Henry Edwin Baker Jr. (1857 - 1928)

Born 1 Sep 1857 in Columbia, Marion, Mississippi, United States

Husband of Violetta (Clark) Baker — married 1894 in Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Died 27 Apr 1928 at age 70 in Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Pat Meyer [send private message]

Henry Baker Jr. is a part of US Black heritage.

Biography

Henry Baker Jr. is Notable.

Henry Baker, Jr. cataloged the patented inventions by African American inventors over several decades in the late 1880's and early 1900's. His work highlighted the many contributions of African Americans to the advancement of all Americans.

Henry Jr. was born in Mississippi to Henry and Phebe Baker, one of at least five children. Henry Sr. was a carpenter and Phebe was a homemaker. According to the 1870 US Census, he was the eldest of 4 siblings. There may have been other half siblngs in the family, according to the profile of the family on Ancestry.com.

At the time of the 1870 US Census, Henry, aged 13, was a clerk in a grocery store. By the 1880 Census, Henry was living in Washington, DC and was working at the US Patent Office as a clerk and living in a boarding house.

Henry met his wife, Violetta Clark(e) in Washington in the mid-1890's and they were married in 1894. Violetta was born in Canada and was married when she was 16 years old. She died in 1923. The couple had no children.

US Naval Academy Career

In 1874, Henry was appointed to the US Naval Academy by Congressman Henry W. Barry and was sworn in as a cadet midshipman on September 25, 1874. He would be the third African American to attend the US Naval Accademy. His time at the Naval Academy was difficult as he faced constant harassment and sometimes beatings, from the other midshipmen. Being provoked and the brunt of both physical and verbal abuse resulted in multiple disciplanary hearings and punishments for both Henry and the men who attacked him. After two years of abuse, Henry resigned his commission. In 1901 he recounted his time at the Academy in an article saying:

"I was several times attacked with stones, and was forced finally to appeal to the officers, when a marine was detailed to accompany me across the campus to and from mess hall at meal times. My books were mutilated, my clothes were cut, and in some instances destroyed, and all the petty annoyances which ingenuity could devise were inflicted upon me daily, and during seamanship practice attempts were often made to do me personal injury, while I would be aloft in the rigging. No one ever addressed me by name. I was called the "Moke" usually, the "damn nigger", for variety. I was shunned as if I were a veritable leper, and received curses and blows as the only method my persecutors had of relieving the monotony ..."

Patent Office Career

Henry left the Naval Academy in 1876 and completed his education at the Ben-Hyde Benton School of Technology in Washington, D.C., graduating in 1879. He then enrolled at Howard University School of Law and graduated at the top of his class in 1881. He also did post graduate work at Howard in 1883,

Henry began working at the US Patent Office in 1877 as a copyist and worked his way through the ranks. By 1902, with his degree from law school he had been appointed Second Assistant Patent Examiner and worked reviewing applications for new inventions or improvements to existing products. In the 1800's he began chronicaling the work of African American inventors in an effort to counter the prevaling thought that Black Ameticans were less intellegent and less creative than White Americans. In 1902 he wrote that he began his work to "offset ...the very widespread belief among those who ought to know better, that the colored man has done absouetly nothing in the line of invention. It is incombant upon our race... to let the world know the truth."

Compiling this list was not easy. Starting about 1886, Henry wrote to many fellow lawyers, Black community leaders and businessmen in an effort to locate inventors of color. Patent applications did not list the race of the inventor and many Black inventors were reluctant to identify their race for fear that the the invention would be stolen or that the inventor would not get credit. One lawyer from Tennessee replied that he thought Henry was joking with his request. Soon, however, Henry had 45 inventors on his list. It would grow to 370 over the next 4 years. The list reached over 800 names by 1913 which was when Henry published his work in his pamphlet The Colored Inventor: A Record of Fifty Years. Although Henry had collected more than 1200 names, many inventors asked not to have their names published.

One of the inventors who was listed was Elijah McCoy of Ypsilanti, Michigan who had at least 28 patents to his name. His most famous and useful inventions were designs for steam engine lubricators. While there were several other such devices, McCoy's device was the most common and best....giving rise to the phrase "get the real McCoy" when an engineer wanted the correct lubicator.

Henry's work was the first of it's kind and showed how creative and important inventions by Black Americans impacted on daily life. Whether the electrical inventions by Granville T. Woods or the shoe making machine of Jan E. Matzelinger that revoluntionized the industry, these inventors and inovations made life easier. Even after his death, inventors continued to send in material to be included in the listing to the Patent Office.

Death

Henry died in Washington, D.C. in 1928. He is buried in the now defunct Columbian Harmony Cemetery with his wife. It is thought that the graves were moved in the 1960's tothe National Harmony Cemetery in nearby Prince Georges' County Maryland, but there is no official record .gravesite listed in that cemetery for Henry or his wife.

Sources

Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_E._Baker

"United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6CQ-X59 : 13 January 2022), Henry E. Baker in household of David Warner, Washington, District of Columbia, United States; citing enumeration district , sheet , NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm .

"United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MKLP-MV7 : accessed 3 March 2023), Henry E Baker, Precinct 10, Washington, District of Columbia, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 209, sheet 23A, family , NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 155; FHL microfilm 1,374,168.

"United States Census, 1920", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MNG9-HQG : 1 February 2021), Henry E Baker, 1920.

1870 US Census at Ancestry.com- https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/36410550:7163?ssrc=pt&tid=153950717&pid=192034241346

"United States, GenealogyBank Historical Newspaper Obituaries, 1815-2011", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPB8-V659 : 18 July 2020), Eddie Hopkins and Eugene Brant and Charles Gusson and Henry Baker and Wesley Williams and Sam C Smith and John Cline and Cition William A Childers and Thomas Elmer Williard and George M Mickel and George W Simpson and James M Maloney and Charles H Gray and Ruth L Crampton and Heneretta Brown and Francis Snowden Hill and Leonora M Stacy and Rosa B Ridgely and Eloise Sprague Smith and Gustay E Escher and Sarah M Pennella and Eva Burrel and Amelia Gordon and Lucy Johnson and Bessie Goodrich and Addie Plowden and Bertha Stewart and Beatrice Cox, 1927.

"Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6ZW3-3K9Z : 20 October 2022), Henry Edwin Baker, ; Burial, Washington, District of Columbia, District of Columbia, United States of America, Columbian Harmony Cemetery Defunct; citing record ID 220044638, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.

Find a Grave - https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/220044638/henry-edwin-baker

Henry E. Baker's writings -

Baker, Henry E. (1913). The Colored Inventor: A Record of Fifty Years. New York City: The Crisis Publishing Company. Baker, Henry E. (1902). "The Negro as an Inventor". In Daniel Wallace Culp (ed.). Twentieth Century Negro Literature; Or, A Cyclopedia of Thought on the Vital Topics Relating to the American Negro. Naperville, Illinois; Toronto: J.L. Nichols & Company. pp. 398–413. ISBN 9780598621122. Baker, Henry E. (January 1, 1917). "The Negro in the Field of Invention". The Journal of Negro History. 2 (1): 21–36. doi:10.2307/2713474. ISSN 0022-2992. JSTOR 2713474.