Charles W. Baker—Among the most prominent and prosperous farmers and speculators of Algoma township, Kent county, is Charles W. Baker, whose face and name are familiar to all residents of the county, and in whose life these facts, it may be presumed, will be of interest to many, as they peruse the pages of the genealogical record of the representative citizens of Grand Rapids and Kent county. The subject of this sketch was born on the 28^th day of June, 1852, in Kent county, where he was reared, being the first child to grace the union of John W. and Barbara Ann (Gross) Baker. His father was a native of Stark county, Ohio, and was born about 1812, and died in 1888. He first came to Kent county in 1847, and soon after located in the township of Plainfield, where he lived for about thirty years, at the end of which time

a few months’ service, was honorably discharged on account of disability. His health remained impaired for many years, finally culminating in heart trouble, which was the cause of his untimely and lamented death. He was a devout Methodist, a class leader, and for four years superintendent of the Sunday-school attached to his church in Cascade. He was well read in the Bible and general literature, and, like his wife, was possessed of exquisite taste. Both were charter members of the Cascade grange, and both were a unit in their religious faith. Mrs. Beard still conducts the farm most successfully, aided by her son-in-law, and the family enjoy the esteem of all their neighbors. He removed to the state of Texas and there resided until his death. The mother of Charles W. Baker was a native of Pennsylvania, and was also born in 1812. She came to Kent county with her parents when but a child and met her husband in Plainfield township, where they were joined in matrimony. She died in 1869 and her remains are interred in the Rockford cemetery, where a beautiful monument has been raised to mark her resting place. One brother, Frank, and a sister, Ida, live in Indian territory, and one sister, Emma, is the wife of Lee Corbin, of Grand Rapids. Charles W. Baker began life for himself, when about twenty-five years of age, by leaving his father in Texas, having gone there with him two years before, and returning to Michigan, where he worked as a farm hand for a short time, and then for two years in the lumber woods at Sand Lake, hauling logs, etc. Subsequent to this he returned to Plainfield and rented the Samuel Gross farm in that township, remaining there for one year, and then renting the Smith farm in Alpine, where he resided about the same length of time. He then purchased sixty acres of land in Plainfield township and made this his home for about five years, at the end of which he traded it for his present home in section No. 35, Algoma township. Mr. Baker now owns two farms of 200 acres of well improved land, located in Algoma and Cannon township, forty acres which he has set to apples and peaches. By hard labor and good judgment he has amassed enough property to make his life enjoyable, He is widely known as proprietor of threshing machines, having conducted one for nearly twenty years. He has probably threshed more grain than any other operator in Kent county. On July 4, 1879, he was married to Miss Bertha Ecklesdafor, a native of Stark county, Ohio, born in 1853. Her parents, Ernest and Christina Ecklesdafor, came to Kent county, when the county was very new, and purchased the Baker homestead, where she made her home until marriage. Her father’s death occurred in 1891, at the age of eighty-three years. Her mother is still living and has attained the ripe old age of ninety-six years. She has three brothers—Ernest, Leonard and Frederick, and two sisters, Christina and Lena. Mr. and Mrs. Baker are the parents of four children, viz: Arnold E., proprietor of a meat market at Rockford, Mich., and Volney, Christina and Milda, all residing at home. In his political faith Mr. Baker is a supporter of the republican party and cast his first vote for James A, Garfield. Fraternally he is a member of Edgerton tent, K. O. T. M. Mr. Baker does not belong to any church, while Mrs. Baker is an active member of the Presbyterian, at Grand Rapids, and attends the Congregational church at Rockford. Both of them are ever ready to assist in a good cause and worthy benevolence. Socially the family stand very high in the esteem of the residents of Algoma township, as well as other townships in which they have lived, and none better deserve it.