Compiled by Russell Bastedo
State Curator
1998

Governor Nathaniel Baker 1854. Baker (1818-1876) was born at Henniker (NH). He attended Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard College (Class of 1839), then read law with Franklin Pierce at Concord (NH). He established a law practice at Concord in 1842.

Baker was a joint proprietor/publisher and editor (1841-1845) of the New Hampshire Patriot. He entered politics as the appointed (Democrat) Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas in 1845, and a year later became Clerk of Merrimack County Superior Court. Elected a State Representative (1850), Baker was made Chief Engineer of the Concord Fire Department in 1851. He was a Presidential Elector in the 1852 presidential campaign, and served as a trustee of St. Paul's School, at Concord. Baker won the 1854 gubernatorial campaign.

Governor Baker dealt with a fiery legislative session during his year in office. Resolutions denouncing the Kansas-Nebraska Bill and the Missouri Compromise failed to pass, but occasioned much debate. During Baker's term many new banks were incorporated and substantial new industries chartered (e.g. Abbot Coach Works, Manchester Locomotive Works). Baker signed an act empowering women to make wills; another act required that notices of intent to marry be filed with town clerks.

After his year as governor Baker moved to the "free" state of Iowa, which had become a state in 1846. He ran for governor (1855) but lost. Baker won election to the Iowa legislature in 1859, and he served as Iowa's Adjutant General from 1861 until his death.

Location: State House, Second Floor, Corridor, West Face, Beginning at Room 208
Portrait by A. Tenney; Presented by friends before 1872