Baker, Reuben

REUBEN BAKER.

Reuben Baker, of Latrobe, was born in Chester County, Pa., Dec. 8, 1837. He is the son of Jacob and Lydia (Lamborn) Baker, who were of English descent.

He received his elementary education in the common schools, and afterwards attended London Grove Boarding-School, in his native county, an institution under the control of the Society of Friends, of which religious sect his father and mother were members. When in his seventeenth year he was apprenticed to a machinist, Edge T. Cope, with whom he remained nearly five years. He then engaged in agricultural pursuits, which he followed for ten years.

Jan. 25, 1865, he married Mary J. Fredd, of Chatham, Chester Co., Pa. They have four children, namely, Elizabeth, Morris H., Anna R., and Catharine H.

In 1869 he located in Latrobe, and became associated with his brother, S.H. Baker, as a partner in different pursuits. He is the manager of their extensive car-works, in which they annually do a business of more than half a million dollars. Their cars are used upon roads in all parts of the country, but their trade of late years has been chiefly in the West and South.

Their largest business, however, is their lumber trade in the forests of West Virginia, in which they yearly employ a million of capital. They are at present furnishing most of the railroad ties used by the Pennsylvania Railroad.

The other principal industries with which Mr. Baker is identified are the Ligonier Valley Railroad, of which he was one of the projectors and is a large stockholder, and the Citizens’ Banking Company, of Latrobe, which was organized in 1873. He and his brother, in connection with Pittsburgh capitalists, organized the Loyalhanna Coal and Coke Company, but have severed their connection with that. His possessions, aside from his business, are chiefly lands. He had no pecuniary start, and his success in business is due largely to his energy, tact, and good sense. He is modest and unassuming in manner, and has the confidence and respect of all with whom he comes in contact. He is a liberal contributor to all worthy causes, and has added largely to the wealth of the community in which he resides. He is a useful citizen, a gentleman of real worth, and richly deserves the admiration with which his friends delight to speak of him.