IDFirstMiddleLastDOBDODCOD
4JamesV.Baker5/1/18092/9/1865Pneumonia

veteran
exhumed
purchaser
cemetery
N/ATRUEN/AAdams Street

lot
plot
N/AR 12 G 7 "J.V.B." headstone R 12 G 5 family pillar with full inscription, north face Lot marker found to north of pillar says "104"
relations
Julia Ann Baker (wife, b. Aug 1808, d. 3 Feb 1881) Mary Baker Brown (daughter, b. c1829) E. B. Brown (son-in-law) Lyman Baker (son, b. c1832, d. 18 Feb 1887) Juliette Bevans Baker (daughter-in-law, married to Lyman) Lucy Baker Woodbridge (daughter, b. c1835) Roselle B. Woodbridge (grand-daughter, b. c1874 to Lucy) Rosa Jennie Baker Lyman (daughter, b. c1842) M. Frances "Frankey" Baker (daughter, b. c1848, d. 15 August 1858) Jacon Myers (brother-in-law)

comments
James Baker was born 1 May 1809 in New York (Ancestry.com). He married Julia Ann Myers c. 1829 in New York, where they had two children, Mary and Lyman. The family moved to Carlisle, Lorain County, in 1833, and then to Berea in 1849 (Julia Ann Baker obituary). James became a prominent quarry owner during the early days of Berea's sandstone quarry industry. His quarry was known as the "J.V. Baker and Sons" quarry in the 1850s (Sego 19). His family was enumerated in the 1850 census in Middleburg Twp. He was 41, gave his occupation as carpenter, married to Julia Ann (41), with daughter Mary (21), son Lyman (18), daughter Lucy (15), and daughter Rosa J. (8). James, Julia, Mary, and Lyman were born in NY, the other children in Ohio. All children had attended school within the year. His neighbors were Fletcher Hulet and Henry Bevans, also prominent early citizens. They lived on the south side of Berea, on Main St., the "fashionable" side of town. James purchased lot 40 in the Berea Seminary plat for $150 in Dec. 1851; the lot was 98.45% of one acre (James Baker deed, 14 Feb 1852). He sold the same lot to Samuel Hulett of Strongsville on 6 Sept 1852 for $220 (James Baker deed, 20 Dec 1852). Lot 40 was located on the south side of Elm St, in an area that is now part of the Metroparks near S. Rocky River Dr. (Historical maps, Map drawers, Berea Historical Society). A member of the experimental Methodist community that took root in Berea in the 1840s, James Baker served as one of the Trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church, along with James Wallace, N. M. Chapman, Caleb Patterson, George R. Whitney, John Baldwin, Fletcher Hulet, Lewis Curtiss, and Silas Clapp. On 4 May 1852, these trustees obtained a lot from the Trustees of the Berea Seminary to build Berea's first church. The lot was no. 116 and one rod's width of 115, which cost them $5 (James Baker deed, 29 July 1856). James Baker donated stone and labor from his quarry to build the church, known as the Old Stone Church. He also donated the stone to build South Hall, the ladies dormitory for Baldwin University (History of Methodism in Berea 49). Also, like many of the town's ardent Methodists, James Baker and his family were abolitionists. Their house was a station on the Underground Railroad ("Memorial"). James also served as estate administrator for Lewis Curtiss, who died in 1855 and left business unfinished. James applied to represent Curtis, who had a widow and minor son, in Probate Court, and then approved the transfer of land (lot 96) that Curtiss had sold to Charles Lyon before his death (James Baker deed, 30 Sept 1856). The Bakers' youngest daughter, Frances or "Frankey," died on 15 August of 1858 and was buried on August 16th in the Berea Village Cemetery. Berea's list of burials records her age as ten, although she did not appear in the 1850 census. James served as mayor of Berea in 1859 (Shaw). The family was enumerated again in the 1860 census, in Berea, as James B. Baker, age 52, a grindstone maker with real estate worth $1,000 and personal property worth $10,000. Wife Julia was 52, daughter Lucy was 24, and daughter Jane or Jeane was 18. Their neighbors were Z.P. Disbro, a physician, and Caroline Marsh. His son, Lyman Baker, was the village recorder, and kept Berea's list of deaths and burials in the village cemetery. He took over his father's business and ran it under the name "Lyman Baker and Co."; that quarry merged into Berea Stone Co. in 1871 (Sego 19). James V. Baker died in 1865 at age 55 of pneumonia and was buried next to his daughter's grave, in lot 104. Berea's list of burials for 1865 said only "Feb. 13 J.V. Baker -- pneumonia". His wife Julia was buried next to them 3 February 1881; she and her widowed daughter Mrs. Lucy Woodbridge had continued to operate their Underground Railroad Station after James's death ("Memorial"). In 1899, both buildings that James Baker had built for the Methodists in Berea were burned within a week of one another. The first to burn was South Hall, then within a week, the Stone Church. Both buildings sat atop rich veins of sandstone. The Stone Church had stood on the very edge of the Big Quarry, where Coe Lake is now located. From its foundation there was a drop of over 100 ft. The Cleveland Stone Co. attempted to purchase it, with the intent of following the vein of sandstone underneath. After the fires, the Cleveland Stone Co. bought both buildings and the entire campus of Baldwin University, which was moved to its current location on the north campus of Baldwin-Wallace College. Arson was suspected, but never proven (History of Methodism 49). The family house was also destroyed by quarrying activities, as was much of Berea's south side. James, Julia, and Frankey Baker are still buried in Adams St. Cemetery. Their tombstones were described in 1904 as "Frankey Baker, son [sic] of Jas. V. and Julia A. Baker, d. Aug. 15, 1858, ae. 10 years" and "James V. Baker, d. Feb. 9, 1865, ae 55 yrs. 9 mo. 8 da." and "Julia A. Baker, d. Feb. 3, 1881 ae 72 yrs". In 1934, the stones were transcribed as "James V. Baker, died Feb 9, 1865, ae 55 yrs, 9 m, 8 d; Julia A., Feb 3, 1881, age 72 yrs; Frankey, died Aug 15, 1853, age 10 yrs". In 2007, the family pillar was found to be in good condition, of marble but very dirty and somewhat worn. The inscriptions were still legible. There are small individual headstones reading "J.V.B." and "J.A.B." and a lot marker with hand-carved inscription "104." Frankey's individual headstone, of white marble, is to the west and now appears to say "FRANKEY. DIED Aug 15, 1858. 6 yrs". A marble footstone says "FRANKEY" across the top; it was broken and reattached to the base with a black rubber cement. In 2007, student researchers found a reference to a Dr. B. W. Baker, living in Columbia, OH, as a great-grandson of the Hoadley-Hickox family, earliest settlers of Middleburg Twp. Some of Lyman Baker's papers are in this collection, as well as other Bakers. Nothing relating directly to James Baker was found (Hoadley and Hickox papers, 1792-1926).

