JESSE BAKER
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History of Menard and Mason Counties, Illinois, 1879, by Miller & Ruggles
Crane Creek Township
Page 855
JESSE BAKER (deceased), farmer; Mr. Baker was one of the first white settlers of Mason Co.; he was born in Tennessee in 1799, and came to Ilfinois Territory in 1816 and settled in what is now Morgan Co., and, in 1833, located in Mason Co., where he passed the remainder of his life. He has had a varied experience; possessed of an unusually vigorous and robust frame, he endured the privations and hardships of pioneer life, the chase of the deer and the defense against the noble red man, which few could endure; he has fought the Indians from tree to tree; was contemporary with Ross, and Scovill, of Havana, and others; he engaged in farming upon Crane Creek; near where he and his descendants have resided for nearly half a centuiy; he raised ninety bushels of corn per acre and sold supplies to Mr. Faulkner, the first farmer of Sherman Township. His descendants are among the substamial residents of the county. Upon Aug. 20, 1879, Jesse Baker passed down the dark valley at the age of 80 years. He was a man esteemed very highly for his many noble traits of character, and one of whom his contemporaries will admit that his life was not a failure and he did not live in vain; he was an intimate friend of Abraham Lincoln, in the rafting and old Salem days of the latter. He was the father of Mrs. R. W. Porter, of Mason City, who was with him several days before and up to the time of his death.
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Coordinator Donna Mayer