Samuel Leavitt Baker ~ Index
Samuel Leavitt Baker was born June 26, 1856 at Salt Lake City, Utah, the son of Simon Baker and Charlotte Leavitt, early converts to the L.D.S. Church, and pioneers of Utah. Ann Eliza Leavitt was born February 9th, 1858 at Wellsville, Utah the daughter of Thomas Rowell Leavitt and Ann Eliza Jenkins, pioneer immigrants to Cardston in 1887.
Samuel, with other Baker children, attended a private school in the home of an uncle in Salt Lake City, until the family moved to Mendon, Utah. There Samuel's father, Simon, died in 1863 when Samuel was only seven years old. But Charlotte was equal to the task of raising nine children of her own, as well as eight step-children. Samuel continued his schooling in Mendon, becoming an excellent penman for which he received a cherished, engraved certificate of merit.
As a young man, Samuel worked at farm labor and at railroad construction. Of necessity he practiced frugality. He told of carrying his shoes under his arm when he went to court Ann Eliza, and putting them on only when he got in sight of her home; then taking them off again on the way home. He always said that Ann was the most beautiful girl in Cache Valley; and certainly hers was the most melodious singing voice in Wellsville.
Samuel and Ann were married in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City on September 18th, 1876, after which they lived in a comfortable rock house that Samuel, with the aid of his brothers, built in Mendon. Six children, all daughters, were born to them in Utah: Mildred, Martha, Charlotte, Annie, Esther and Mary.
In May 1890 this family left Mendon by team and wagon to come to Canada. Several Leavitt families and friends were in the party. They arrived in Cardston July 8th, 1890 and made their home there for the next five years. The first winter they lived in a tent. Then Samuel brought logs from the mountains and built a two-room house. He bought 160 acres on Buffalo Flats (Leavitt), and built a house and other buildings on it; but did not move his family there until 1895.
At Cardston Samuel L. Baker Jr. and a seventh daughter, Phoebe, were born. After moving to Leavitt, the Bakers were blessed with three more daughters: Alice, Zina and Hattie; making a family of eleven children, ten daughters and one son.
At Cardston, Samuel worked for wages, freighted to and from Lethbridge, and hauled timber from the mountains. At Leavitt, he engaged mainly in mixed farming. He had the first threshing machine in the district. It was a sort of community enterprise that moved from one field of grain to another until the harvest was over.
Because there was an inadequate supply of good water on the farm, Samuel had a well dug west of the house, and obtained an artesian flow of pure, soft water. A rock cellar was built over the well, with a cement sump in one corner to hold the water. One pipe from the sump led water off into a trough for the livestock, and another pipe led water into the house. As far as is known, it was the only artesian well in the district.
Samuel and Annie L. Baker made of their humble dwelling place a home. Their door was always open to friend or stranger alike. Annie was a frugal housewife, and an exemplary parent. She had complete faith in God, and a sincere respect and obedience for church authority. She had taken a course in home nursing and obstetrics, and qualified herself to give service in these fields. During her lifetime she delivered over six-hundred babies in Leavitt and surrounding areas without losing a single mother or child. Samuel gave her every assistance in this labor of love. Although he was a kind and gentle person, he was strong and rugged. In his mind there was no compromising with wrong. His great desire was to raise a family of good, honest, courageous, and disciplined children.
The Bakers were diligent in helping to build the community where they lived. Samuel was on the Leavitt School Board for many years, and both held many church positions. When the Leavitt Branch was organized in November 1896, Ann Eliza was called to be Relief Society President, a position she held until 1921.
Sam and Annie were called to be officiators in the Alberta, Temple upon its completion in 1923. At that time they moved back to Cardston where they remained until their passing. On September 19th, 1926 nearly the entire Leavitt Ward gathered to honor them on the occasion of their fiftieth wedding anniversary.
Annie L. Baker died July 3rd, 1933; and Samuel on August 15th, 1935. They were buried in the Cardston cemetery.
On June 26th, 1970 a beautiful plaque in commemoration of Annie L. Baker's service to the community was presented to the Leavitt Ward by Lawrence Clark Leavitt and his wife, Mary. It stands in the Leavitt church yard.
In part, the plaque reads:
A great humanitarian whose life of service and sacrifice for her fellowmen has inspired and blessed many. She traveled these hills and valleys and nearby towns to deliver hundreds of babies and care for the sick. No storm was too severe to stop her.