Rollin Maurice Baker Family

Rollin Baker Biography
Page 1

 

Dear Louanna:

     Yes, I had heard of your Mother’s death, which I was very sorrowful for.  I should have written you at the time, but through neglect and realizing you sorrow, I did not know just how to express my sympathy to you.  Please forgive my neglect.
 

     I am not able to obtain the Baker genealogy.  Mr. Payne, who I spoke of having it, has forgotten all about it, (he’s slipping).
 

     Uncle Mark’s family, that were originally located at Dayton, Washington, I have not heard from for years.  Mark, the daughter that was named for her father, married Wm. Conley, Supt. Washington Division R. R., were located in Spokane the last I heard.  Hope what I am sending you will be of some interest.

 

                                                                              Very sincerely yours,

 

The Subject of this Sketch:
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     Rollin Maurice Baker, M. D. was born in the State of Indian, February 25, 1826.  He received a liberal education and was a graduate of the Ohio State Medical College.  He crossed the plains in 1849 or 1850 to California and resided in that State several years.  In the time of the Idaho mining excitement about 1862, he moved to Idaho City, afterwards to Granite Creek, Baker County of this State.  After a short residence in La Grande, where he had temporarily located after giving up life in the mines, he determined to locate in Union and practice his profession.  He located at Union in 1866 and soon acquired an extensive practice.  On July 24, 1870 he was married to Mrs. Lorinda Margaret Osborne and there was born to them three children; Mary Edith, April 30, 1871, Rollin Maurice, Jr. February 1, 1873 and Lynn Baker, June 28, 1875.
 

     He was first prostrated by the disease that proved fatal, Typhoid pneumonia, on the 7th day of February, 1875 and expired on the morning of February 22, about 5 o’clock.

 

The Subject of this Sketch:

     Lorinda Margaret Osborne.  Born Lorinda Margaret Garner, in Mexico, Missouri, March 1, 1844, made an oxteam journey to Oregon in the spring of 1864.  Nursing was her profession until she was married to Dr. R. M. Baker in Union, Oregon, July 24, 1870. 

 


 

As previously stated three children were born to this union.  After Dr. R. M. Baker’s death, she reared, schooled and made a home for her family until death, January 30, 1918.
 

Subject of this Sketch;

     Mary Edith Baker, born April 30, 1871.  Schooled in Union, Oregon.  Married to Daniel C. Robbin in 1889. No children were born to this union.  He preceded her in death about twenty years.
 

     Robin Maurice Baker, Jr., born February 1, 1873.  Schooled in Union, Oregon, clothing salesman greater part of his life.
 

     United in marriage to Laura Melissa Cartier, January 26, 1907.  To this union there has been born three children:  Margaret Laura, May 5, 1908, Maurice Ash, January 2, 1911, and Robert Howard Baker, March 7, 1913.  All living.

 

Subject of this Sketch:

     Lynn Baker born June 28, 1875, died December 5, 1884.

 

Subject of this Sketch:

     Margaret Laura Baker united in marriage to Emerson S. Reavis, October 4, 1930, to this union no children have been born. 

 


 

Rollin Maurice Baker Jr.

1873-1948

                                                                        

 

     Rollin Jr. lived in and around Union, Oregon all his life.  He began a career as a bookkeeper, then decided to go into retailing men’s clothing.  In 1908, he began working at the Ash Brothers Haberdashery in Union, rising in the years that followed to become manager of the store.
 

He also evolved a circle of clientele during those years that he provided clothing consultant services for.  He was also generally well thought of in town, and people sought out his advice and opinions on various matters.  Though he was pointedly not religious, he was of sound moral character.  ‘Mr. Ash’ closed his store in about 1925 leaving Morris unemployed.  After that, he worked off and on in various other men’s clothing stores until his retirement in 1946.

 

SOURCES

As related by Margaret Laura Baker-Reavis


 

Laura Melissa Cartier

1888-1967

 

     Laura was the oldest of five children born in a sod house on a homestead near Elsie, Nebraska.  She came to La Grande, Oregon at the age of twelve via Butte, Montana after her father was killed in an Anaconda copper mine accident there.

     At nineteen she married Rollin who was then thirty three.  There followed two sons and a daughter.  (The sons had no children thus descendents of the daughter, Margaret, carry on this branch.)  Laura was unusually easy going, thoughtful, and happy throughout her life.  Though other family members had clashes and animosities, she was genuinely loved by all.

 

SOURCES

As related by Margaret Laura Baker-Reavis


 

Short Illness Claims Rollin M. Baker

 

     Rollin M. Baker, age 75, of 504 K. Avenue, passed away at a local hospital Monday June 28 following a short illness.
 

     Mr. Baker, a retired salesman, was born in Union, Oregon February 1, 1873, and had resided in Union County all of his life.
 

     Survivors include his wife, Laura M., of La Grande, 21 sons, Maurice of La Grande, and Robert of New Orleans, one daughter, L. Margaret Reavis and two grandchildren.
 

     Funeral services were conducted at the Arrivey and Daniels Funeral Home, Wednesday June 30, at 2:00 pm. With Rev. Louis Samson officiating, Burial followed in the Union Cemetery.

 

 

Rollin Maurice Baker Sr.

1826-1875

 

     Dr. Baker was born in Indians.  The family moved to Iowa when he was about fifteen.  He graduated from the Ohio State Medical College in 1848.  The following year he crossed the plains to California, probably involved in gold rush activity for about 12 years.  At the time of the Idaho mining excitement in 1862 he joined the migration to the gold fields there, living in Idaho City.  He later tried his luck at Granite Creek in Baker County, Oregon.


     The gold fever out of his system, he opened a medical practice in Union, Oregon which grew to be quite extensive.  His medical calls took him as far as Walla Walla in Washington Territory and throughout northeaster Oregon.  He was said to have owned three saddle horses and two teams for use in his professional work. 
However, in 1875, at the age of 49, he died of Typhoid Pneumonia.

 

SOURCES

The Doctor in Oregon by O. Larson, P. 309.  Obituary notice which apparently appeared in the “Mountain Sentinal,” date unknown. 

 

 

Lorinda Margaret Garner - Osborne - Baker - Sullivan

1844-1918

 

     Known as ‘Maggie,’ she was born near Mexico, Missouri.  She made an ox-team journey to Oregon in the Spring of 1864, probably in the company of her first husband, who seems to no longer have been present in 1866.  In any event, Maggie was a professional Nurse, and likely met Dr. Baker in a medical setting.  She was known to be a very attractive woman and the two married in 1870.  Dr. Baker then died in 1875 leaving his widow with three children under five years old.

     In 1878, at 34, she married John P. Sullivan.  However, within a year, a man who had harbored an obsession for Maggie since 1866, shot her and Mr. Sullivan late one evening as they passed by on the sidewalk.  Mr. Sullivan died, and Maggie suffered spinal damage, living the remaining 40 years of her life in a handicapped condition.

     Nonetheless, she maintained a positive outlook and had many close friends.  She took up painting, and her descendents have some of her nature scenes and a quilt on which she had painted flowers. (The cut glass pieces were hers.)

 

SOURCES

As related by Margaret Laura Baker-Reavis

The Daily Oregonian, June 15, 1878

Reavis Index

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