Daniel Baker Esq., 1763-1836
Jerusha Parsons Baker, 1772-1846

Bryant Numbers: 676 & 677
Names & Years: Daniel Baker Esq., 1763-1836; Jerusha Parsons Baker, 1772-1846
Type of Memorial: Marble headstone with sandstone base
Stonecarver: Unknown

Inscription:

Daniel
Baker Esq.
Died Dec. 19, 1836
Aged 73 Y’rs.

Jerusha
Wife of
Daniel Baker
Died Oct. 19, 1846
Aged 74 yrs.

Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.

Commentary: Daniel Baker was born in Ellington (Tolland County), Connecticut, in 1763. He was a veteran of the American Revolutionary War, having served various Connecticut regiments first as a private for one month in 1778, then as a fifer for eight months in 1779-80, and finally as a private again for three months in 1780. In 1788, he married Connecticut resident Jerusha Parsons. The couple had four children.

Although Baker was a signer of the 1804 Licking Company Constitution, and his family was counted by historian Henry Bushnell as among Granville’s first families, he did not actually bring his family to Ohio until 1811, six years after the founding of the village. In the meantime, he had acquired land in Granville, some of which was in the far southern section of the Township, south of today’s Silver Street. Bushnell records that Baker also built a cabin for his family on Cherry Street. That location could have been a lot he had owned since 1805 at the corner of North Cherry and Broadway.

A woodworker by trade, Baker is described by Bushnell as having manufactured wooden dishes in Granville, along with wagon parts and “ox yokes, plows, chairs, coffins, and other necessities.” He clearly was a well-respected member of the community, serving in various public offices. He was appointed as a trustee of the Granville Religious and Literary Society, which oversaw public lots that were dedicated to generating support for ministers and schools in the community. He also served for at least four years as Granville’s postmaster, a position of great trust in the community.

Daniel died in Granville in 1836, followed by Jerusha ten years later. The Bakers shared a marble headstone that had shattered into six large fragments when it was identified in the 1990s by conservationists Jim and Minxie Fannin of Fannin-Lehner Preservation Consultants. The Fannins undertook the complex repair of the Bakers’ headstone as part of the decades-long restoration of the Old Colony that they led. Today the beautifully carved memorial stands as a testimonial to the Bakers’ contributions to early Granville as well as to the aesthetic value of historic preservation.

Find a Grave link: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19679020/daniel-baker