BAKER, HORACE HENDERSON
Horace Henderson Baker, superintendent of schools
at Cimarron since September, 1930, was born at Jefferson City, Tennessee, December 21, 1897, and for seventeen
years has resided in Kansas.
His father Wallen Winfield Baker, was born at Sneedville, Tennessee, May 29, 1869, and has served as superintendent
in Tennessee, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Kansas. Now retired, he resides at Lebanon. He is descended from the
English family of Baker and the Welch family of Walden.
His mother, Elizabeth Ann Manly,
was born near Newmarket, Tennessee, March 24, 1874, and died at Wichita, February 20, 1917. She came from the English
family of Hudson and the Irish family of Manly, her father, D. F. Manly, having been a well known Baptist preacher
in Tennessee. She was a teacher and active in social welfare and church work.
Horace Henderson Baker attended public school in Tennessee and Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Baptist Academy, and in 1914
was graduated from high school at Blackwell, Oklahoma. He was a member of the football, basketball and track teams
at Harper High School, and took post-graduate work there in 1915-16.
In 1920 Mr. Baker received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Fairmount College, now Wichita University, where he
was a member of Pi Kappa Delta, the Men's Honor Five, Phi Lambda Psi (Men of Webster), and its president 1918-19,
secretary 1917-18. During 1918 and 1919 he was left end on the Fairmount College football team. He was president
of the student council one year.
His marriage to (Ethel) Evadenne Bishop was solemnized at Anson, Kansas, August 3, 1921. She was born near Conway
Springs, October 24, 1898, the daughter of Silas and Kate M. (McBride) Bishop. There are two children living, Charles,
born April 11, 1926; and Allan, August 11, 1928. Kathryn, born October 27, 1922, died November 4, 1922. Mrs. Baker,
before her marriage a teacher, is former president of the 20th Century Culture Club, and now chairman of the Gray
County Welfare Council.
From 1916 until 1920 Mr.. Baker was a stenographer and office assistant at Fairmount College, and the year of 1920-21,
was high school principal and teacher of English in the South Haven Rural High School. He was superintendent at
South Haven 1921-22 and 1922-23, and at Milton 1923-30. While at South Haven he coached football one season and
debate two years.
His thesis for his Master's degree, written while a student at Chicago University was A Comparative Study of Pupil
Achievement in Consolidated and One-Teacher Schools. He received his Master's degree in 1927, and was elected to
Zeta chapter of Phi Delta Kappa. He is the author also of an article, The Live Wire Teacher of English (Kansas
Bulletin of Teachers of English, 1931).
Mr. Baker is president of the Gray County Teachers Association, chairman of the 1933 Southwest Conference of Consolidated
Schools, and chairman of the senior high school department, Dodge City section, Kansas State Teachers Association,
1933 session. He is a member also of the National Education Association, the National Department of Secondary School
Principals, the Kansas High School Principals Association, the Gray County Athletic Association (president 1931-32)
; and the Sumner County Teachers Association (president 1923-24) ; he was association chairman, High School Round
Table, Sumner Count}'' 1924-25; and president of the Sumner County Athletic Association 1926-28.
His other memberships include the Chamber of Commerce, the Masons (Blue Lodge and Chapter), the Red Cross, the
Gray County Welfare Council, the Milton, Kansas, Baptist Church, and the American Legion. He is affiliated with
the Community Church at Cimarron, where he teaches the Livewire Sunday School Class. During the World War he was
enlisted in the Students Army Training Corps at Fairmont College. Residence: Cimarron. (Illustriana Kansas, by
Sara Mullin Baldwin & Robert Morton Baldwin, 1933, page 60)
