Edward Dickinson BAKER, Congress, OR (1811-1861)

BAKER, Edward Dickinson, a Representative from Illinois and a Senator from Oregon; born in London, England, February 24, 1811; immigrated to the United States in 1815 with his parents, who settled in Philadelphia, Pa.; moved to Illinois in 1825; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1830 and commenced practice in Springfield; member, State house of representatives 1837; member, State senate 1840-1844; elected as a Whig to the Twenty-ninth Congress and served from March 4, 1845, until his resignation on December 24, 1846, to take effect on January 15, 1847; commissioned colonel of the Fourth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, on July 4, 1846, and served until he was honorably mustered out on May 29, 1847; participated in the siege of Vera Cruz and commanded a brigade at Cerro Gordo; after the Mexican War moved to Galena, Ill.; elected as a Whig to the Thirty-first Congress (March 4, 1849-March 3, 1851); was not a candidate for renomination in 1850; moved to San Francisco, Calif., in 1851 and resumed the practice of law; moved to Oregon in 1860; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy in the term beginning March 4, 1859, and served from October 2, 1860, until his death; raised a regiment in New York City and Philadelphia during the Civil War; commissioned brigadier general of Volunteers May 17, 1861, but declined; colonel of the Seventy-first Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry and major general of Volunteers 1861; killed in the Battle of Balls Bluff, Va., October 21, 1861; interment in San Francisco National Cemetery, San Francisco, Calif.

Bibliography

Dictionary of American Biography; Blair, Harry, and Tarshis, Rebecca. Colonel Edward D. Baker: Lincoln’s Constant Ally. Portland: Oregon Historical Society, 1960; Braden, Gayle Anderson. “The Public Career of Edward Dickinson Baker.” Ph.D. dissertation, Vanderbilt University, 1960.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present