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David Elmer Baker

David Elmer Baker, Mayor of Clermont, is one of the highly esteemed citizens and honored pioneers of Fayette County. He is a native of Champaign County, Ohio, where his birth occurred on the 10th of January, 1836. His parents, also John T. and Ann J. (Robinson) Baker, were natives of the Buckeye State, whence they removed to Rock Grove,  Ill.. and in 1839 to Rock County, Wis., where they spent their last days.  His mother died at the age of thirty-five years in the faith of the Methodist Church, of which she was a zealous member. She left seven children, six of whom, five sons and a daughter, are yet living.  Mr. Baker afterwards wedded Mrs. Sales, and unto them was born one daughter. His death occurred at the age of sixty-seven years. He was also a member of the Methodist Church and in politics was a Whig and Republican.

Of the family, our subject was the eldest. He spent his boyhood days upon his father's farm and in early life was inured to the hardships of the frontier and the labors attending the development of land in the pioneer regions. His education was acquired in the log school house and at best was but meager. At an early age he began learning the cooper's trade which he followed for many year's in pursuit of fortune.  On the 7th of April 1853 he was united in the holy bonds of bonds of matrimony with Miss Anna Cox, a native of England, born in Devonshire, on the 14th of November, 1837. She spent the first thirteen years of her life in that country, and then with her parents came to the United States.

In the same year of his marriage, Mr. Baker came to Clermont and for some time worked at his trade of coopering, after which he opened a meat market that he has now carried on for the long period of twenty years.  As a business man, he is enterprising and sagacious and attends carefully to all details. However he has found time to devote to public interests and has been honored with a number of official positions, having been Justice of the Peace six years, Township Trustee and Mayor.  The two last named official positions, he yet fills, being now in his eighth year of service as Mayor of Clermont. His long continuance in the same office expresses the confidence reposed in him by the voters of the town and his faithfulness to duty. Politically, he was a Republican until the passage of the prohibition law since which time he has supported the Democratic party.  Socially, he is an Odd Fellow and his wife belongs to the Methodist Church.