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Community of LeRoy
Reminiscences
Sidney D. Baker
McLean County, Illinois

(Transcribed by: Teri Moncelle Colglazier)

Sidney D. Baker died at Council Grove, Kans. He was born Feb. 14, 1820 in Washington County, and came to Blooming Grove when he was six years old. His father surveyed the original townsite of Bloomington, named the town and streets, and about a year later, Sidney D. Baker was permitted to go to school in the first court house in Bloomington. He finished his schooling in the seminary on South Main street, taught by W. C. Hobbs. He went to Iowa in 1840, and came back to Illinois in 1842, and entered into partnership with E. E. Greenman in LeRoy. He told this story in 1906: "We opened our mixed stock of goods, and as our capital was small, we had to replenish often, always had fresh goods. I would go to Pekin by team, there I would take the boat to St. Louis, buy my goods, ship them by boat to Pekin, then I would haul them to LeRoy, a distance of 60 miles, often getting mired in the mud. Our trade increased from year to year until our present quarters became too small, then we built a two-story brick building. We sold out after 18 years. We were very successful in this business. We also had the post office in our store, Mr. Greenman being postmaster." "I was justice of the peace in 1847. I was commissioned under Gov. French. Barley H. Coffey, McLean County clerk, swore me into office. I married several couples, but became disgusted when trying a case as the defendant swore to a lie and I knew it, so I threw up the office." "March 14, 1848, I married Laura A. Edwards. We commenced housekeeping in a log house, the main part, being log of one room and a frame kitchen. These rooms had puncheon floor. We paid $1 per month rent. The rats were so bad they would almost carry our clothes off at night. We lived here a year when we built a new home. There were seven children came to gladden our home, of whom two are living (Frank W., with whom I am making my home, and Eva B. Smith of Topeka, Kans.)" "I dealt quite a good deal in government and other swamplands, ditching them and turning up sod and selling at good profit to people from east, who settled on these farms. Today they are beyond my greatest expectations in value. I told my son, Frank, before we left Illinois that I expected to see the day when McLean County lands would bring $50 per acre, but now they are selling at $100 and more per acre." "I handled a great many horses. I would drive them across country to Milwaukee to market and on one occasion, I remember of one of my best ones getting a leg hurt so I could not take him farther than Chicago. When I returned from Chicago, he was still lame and I received an offer for a lot on Water Street even-up for him, and this perhaps was the biggest mistake of my life by not accepting this offer, but the lot was a frog pond. Then I found a man who gave me 12 dozen Seth Thomas clocks for a horse, and I sold them at good profit." "I shall always have a warm side for our old town of LeRoy and its first settlers. My wife and five children are buried in the LeRoy cemetery, four children having died in infancy and one who lived to be seven years old. My wife was laid to rest in 1898, and that's where I expect to be laid when I am called home. I am the only living charter member of Masonic Lodge No. 221 of LeRoy." "In the year of 1873, I moved to Topeka, Kans. thinking it would benefit some of the family who were never very rugged. I was delighted with the city until grasshoppers came and cleaned up all growing crops, a sight I can never forget; millions of them, thick as bees were on railroad tracks, so thick trains could not move, the mashing of the "hoppers" made wheels so slippery. This seemed to be dead shot for Kansas, although I have profited by other people's misfortunes. I bought up several carloads of horses and shipped them to Illinois, making a good profit. "I moved back to Bloomington in the spring of 1875, and soon after began erection of two store buildings on South Center street. In one, my son, Frank, and I opened up a retail grocery store and continued some six years. When son's health failed, we sold out." "I speculated in land awhile, and in the fall of 1882, my son's family and my wife and I moved to Council Grove, Kans. I have a comfortable home and 2,000 acres of tillable land which some day will be worth as much as Illinois land." -S.D.Baker [Heritage of the prairie : a history of LeRoy and of Empire and West townships, McLean County, Illinois (1976) LeRoy Historical Society; LeRoy Bi-Centennial Commission]

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