California Biographies 

Source:
History of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties, California
by: C M Gidney - Santa Barbara. Benjamin Brooks - San Luis Obispo. 
Edwin M Sheridan - Ventura
Volumes II - Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, ILL., 1917

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

EDWIN F. BAKER, who has resided for the past thirty years at Nordhoff in Ventura County, and 
has some investments in this part of the state, spent the active part of his business career in the 
State of Washington. He represents one of the earliest and most prominent pioneer families of 
the far Northwest.
He is a son of Dr. Dorsey S. Baker, who crossed the plains in 1847 to Oregon, and for one year 
practiced his profession of medicine in Port- land. His business interests multiplied rapidly, and 
he soon gave up his profession. Moving to Oakland, Oregon, he established the first grist mill in 
that part of the state. He sold that property in 1857 and returning to Portland was engaged in 
the hardware business three years. The high tide of his business career was at Walla Walla, 
Washington, where he established a general merchandise store and also the Baker-Boyer Bank, 
of which he was president. In 1871 he began the construction of the Walla Walla & Columbia 
River Railroad, which was completed in 1875. He was the first president of this railroad. The 
Baker-Boyer Bank was reorganized as the Baker-Boyer National Bank, in the year 1889. In 1850 
Doctor Baker married at Portland, Oregon, Caroline Tibbetts.
Mr. Edwin F. Baker, who was born in Portland, Oregon, May 29, 1851, was liberally educated in 
the public schools and Whitman Seminary of Walla Walla, Washington, and in the Pacific 
University at Forest Grove, Oregon. As a young man he began familiarizing himself with the 
various interests of his father, worked as a clerk, and subsequently became treasurer and vice 
president of the railroad in the construction of which his father had been the leading spirit. This 
railroad in 1879 was sold to the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company, and has since been 
part of that general system. Mr. Baker established a lumber industry, known as the Mill Creek 
Flume & Manufacturing Company. He was vice president and treasurer of .that concern. This 
company constructed a fifteen mile line of railroad from Dixie to Walla Walla, Washington, 
connecting with the flume from the company's sawmill located in Umatilla County, Oregon. In 
1885, Mr. Baker sold his interests in the lumber industry, but he is still a stockholder in the 
Baker-Boyer National Bank of Walla Walla, and is a half owner in the Baker & Baker Company, 
real estate and loans, at Walla Walla. He also has extensive farming interests in Washington.
Mr. Baker came to Nordhoff, California, in 1886, has a beautiful home there, but otherwise has 
not participated actively in local business affairs. Politically he is a republican. Mr. Baker was 
married at Walla Walla, Washington, October 21, 1875, to Miss Sarah A. Miller. They are the 
parents of seven children. Edith F., oldest daughter, died at Nordhoff, California, in 1906. D. F. 
Baker is secretary and treasurer of the Baker & Baker Company of Walla Walla, Washington. 
Charles E. still lives at Nordhoff. Alice M. is a student of music at Pasadena, California. M. Edna 
is preparing for a career as a teacher at Pasadena. Sara A. is engaged in social settlement work 
in the City of San Francisco. Helen is now a student in the University of California.