Abel Baker was the third
son of John Twitty Baker and Mary A. Ashby, born abt. 1838 in Jackson
County, Alabama. He lived with his parents in Crooked Creek Township, in
Carroll County, Arkansas, and departed for California in April 1857 with
"The Baker Train", which was under the leadership of his father, Captain
John T. Baker. His father was taking a large herd of cattle to
California to sell for profit, and Abel may have acted as a drover
on the trip.
Identified by Mormon Scout Ira Hatch as "young Baker", Abel Baker is
thought to be one of the three young men who escaped from the wagon corral
sometime during the siege, and were killed before they could reach help.
The men were supposed to have been carrying a letter from the besieged
camp that pleaded for assistance. The accounts of the men's fates vary.
One man appears to have died before Abel Baker, and the other man, reached
the Virgin Hills area in present day northeastern Nevada. There, according
to one account, Baker's companion was burned at the stake by Paiutes,
while Baker escaped. Wounded in the arm by an Indian arrow, Baker managed
to travel fifty more miles westward to Cottonwood Spring. Pursued by Ira
Hatch and search party of Paiute Indians, Hatch's group caught up with
Abel Baker there, and murdered him. Abel Baker was 19 years old, and
single, when he died in Nevada. He is considered to be one of the victims
of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, although he did not actually die in the
Massacre that took place in Utah.
Abel Baker's father,
Captain John Twitty Baker, his sister
Sarah C. (Baker) Mitchell, his
brother-in-law, Charles Roark Mitchell,
his nephew John Mitchell, and his
older brother, George Washington Baker, his sister-in-law
Minerva Ann
(Beller) Baker, and his niece Mary Lovina Baker, died in the 1857 Mountain
Meadows Massacre in Utah.
© 2008 A.C. Wallner for the
Mountain Meadows Association. All rights reserved
Inscription:
IN MEMORIAM
IN THE VALLEY BELOW BETWEEN SEPTEMBER 7 AND 11, 1857, A
COMPANY OF MORE THAN 120 ARKANSAS EMIGRANTS LED
BY CAPT. JOHN T. BAKER AND CAPT. ALEXANDER FANCHER WAS
ATTACKED WHILE EN ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. THIS EVENT
IS KNOWN IN HISTORY AS THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE
ABEL BAKER, 19
*Please note
that the names of the victims of the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre that
appear here are those who we have personally researched and verified as
actual victims. In some cases this list will differ from the names that
were inscribed on the 1990 Monument on Dan Sill Hill.
Leave
virtual flowers - MMA FIND A GRAVE
MEMORIAL
FOR
ABEL BAKER
