY: A History of the State, Battle, Perrin & Kniffin,
4th ed., 1887,
Cumberland Co.
JAMES A. BAKER was born October 7, 1848. His father, Albert T. Baker, also
a native of Cumberland County, was born October 24, 1821. November 5,
1844, he was married to Miss Mary A. Vaughn, a daughter of James and
Abigail (Barger) Vaughn, the former of Virginia, the latter of
Pennsylvania. This marriage was blessed by five children: Robert F., James
A., Amanda (wife of E. Emmons), Bettie (wife of E.O. Grissom) and Louisa
(wife of William M. Binns), of whom Robert died aged eight years. The
first farm owned by Mr. Baker consisted of 100 acres, on Crocus Creek,
where he lived (until 1870) twenty-five years. He next owned a farm of 200
acres, one and one-half miles northeast of the first, where he remained
until 1876, selling out and removing to another farm, on Crocus Creek, of
325 acres, where he remained until 1881. At this time he removed to
Burkesville, and at present lives with his son, James A. Baker. James
Baker, grandfather of James A. Baker, was born in Chesterfield County, Va.,
and was brought by his father to Cumberland County in 1806. He was married
to Miss Nancy Robinson, and they became the parents of nine children:
Robert, Albert T., Lucy Ann (wife of Hugh Mitchell), Samuel K., Caroline
(wife of Charles Wells), Feminine, James M., George F., Elizabeth (wife of
John Edwards), four of whom, Robert, Feminine, Elizabeth and Lucy Ann, are
now dead. Every year, for eighteen years, he went to New Orleans, on a
flatboat, by way of Cumberland, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, 2000 miles,
and three times walked back through the wilderness. Mrs. Baker, in life a
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, died in 1846, aged about
forty-two years. Mr. Baker next married Miss Susanna Grigsby, in
Chesterfield County, Va. His death occurred in 1858; his wife's in 1855,
and in life they were members of the Baptist and Christian Churches,
respectively. Thomas Baker, of English origin, and great-grandfather of
James A. Baker, was also a native of Chesterfield County, Va., and was
married there to Miss Nannie Elliott. They were the parents of four sons
and four daughters. The family immigrated to Cumberland County, Ky., in
1805, where, upon the death of his first wife, Thomas Baker married Miss
Elizabeth Robinson. James A. Baker, a native of Cumberland County, in
youth received a moderate business education, and, until twenty-one years
of age, followed agricultural pursuits, remaining at home with his father.
In 1870 he began selling goods in Amandaville by clerking, and in 1871
continued the same for his uncle in Burkesville, where he remained five
years. In 1875 he began traveling for a wholesale notion and fancy goods
firm in Louisville, which was his business until in December, 1885, when he
bought out the stock of T.M. Grissom & Co., in Burkesville. The stock of
$3,000 consists of groceries, queensware, hardware and tinware, and he has
a thriving business and a good trade at Austin, Texas. February 8, 1882,
he was united in marriage to Miss Cora Lee Cunningham, a daughter of James
B. and Jenny (Parks) Cunningham, of Newbern, Dyer Co., Tenn. Mr. and Mrs.
Baker have two little boys: Joseph Harrell and Robert Arthur. Mr. Baker is
a member of the Baptist Church, and a Democrat in politics, while Mrs.
Baker is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
Baker Vaughn Barger Emmons Grissom Binns Robinson Mitchell Wells Edwards
Grisby Elliott Cunningham Parks
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Chesterfield-VA Dyer-TN PA LA TX
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