Description
Abram Baker, father of C. S. L. Baker, the negro inventor of St. Joseph, was in the city yesterday, having come from Savannah, his home, to visit relatives here.
Baker is among the oldest ex-slave residents of the Platte Purchase, having come to Platte County 73 years ago - in 1831. He has lived in Savannah and vicinity for 32 years.
At the age of 82 years the ex-slave’s memory is remarkably clear concerning events of the early days in this locality; events which now almost have passed from the memory of the living. Baker recalls the time of the removal of the Indians from the swamp region about Chicago, when 1,500 of the aborigines camped for a period of weeks in the vicinity of Plattsburg, while being conducted to new lands near Council Bluffs,
The incidents of the “Mormon War,” when the peculiar sect was driven from homes in Jackson County, also are vividly recalled. He remembers the motley caravans of ox teams and pedestrians who straggled through the frontier village so many years ago.
Jim Birch, Jack Gordon, Dave Atchison, General Alexander Doniphan and Dr. Wood are names familiarly applied by Baker to the notable men known by the slave boy who blacked their boots when they used to come from Liberty to Plattsburg to attend the sessions old the circuit court.
Joe Hunter, who brought Baker to Missouri from Kentucky, kept the famous pioneer tavern at Plattsburg. Baker was a waiter and by this means possessed advantages of observation which few in his station enjoyed.
In relating occurrences and incidents, of the early days the old ex-slave continually refers to the “Rock House Prairie,” “Blacksnake Hill,” “Robidoux’s Landing” and other descriptive terms which now have passed from use except by the few survivors of the good old days that are gone. - Wednesday’s News and Press.Date(s) of Creation
12/16/1904
