George Washington Baker
was the oldest son of John Twitty Baker and Mary A. Ashby, born abt. 1830
in Jackson County, Alabama. When gold was discovered in California, he is
said to have spent time in Columbia and Sonora in
Tuolumne County, and Stockton,
in San Joaquin County, before returning home to Carroll County, Arkansas
around 1850. (His younger brother John Henry Baker was said to have gone
to California with George W. Baker on that trip, although John H. Baker
would only have been around 15 years old at the time.) After his
return to Arkansas, he married Minerva Ann Beller, the daughter of William C. Beller
and Martha Lovina Wilburn, and they resided next to George W. Baker's
parents in Crooked Creek Township.
Planning to move to
California, George W. Baker, his wife Minerva Ann, and their four
young children, prepared for their journey, with the other family members
that comprised "The Baker Train". The group gathered, and made their
preparations, in the area of William C. Beller's homestead at Milum Spring
(also called Caravan Spring) near Minerva Ann's late father's store called
"Beller's Stand". With his family, George W. Baker departed from Carroll County in April 1857 with
"The Baker Train", which was under the leadership of his father, Captain
John Twitty Baker. Also traveling with his family were his wife's orphaned
siblings, Melissa Ann Beller, and
David W. Beller, who were his wards.
They planned to move to California, and took with them about $500 in cash,
2 ox wagons and chains, a rifle, a double-barreled shotgun, 8 yoke of oxen, 3
young mares, 136 head of cattle, and beds, bedding, provisions, clothing
and other possessions.
Depositions regarding
the livestock and possessions that George W. Baker had when he departed
from Carroll County were given by his brother John Henry Baker, (whose
wife Sarah Elizabeth (Deshazo) Baker was the brother of Mountain Meadows
Massacre victim Allen P. Deshazo), Minerva Ann
(Beller) Baker's brothers, William C. Beller and Irvin T. Beller, and
Minerva Ann's brother-in-law Joseph Benjamin Baines. Before leaving for
California, Baines had paid George W. Baker $700 in cash, as guardian of
Melissa Ann Beller. George W. Baker also had two hired hands with him.
If his daughter Sarah
Frances' account is accurate, George Washington Baker appears to have died
in the initial surprise attack on 7 September 1857. Her account says her
sister, Martha Elizabeth, told her she had been
sitting on her father's lap, and the bullet that killed him nicked Sarah's
ear. He would then
probably have been among the ten men killed during the five-day siege that
the Arkansas Emigrants buried somewhere within the circled wagons of the
encampment (located west of the 1999 Monument in the valley).
George Washington Baker was 27 years old
when he died. His wife,
Minerva Ann (Beller) Baker, and
their oldest child, Mary Lovina Baker, also died in the Mountain Meadows
Massacre, along with his father, John Twitty Baker,
his brother Abel Baker, his sister
Sarah C. (Baker) Mitchell, his
brother-in-law Charles Roark Mitchell,
and his nephew John Mitchell. George
Washington Baker's
three youngest children, Martha Elizabeth "Betty" Baker, born 7 March 1852, Sarah
Frances "Sally" Baker, born 20 November 1854, and William Twitty "Billy" Baker, born 15
November 1856, survived the Massacre and were returned to their paternal
grandmother, Mary A. (Ashby) Baker, in 1859.
© 2008 A.C. Wallner for the
Mountain Meadows Association. All rights reserved
Inscription:
IN MEMORIAM
IN THE VALLEY
BELOW BETWEEN SEPTEMBER 7 AND 11, 1857, A COMPANY OF MORE THAN 120
ARKANSAS EMIGRANTS LED BY CAPT. JOHN T. BAKER AND CAPT. ALEXANDER
FANCHER WAS ATTACKED WHILE EN ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. THIS EVENT IS
KNOWN IN HISTORY AS THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE
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