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CARL BAKER, M. D.
One of the representative physicians and surgeons of Williamson county, Illinois, Dr. Carl Baker is well upholding the prestige of the honored name which he bears. He is descended from a fine old North Carolina family, his great-grandfather Jonathan Baker, having been a native of the Old Dominion commonwealth, where the Baker family were founded in the colonial epoch. Carl Baker, in his professional work, is associated with his father, Dr. Griffin J. Baker, who is a native son of Williamson county and who has been engaged in tlie practice of medicine in this section of the state for over thirty-four years. Father and son are now located at Herrin, where they control a
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large and lucrative practice and where they are esteemed as citizens of intrinsic loyalty and public spirit.
Jonathan Baker, great-grandfather of him whose name initiates this review, was a native of North Carolina, whence he removed, with his family to Tennessee. Among his children were: George, who died unmarried; Abel, who passed his declining years in Williamson county, Illinois, where he died at the patriarchal age of ninety years; Benjamin J., who died at Paragould, Arkansas; Jonathan Aaron was the grandfather of Dr. Carl, of this notice; Jacob D. is the father of Martin Luther Baker, of Marion, Illinois; Rachel became the wife of Ezekiel Clark and passed away in Williamson county; Ann married Louis Cross and died near Chester, Illinois; and Casander became the wife of William Rodden and passed her life in Missouri.
Jonathan Aaron Baker was born in Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, in 1821, and in 1836 he accompanied his parents to Benton county, Tennessee, where he was reared and educated and where was solemnized his marriage, in 1847, to Miss Mathilda C. Sanders. In 1850 he removed to Illinois, settling in Williamson county, where he was identified with agricultural pursuits until the time of his death, in 1875. His cherished and devoted wife died in 1873. Their children were: Alonzo P., a medical practitioner at Herrin; Dr. Griffin J., father of Dr. Carl, of this notice; Dr. Miles D., of Anna, Illinois; and Belle and Virgil, who passed away in childhood.
Dr. Griffin J. Baker passed his boyhood and youth on the old parental farm in Grassy Precinct, Williamson county, where he was born May 27, 1851. He made the most of such educational advantages as came his way and at the age of seventeen years began to teach a country school. He was identified with the pedagogic profession in Williamson and Jackson counties for a number of terms, during which time he was applying himself diligently to the study of medicine under the able preceptorship of an older brother. Subsequently he was matriculated as a student in the Missouri Medical College, at St. Louis, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1878, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He initiated the practice of his profession in Southern Williamson county, where he remained until 1906, when he came to Herrin to practice medicine with his son, Dr. Carl Baker.
In 1872 Dr. Griffin J. Baker was united in marriage to Miss Lucy A. Allen, a daughter of Isaac and Martha J. (Bayless) Allen, originally of Tennessee. Concerning the five children born to Dr. and Mrs. Baker the following brief data are here inserted,�Rhoda M. died as Mrs. George L. Roberts, and is survived by two sons, Paul and Henry Roberts, who reside with their maternal grandparents at Herrin; Dr. Carl is the immediate subject of this review; Ada died at the age of eighteen years, and two children died in infancy.
Dr. Carl Baker was born at Cottage Home, Grassy Precinct of Williamson county, Illinois, April 25, 1877. He received his preliminary educational training in the public schools of his native place and when seventeen years of age entered the preparatory department of the Southern Illinois Normal University, at Carbondale. For four years he was a student in the medical department of the Northwestern University at Chicago, being graduated in that excellent institution in 1906. Immediately after graduation he went to Salt Lake City, Utah, where he performed services as interne at the Salt Lake City Hospital. In the following year he came to Herrin, where he has since been associated with his venerable father in medical work. Both Dr. Griffin J. and Dr. Carl Baker are appreciative and valued members of the Southern Illinois Medical Society and of the American Medical Association.
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During the long years in which Dr. Baker, Sr., has been a member of the medical profession he has done considerable scientific research work and in 1888 he returned to his Alma Mater, the University of Missouri, for post-graduate work. His professional career excites the admiration and has won the respect of his contemporaries, and in a calling in which one has to gain reputation by merit alone he has advanced steadily until he is acknowledged as the superior of most of the members of the profession in this part of the state, having long since left the ranks of the many to stand among the successful few. In their political convictions Drs. Baker are stanch supporters of the principles and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor and while they have no time for participation in public affairs they are ever active in promoting progress and improvement.
At Carbondale, Illinois, October 20, 1902, Dr. Carl Baker married Miss Lena Baird, the second child of William and Belle (Church) Baird. Mr. Baird was a gallant soldier in the Union ranks during the Civil war and after the close of hostilities located at Carbondale. Dr. and Mrs. Baker have one daughter, Cecil May.