Tulare County Biographies

P. Y. BAKER

Submitted by Sally Kaleta, March, 2007

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	P. Y. BAKER, a prominent citizen of Tulare County and one 
of the founders of the town of Traver, dates his birth in Rock Island County, 
Illinois, April 13, 1842. He comes of German ancestry and is a son of Thomas 
Jefferson and Catharine (Yaple) Baker, both natives of New York, his mother's 
ancestors having originated in Holland. To his parents thirteen children were 
born; eight grew to maturity and five are still living, Peter Yaple Baker being 
the their youngest child. He was reared and educated in his native place until 
he reached his seventeenth year. He had the misfortune to lose his parents when 
a small boy, his father dying in 1847 and his mother in 1849. In 1859 Mr. Baker 
came to California and sought his fortune in the mining districts of Placer 
County. Previous to his coming here he had been working as a farm hand in 
Illinois for seven dollars per month, the usual price paid for that kind of 
labor there then, receiving his money in paper currency. Upon his arrival in the 
mines he had a one-dollar bill left, which was a curiosity to the miners, but 
which was of no intrinsic value where the yellow gold was so plenty. Mr. Baker 
began work at three dollars per day, and from the last of 1859 to the first of 
1861 he saved from his mining operations about $1,500. Then the great excitement 
of the war came on. He became deeply interested in the Union cause, and in 
September, 1861, enlisted in the California Volunteers, expecting to go East. He 
first enlisted in Company C, and afterward as a veteran in Company G, Second 
Infantry. They, however, were retained on the coast, and did efficient duty in 
keeping the Indians in subjection at Fort Collville and in Humboldt County and 
at the Indian reservation in Del Norte County. At the close of the war Mr. Baker 
was honorably discharged and returned East. He settled in Pottawatomie County, 
Kansas, where he farmed and dealt in real estate for nine years. While there he 
was elected County Surveyor and County Clerk and also served two terms in the 
State Legislature, 1868-'69. He came back to California in 1875, and for a time 
was employed in surveying and making colored maps of Stanislaus and Tulare 
Counties, for which work he received fair compensation. Then for six years he 
was engaged in the real-estate and abstract business at Visalia. In 1882 he 
organized the " '76" Land and Water Co., and became the superintendent of 
construction of its canals. This canal is 100 feet wide at the bottom, with a 
slope of from one to three feet, five feet deep, and conveys 1,400 cubic feet of 
water every second. At this writing (1891) it supplies 130,000 acres of land 
with an abundance of water for irrigating purposes, and it is expected that in 
time it will cover 300,000 acres of land. It is the largest canal in the United 
States. The company purchased 30,000 acres of land at four dollars per acre, 
have sold large quantities of it, and its present value is $100 per acre. In 
1887 Mr. Baker sold his interest in it, and in 1888 became largely interested in 
the formation of the Alta Irrigation District, being one of its directors from 
the start. In 1890 the people of the Alta Irrigation District purchased the 
canal and they are now engaged in putting water on the whole track. Mr. Baker 
owns a farm of 400 acres, located two miles and a half east of Traver, where he 
has built a nice residence and where he is engaged in raising fruit, grain, 
alfalfa and fine stock. His specialty in cattle is the Holstein breed, and he is 
the importer of some fine specimens of this stock. His horses are Electioneer 
stock, he being the owner of "P. Y. B.," an animal of great merit. Fifty acres 
of his land are devoted to raisin grapes and ten are in French prunes. He has 
200 date trees, four years old, grown from seed. In addition to all this, Mr. 
Baker continues his real-estate business and has an office at Traver. In 1867 he 
was married to Miss Josephine Smith, and by her had one daughter, Josephine L. 
After seven years of happy married life, Mrs. Baker died, in 1874. Two years 
later he wedded Miss Augusta Ferguson, and their union has been blessed with two 
sons, Max E. and Ray W. Mr. Baker is a member of the A. O. U. W. and of the G. 
A. R. He is Quartermaster of the Sixth Regiment of National Guards of 
California. They are equipped by the State, and he has always been a stanch 
Republican, having cast his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln. Having 
helped to found the town of Traver and develop the resources of the surrounding 
country, Mr. Baker takes a just pride in the progress already made and has great 
faith in its future.
 
Source: "The Memorial and Biographical History of the Counties of Fresno, Tulare 
and Kern, California," Lewis Publ. Co., 1892, pp. 404-405.