Dr. George Washington Baker, Jr. ~ Index
Dr. G.W. Baker, Jr. >
A resident of Utah for seventy-two years, Dr. George W. Baker, has been a subscriber to the Ogden Standard Examiner for over forty of those years and is one of the oldest practicing physicians in Ogden City. Born in Mendon, Cache County, October 9th 1862, a son of George Washington Baker and Agnes Richards Baker. Dr. Baker passed his early years amid the pioneer surroundings of the Wasatch mountains. In those early days fish and game formed an important part of the family larder and Dr. Baker has never lost his love for fishing and hunting. He was one of the first members of the Weber County Fish and Game Protective Association each season finds him in the outdoors.
In telling of his early life Dr. Baker said:
My father crossed the plains in 1847, arriving in October, after the original band had reached Salt Lake Valley. My mother crossed the plains in 1858. They married and settled in Cache Valley about 1865, being one of the first families in that region of northern Utah. I remember the abundance of wild game in those days proved a big help to the settlers whenever powder and shot could be obtained. We had wild chickens, deer, bear, mountain hares, cottontails and trout to eat. I have caught many pounds of fine big trout in Paradise Creek or the Little Bear, Logan River and other streams when my tackle consisted of a willow stick, a piece of store string and a bent pin for a hook.
When I was sixteen, I had a muzzle loading single shot, thrity-eight inch sixteen gauge shotgun. The first day I went out hunting I got four prairie chickens and a rabbit within a short distance of our house. I attended the country school and later went to the old Brigham Young Collage in Logan. Then we came to Ogden and located here in 1889. I then went back to attend the Rush Medical Collage at Chicago and was graduated in May 1894. I went to Logan that year and practiced medicine for several months. Then I returned to Ogden in February, 1895. Dr. Ezra C. Rich had opened a practice here a few months previous. He and Dr. John Driver are the only two physicians now here that have practiced longer than I have in Ogden.
In 1897 I married Miss Oralie M. Atwood of Murray. We have three children, Dr. George Lowell Baker, Mrs. Virginia Baker Jost and Miss Dorothy Baker. Over forty years ago I subscribed to the Ogden Standard Examiner and have continued ever since.
Dr. and Mrs. Baker reside at 462 Twenty-seventh street, Ogden, Utah.