In celebration of the 250th Anniversary of our country, local members of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution will highlight the patriots buried in Southeast Missouri.
Elijah was born about 1759 in Albemarle County, Virginia, to Bartholomew Baker, Jr. and mother not verified.
Elijah Baker was still living in Albemarle County, Virginia, when he volunteered in August of 1779 as a private in the 1st Regiment of Horse of the Continental Light Dragoons of the Virginian Line in the company led by Captain Charles Carter under the command of Colonel Theodorick Bland under General Lafayette. He fought in the Battles of Brandywine, Germantown, Guilford Courthouse, and the Siege of Yorktown, among others. Elijah remained with the 1st Regiment until he was discharged after the capture of Yorktown and the surrender of Cornwallis in 1781.
After moving to Lincoln County, Kentucky, Elijah married Elizabeth McClure on January 7, 1788. Their three girls all married and settled in Missouri: Sarah Ann Baker married (John Morrison), Elizabeth Baker married (Joseph Pinson), Mary Baker married (James Spelman). Of the six boys, Isaiah Baker married (Elizabeth Gordman), Thomas Milton Baker married (Jane Murrell), Orson Baker married (Elizabeth Mothershead) also settled in Missouri. James Jackson Baker married (Sophia Taylor) and chose to live in Illinois. The other two, Francis Theopholas Baker and John Edward Baker residence is unknown currently.
In 1828, while residing in Hopkins County, he applied for and received a pension for his Revolutionary War service. By 1832, Elijah had moved to Jefferson County, Missouri, where he remained until his death on July 16, 1836, and is buried at Wellington, Jefferson County, Missouri. In December 2024, the Louisiana Purchase Chapter NSDAR dedicated a marker commemorating the Patriots buried in Jefferson County, Missouri.
Sources
1. Kentucky Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1810-1890
2. Ancestry.com Operations Inc: Location: Provo, UT, USA: Date: 1999
3. U. S Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1900.
4. Southern Campaign American Revolution Pension Statements & RostersS17830 https://revwarapps.org/
5. "Year Book of the Sons of the Revolution in the State of Missouri 1896." Compiled by the Sec’y - Press of Woodward & Tiernan Printing Company, St. Louis.
6. “Soldiers of the American Revolution Buried in Missouri”, Alice Kinyoun Houts and Hazel Eastman, MSSDAR Kansas City, 1966
7. "Historical Register of Virginians in the Revolution", by John H. Gwathmey: Richmond, VA. Dietz Press, 1938, p 33.
8. MISSOURI PENSION ROLLU.S. The Pension Roll of 1835United States Senate, “The Pension Roll of 1835,” 4 vol. 1968 Reprint, with index, Baltimore Publishing Company, 1992.
Compiled by Vera McCullough, Louisiana Purchase Chapter NSDAR
Photo and some information added by Pamela Johnson, John Guild Chapter NSDAR
