Jonathan Hamilton Baker Collection

Historical Note

Jonathan Hamilton Baker (July 13, 1832 - October 18, 1918) was an early pioneer in frontier Northwest Texas. A Virginia native, 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. He opened a school in Palo Pinto and soon after helped form 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 served under Captain J. R. Baylor and later worked with Captain Lawrence Sullivan Ross to recover Cynthia Ann Parker, a settler captured by a group of Comanche, in 1836. During the Civil War, Baker served as leader of the home guard. He was also an open-range cattleman, and he began driving his herds to Kansas railheads in 1869. Active in local government, he served as Deputy Sheriff, Justice of the Peace, Deputy Postmaster, and Clerk of the County and District. In 1890, he moved to Granbury, where he became a successful nurseryman. He and his wife, Nancy A., are buried in Granbury Cemetery, Hood County, Texas.

For more than 60 years, Baker kept a detailed diary, which provides a thorough account of life in frontier Northwest Texas. This journal covers from the day Jonathan Hamilton Baker set off from Virginia for Texas on March 1, 1858 to 1918.

A historical marker, which mentions this diary, is dedicated to Baker on the Courthouse Square of Palo Pinto County.

Biographical research materials on Baker and his family are available in the Karen Ann Walls Collection.

Scope and Contents

Materials in the Jonathan Hamilton Baker Collection were donated by separate donors. The diary was donated by the Francher family, and the additional correspondence and records were donated by the Silent Wings Museum in Lubbock, Texas, which originally received them from the Young family.

Transcriptions of the diary exist in the Ty Cashion Collection and the Tarrant County Jr. College Collection. The diary has restrictions on use for publication. Contact the Archives for more information.

Materials in this collection consist of the following:

• Jonathan Hamilton Baker diary, 1858-1918
• Jonathan Hamilton Baker letter to cousin Jane Young, from Clinton, Virginia, June 4-5, 1854
• Jonathan Hamilton Baker letter to cousin, from Independence, Virginia, May 27, 1875
• Ledger pages relating to proceedings of house government meeting in Virginia, November 16, 1855 - February 15, 1856
• Jonathan Hamilton Baker letter to L. J. Young, from Palo Pinto, Texas, August 21, 1861