James A. Baker, Sr.
| James A. Baker, Sr. | |
|---|---|
| Born |
James Addison Baker, Jr. January 10, 1857 Huntsville, Texas |
| Died | August 2, 1941 (aged 84) Houston, Texas |
| Cause of death | Unspecified illness |
| Resting place | Glenwood Cemetery, Houston, Texas |
| Nationality | United States of America |
| Other names | Captain James A. Baker |
| Occupation | Attorney |
| Spouse(s) | Alice Graham (m. 10 January 1883) |
| Children | 1) Frank Graham Baker 2) James A. Baker, Jr. 3) Alice Baker Jones 4) Walter Browne Baker 5) Malcolm G. Baker |
| Parent(s) | James Addison Baker Rowena Crawford Baker |
| Relatives |
James Baker (grandson) |
James Addison Baker, Sr. (aka Captain James A. Baker; January 10, 1857 – August 2, 1941) was an American attorney and banker in Houston, Texas.
Captain Baker was the grandfather of President Ronald Reagan's Chief of Staff, James Addison Baker III. Captain Baker's father was an early partner of the Houston-based international law firm, Baker Botts, joining in 1872. Captain Baker became a partner with the firm as well.
Baker was born in Huntsville, Texas, the son of James Addison Baker (1821–1897) and his wife Rowena Crawford Baker (1826–1889). James had lived in Dodge, Huntsville, Texas in his childhood.
Baker attended a nearby primary school in Dodge, Texas, before studying at the Texas Military Institute and Trinity University, both located in San Antonio, Texas. In 1880, Baker joined the State Bar of Texas.
In Houston, Capt. James A. Baker, Sr. headed the 100-year-old law firm, Baker, Botts, Andrews, and Wharton. Baker was the personal attorney of William Marsh Rice, the eventual founder of Rice University. Rice was chloroformed by his butler, Charles F. Jones, on September 23, 1900 in his apartment on Madison Avenue. Albert T. Patrick was Rice's attorney in New York, and the mastermind behind murdering Rice. Patrick had produced a will that turned out to be a fake with the signature of Rice forged by Patrick. Baker alerted the police about the potentially suspicious motives behind Rice's death. The murder case and litigation over the will, which left a trust fund for the Rice Institute, would take nearly ten years to sort out. Baker, as an executor of the previous 1896 will, got it admitted into evidence at the trial, a major point in the case. In a case that made national headlines, he helped the estate direct the Rice fortune (over $5 million dollars in 1904) to the founding of the Rice Institute for the Advancement of Letters, Science, and Art, the intended wishes of William Rice. Because of Baker's business acumen, by the time the case ended, the endowment for Rice Institute had doubled $10 million. Baker would be the main representative of the estate and was the founding chairman of the university's Board of Trustees, where he served from the chartering of Rice in 1891 until his death in 1941. The board would take control of the assets on April 29, 1904. Rice University's Baker College is named for him.
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