DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells this one, and I'm just the voice carryin' it down the road. Now, if you were going to build a man out of parts — a school, a church, a cattle drive, a frontier skirmish, a county office or two, and sixty years of careful diary-keeping — you might end up with somebody a lot like Jonathan Hamilton Baker. Ham Baker, they called him, and the name fits a man who seemed to cure everything he touched, eventually.
He was a Virginia native, Ham Baker was, and he came to Texas in 1858. Not alone — he rode in with his brother G. W.
Baker and his uncle Eli Young. Right away, Texas made its opinion known. Ham had been working as a teacher down in Fort Worth when malaria knocked him flat.
The frontier had a way of testing a man's intentions early. But Ham Baker was not the leaving kind. He moved west to Palo Pinto County, where another uncle, Frank Baker, was already homesteading — family had a tendency to scatter themselves across this country like seed.
And once Ham got his footing, he opened a school. Not just any schoolhouse gathering, mind you, but what is believed to be the first regularly organized school in Palo Pinto. Then, almost before the chalk dust settled, he helped establish the town's first Methodist church.
The man had barely arrived and already he was building civilization with both hands. Then came 1859, and the frontier reminded everyone it wasn't civilized yet. Baker was chosen to lead a company of local men organized to defend the area against Indian attacks.
He first served under Captain J. R. Baylor.
Later — and here's where the story sharpens into something folks still talk about — he participated with Captain Lawrence Sullivan Ross in the recovery of Cynthia Ann Parker. Cynthia Ann Parker, the white woman who had been seized by Comanches back in 1836. That is a name, and that is a story, written deep into the bone of Texas history.
And Ham Baker was there. Then the Civil War came along, and Baker took up the role of leader of the home guard. Keeping watch.
Holding the line at home while the wider world tore itself apart. When the war was done, Ham Baker turned to cattle. He was an open range cattleman, and in 1869 he began driving his herds north to Kansas railheads.
Long, slow, dangerous miles. He made those drives because that was how the work got done. And in between — or maybe all at the same time, because Ham Baker never seemed to slow down — he was serving Palo Pinto County in just about every capacity a county has to offer.
Deputy sheriff. Justice of the peace. Deputy postmaster.
Clerk of the county and district. The man collected public service the way some folks collect regrets. In 1890, he moved to Granbury, where he became a successful nurseryman.
A man who spent his younger years on the raw edge of the Texas frontier spent his later ones tending growing things. And through all of it — the malaria, the school, the church, the Indian campaigns, the cattle drives, the courthouse work, the nursery — Ham Baker kept a diary. For over sixty years he kept a detailed diary.
Every entry another page in one of the most thorough accounts of frontier Texas life that exists. Sixty years of days, written down. The man knew something worth remembering was happening, and he made sure none of it got lost.
What the marker says
Virginia native Jonathan Hamilton "Ham" Baker came to Texas in 1858 with his brother G. W. Baker and his uncle Eli Young. Stricken by malaria while a teacher in Fort Worth, he later moved to Palo Pinto County where his uncle Frank Baker was homesteading. Here he opened a school, believed to be the first regularly organized school in Palo Pinto, and soon after helped establish the town's first Methodist church. In 1859 Baker was chosen to lead a company of local men organized to defend the area against Indian attacks. He first served under Capt. J. R. Baylor and later participated with Capt. Lawrence Sullivan Ross in the recovery of Cynthia Ann Parker, the white woman seized by Comanches in 1836. During the Civil War he served as the leader of the home guard. Baker was also an open range cattleman, and in 1869 he began driving his herds to Kansas railheads. Active in local government, he served as deputy sheriff, justice of peace, deputy postmaster and clerk of the county and district. In 1890 he moved to Granbury, where he became a successful nurseryman. For over 60 years Baker kept a detailed diary, which now provides a thorough account of his distinguished life and the frontier of Texas.