Floyd Perry Baker

Floyd Perry Baker
Floyd Perry Baker of Topeka, Kansas, circa 1875 -1880 Photo from Kansas State Historical Society
Born	November 16, 1820 Fort Ann, New York, USA
Died	May 27, 1909 Topeka, Kansas, USA
Cause of death	cerebrovascular accident(stroke)
Resting place	Topeka Cemetery, Topeka, Kansas-section 9, lot 10, space VS5 WT
Other names	Fred Baker, Father Baker
Occupation	Newspaper editor & owner, lawyer government bureaucrat
Employer	Self-employed, U.S. Government
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Eliza Wilson, Orinda Searle
Children	Floyd Perry Jr., Albert Searle, Nestor Reuben, Clifford Coan, Isaac Newcomb, Minnie Louisa

Floyd Perry Baker (November 16, 1820 – 1909) was a lawyer, land speculator, politician, government official, farmer, blacksmith, teacher, and newspaper editor well known for his activities as an early resident and community leader in Kansas from the 1860s until his death in 1909.

Baker was born at Fort Ann in Washington County, New York to Lois Comfort Chaffee Baxter, age 29, and Reuben Baker Jr., age 36. Because his father, Reuben, was a district school teacher on a modest salary while supporting a wife and eleven children, Floyd was sent to live with a neighboring farmer from the age of eight until he was eighteen.

In 1838, at the age of eighteen, Baker taught school for six months in Hamburg, New York. In the spring of 1839 he set up a blacksmith shop in Hillsdale, Michigan, located on Chicago Road. He pursued that profession for one year then moved to Troy, New York, at which he owned an agency for packet boats on the Champlain Canal and a winter stage line between Albany and Whitehall, New York. He operated these businesses for seven years.

On February 14, 1844, Baker married Eliza Folger Wilson in Amsterdam, New York. In 1847, Eliza gave birth to their son, Floyd Perry Baker, Jr., in Troy, New York

About 1847, Baker entered into a contract to build two miles of the Hudson River Railroad near what was to become Irvington, New York. The venture bankrupted him.

In 1848, Baker relocated his family to Racine, Wisconsin where he studied law and was admitted to the bar. He also farmed and ran an insurance business. In the summer of 1849, while still living in Racine, Baker's wife, Eliza died. Nearly two years later, in the spring of 1851, Baker was remarried to Orinda Searle. (Conflicting with this is the 1850 U.S. Census, taken on June 1, 1850, listing Floyd and Orinda Baker living in the same household.)