My Genealogy Hound

R. TARVIN BAKER, one of the most distinguished men of Kentucky, was born on the Licking River, September 13, 1816. His father, Samuel Baker, a native of Westmoreland County, Penn., was a man of high culture and education, being a graduate of Gettysburg College; he immigrated to Kentucky in 1800, where he engaged in teaching, and was also a practical engineer and surveyor; his father was John Baker, a native of Ireland, and his wife, the mother of our subject, was a daughter of John and Jane Armstrong, who were Scotch people. R. Tarvin Baker was the fifth in a family of thirteen children, and was reared on the farm. When quite young, his father being sheriff of Campbell County, he became deputy sheriff and served several years. In the meantime he began the study of law, and attended the Cincinnati Law School, where he graduated March 5, 1844. He then moved to Illinois, and became the law partner of M. K. Browning, but remained only six months, however, when he returned to Campbell County, from which county he was elected to the Legislature in 1850. Altogether he has been in public life nearly thirty years, filling at one time, during a war exigency, in the term of Gov. McGoffin, the office of governor of Kentucky for a short time. As an attorney he had but few equals. His first marriage was with Miss Sarah Bell, daughter of Col. Benjamin D. Bell, of Campbell County; she lived but two years and eight months, and February 4, 1854, Mr. Baker married Mary J. Orr, daughter of Dr. John Orr, of Alexandria, and three sons and two daughters have blessed their union, viz.: William B., Courtland T., John S. (deceased), Sarah B. and Maggie O. William B. and Courtland are both attorneys of great promise.