George Wells Baker, inventor, was born at Chestertown, N. Y., July 26, 1834, son of Lyman H. and Susan (Linkfield) Baker. His earliest American ancestor, Francis Baker of Great St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England, landed in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1635 and was the first married man to settle at Yarmouth, on Cape Cod, in 1641. From this Francis and his wife Isabel Twining, the descent runs through their son Nathaniel and his wife Desire Gray; their son Samuel and his wife Elizabeth Berry; their son Samuel and his wife Jane Gage; their son Heman, a revolutionary soldier and his wife Temperance Baker and their son Samuel and his wife Betsy Tiffany, parents of Lyman H. Baker. Educated principally in grammar and night schools.

 

In 1848 George Wells Baker began his active career as a mechanic in the employ of the Grover & Baker Sewing Machine Company, at Orange, Massachusetts. 

 

In 1865, in Cleveland, Ohio, George Wells Baker formed a partnership with Thomas Howard White for the manufacture of a sewing machine, embodying new features of his own invention.

 

In 1866, Thomas Howard White moved from Orange, Massachusetts, to Cleveland, Ohio, taking with him a few of his best mechanics and there founded the White Manufacturing Company. 

 

In 1867, George Wells Baker sold his interest to Rollin White and until 1870 was engaged in sewing machine manufacturing in New Hampshire.

 

In 1870, George Wells Baker having returned to Cleveland, Ohio, formed a new partnership with Thomas Howard White, for the perfection of his new sewing machine.

 

In 1876 George Wells Baker helped organize the White Sewing Machine Co. for its manufacture.

 

Thereafter, during the last twenty years of his life, he served this corporation as mechanical expert and general superintendent, playing an important part in up building its prosperity, through constant contributions to the improvement of its product. As a man of real mechanical genius, he made inventions and improvements in other lines of construction, notably in roller skates, which he manufactured for many years in the White factory. He was president also of the Euclid Avenue Roller Rink Co., devoted to exploiting the sport of roller skating, so popular in the last decades of the nineteenth century. His favorite recreations, hunting and fishing, he made notable by constructing his own guns, rifles and casting rods, as well as his own duck boats and frequently made presents to his friends of such products of his skill. Few sportsmen indeed have been able to emulate this example. Numerous conspicuous awards have recognized his contributions to the perfection of the modern sewing machine. Among these were the certificate of award and a silver medal from the Southwestern Industrial Association of Vienna, in 1873; an award from the Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, in 1876 and a certificate of merit from the board of lady governors of the Columbian Exposition, Chicago, in 1893. During the civil war, Mr. Baker rendered valuable service to the national cause by his ability to break horses for gunfire. He was a member of the Ottawa and Winona shooting clubs, a staunch adherent of the Republican party and a regular attendant of the Congregational church of Cleveland. He was married, Feb. 3, 1859, to Jeanette Rowene, daughter of Warren Hall of Brattleboro, Vermont and was the father of two daughters, Luella and Ida Rowene, the latter, Mrs. Frank Lindus Cody of Babson Park, Fla. and one son, Walter Charles Baker (q.v.) of Cleveland, Ohio.

 

George Wells Baker died at Brattleboro, Vermont, Oct. 22, 1896.