A graveside marker for William Thatcher Baker, a Dallas county early pioneer and a Union sympathizer who made shoes for the Confederate Army, in Hamilton's Old IOOF Cemetery.
A full biolgraphy of William Thatcher Baker was assembled by Kathryne Baker Witty and Alma Baker Rea from family records and remembrances. It can be found here in its entirety (we have excerpted some below): (
visit link)
"[page 21] The following obituary appeared in Norton's Union Intel -
ligencer after William's death and is in the possession of
his youngest daughter, Mrs. Jacob Forrest Nicholson, Hamilton,
Texas :
"The departed year had its sad memories in the death roll
it presented to our view. Among the niomber of old pa-
trons of the Intelligencer was the following friend:
"W. T. Baker was born in Licking County, Ohio, on Octo-
ber 10th, 1830, and emigrated to Texas in the spring
of 1850, settling in the Pleasant Run Country four
miles southwest of Lancaster.
"He married Miss Emily E. Beeman near Weatherford, in
Parker County and remained on his farm in Dallas County
until the spring of 1879, when he moved to Plum Creek,
Hamilton County, where he continued to reside until death
overtook him on the morning of 18th of August, 1884.
"His principal occupation during life was farming. He was
honest, industrious, charitable, and generous. He was
very zealous in behalf of temperance and good morals.
Possessed of an investigative mind he was a diligent
inquirer for the truth and when satisfied he was in the
right, was a firm and unmovable Rock of Gibraltar. He
was on the Intelligencer list from the start and never
faltered or wavered in the support of the Constitution
and the Union. He endured much obloquy and persecution
for his devotion to the Stars and Stripes but firmly and
bravely he pursued the even tenor of his way until all
men who knew him came to respect and love him for his
own integrity and worth.
"In his new home he made good improvements and had pro-
cured after long effort the establishment of a post office
called Ohio of which he was postmaster at the time of his
death.
"There his family resides, and his boys, emulating the
example of their father will always have friends and
helpers." [end]