Franklin Parish
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Hon. John Henry Baker. Among time substantial men of Franklin Parish, one who
has contributed to the beauty and prosperity of his community while advancing
his personal interests is Hon. John Henry Baker, proprietor of the handsome and
productive Nashdale Plantation. located in the Delhi community. For nearly a
quarter of a century he has served as a member of the police jury and during
this time has been instrumental in effecting many improvements that have aided
its citizens to the acquirement of better things.
Mr. Baker was born on
his present plantation, September 14, 1871, and is a son of Bushrod Washington
and Eliza (Nash) Baker. His maternal grandfather was Newton Nimrod Nash, for
whom time plantation was named, who came from Alabama in 1854, and bought and
developed considerable land in Ward 5, Franklin Parish, and around the present
location of Crowville. Bushrod Washington Baker was born in Alabama and during
the war between time states served with time Alabama troops in the Confederate
army. Later he became a commission merchant at Mobile, whence he came to
Louisiana and engaged in planting, also taking a prominent part in public life
and finally being elected from Franklin Parish to the State Legislature, in
which body he served one term. He died when his son, John Henry, was eleven
years of age, his widow surviving him until 1911, when she passed away at the
age of seventy-two years. They were the parents of six children, of whom two
grew to immaturity: John Henry and Lola. The latter, who is now deceased, was
the wife of W. R. Vivrett, an attorney of Weatherford, Texas.
At the time
of the death of her husband, Mrs. Baker moved to Tharp Springs, Texas, in order
to secure better educational advantages for her son, who attended Adrian College
at that place. In 1893 he returned to Louisiana to take personal charge of the
home place, and since then has opened many acres, now having 2,000 of his 3,500
acres under a high state of cultivation. He has built a modern home, one of the
most beautiful in the Parish of Franklin, and no plantation in Louisiana has a
better class of tenant houses. It has always been his desire to keep his labor
contented and happy and to surround his tenants with as many comforts as
possible. As a result he is greatly popular, and his work has served as an
example to other landowners in aiding modern methods and sanitation. An evidence
of his progressive and enlightened views is found in the fact that he was the
first to introduce and use modem road building machinery in the parish. For
twenty-four years Mr. Baker has been a member of the police jury of the parish,
and in point of service is the oldest official of this kind in Franklin. He is a
charter member of the Bank of Delhi and a member of the board of directors of
the Macon Ridge National Bank. He has never cared for lodge membership or for
participation in secret organizations of any nature.
In 1896 Mr. Baker
was united in n-marriage with Miss Louise Lanning, a daughter of W. A. Lanning,
of Mexia, Texas, and to this union there has been born one son, John Henry, Jr.,
born in 1910, who is now attending Central High School. Mrs. Baker is a member
of the Presbyterian Church.
Note: The referenced source contains an autographed portrait of the subject.
Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller, from A History of Louisiana, by Henry E. Chambers, published in 1925, volume 2, pages 23-24.
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