sources
One World Tree, James V. Baker, Ancestry.com Mickey Sago, Then There Was None: A History of the Berea Sandstone Quarries. Berea: Berea Area Historical Society, 1996. 1850 US Federal census, James Baker household, Series: M432 Roll: 673 Page: 183 James Baker deeds, 14 Feb 1852, 20 Dec 1852, 27 Aug 1855, 29 July 1855, 30 Sept 1856; Cuyahoga County Recorder's Office online. Historical maps, map drawers, Berea Historical Society "Persons buried in Adams St. Cemetery," City of Berea Records "List of Burials and Names 1856-1871," City of Berea Records Willard H. Shaw, A Collection of Historical Facts on Berea, Ohio. Centennial,1836-1936. Souvenir edition. Berea, OH: Mohler Printing Co., 1936. History of Methodism in Berea, 1843-1976. Berea, OH: N.p., 1976. "Memorial to the Pioneering Women of the Western Reserve," Women's Department of Cleveland Commission, 1896; www.rootsweb.org 1860 US Federal Census, James B. Baker household, series M653, roll 954, p. 126; Ancestry.com "Number of Burial lots and prices," Adams Street Cemetery folder, Berea Historical Society. Julia Ann Baker obituary, The Berea Advertiser, 10 February 1881, p.3 c.4 E. S. Loomis and D. T. Gould, "Inscriptions from the Old Berea Cemetery," 1904, Berea Historical Society "Cuyahoga Cemetery Inscriptions," Vol. I, compiled by the Western Reserve Historical Society Hickox and Hoadley family chronicles, container 1, folder 2, Hoadley and Hickox papers collection, 1792-1926, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, OH. Unexplored Lyman Baker papers in same collection. Lyman and Juliette Bevans Baker monument, Woodvale Cemetery, Middleburg Heights, OH. James V. Baker tombstone photograph, Jeremy Feador, 2007.