Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 9.djvu/9



Edward Dickinson Baker was born in London, February 24, 1811, and was the son of a school teacher. His family removed from England and settled in Philadelphia when the boy was about five years old. While residing there he was apprenticed to a weaver. In 1825 the family removed to Indiana, and a year later to Illinois.

His boyhood was that of the ordinary Western boy. The family lived at New Harmony, Indiana, a year or two, and finally located in Belleville, St. Clair County, Illinois. It is said that the young man, then about sixteen years of age, preceded the family on foot. About this time he went to St. Louis in search of employment, and here drove a dray one season, later returning to Carrollton, Greene County, Illinois, where he entered the office of Judge Caverly and began the study of law. On the 27th day of April, 1831, Mr. Baker, at twenty years of age, was married to Mrs. Mary A. Lee, a widow with two children, and to them were born four children, Edward D., Jr., Alfred W., Caroline C. Stevens and Lucy Hopkins. His mother's maiden name was Lucy Dickinson, sister of Thomas Dickinson, a distinguished officer in the British Navy. He had three brothers, Alfred C, a physician who lived in Barry, Illinois; Thomas B., who lived in Carrollton, Illinois, and Samuel B., who lived