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Walter Baker


Gender:
Male
Born:
June 28, 1792
Died:
May 7, 1852
Home Town:
Dorchester, MA
Later Residences:
Boston, MA
Marriage(s):
Eleanor Williams Baker (May 14, 1840)
Deborah Mott Baker (March 10, 1825)
Biographical Notes:
Walter Baker was the son of Edmund and Sarah Baker. He attended Harvard College in 1811, and was reported to have received several small punishments "for going out from public worship" and a "neglect of forensics." After graduating from Harvard in 1811, Baker attended the Litchfield Law School. Upon the completion of his studies he returned to Boston where he worked briefly as a teacher and then entered the family business. Under his leadership the family company, which became the Walter Baker Chocolate Company, reached the status of the leading chocolate manufacturer in the country. He also spent several years in politics and served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1833, 1839 and 1840. An 1848 article in the Boston Daily Atlas lists Baker as a member of the finance committee ...

Education
Years at LLS:
1812
Other Education:
Graduated from Harvard College in 1811.

Profession / Service
Profession:
Educator; Manufacturer; Political Office
Political Party:
Whig
State Posts:
State Representative (MA) 1833, 1839-1840

help The Citation of Attendance provides primary source documentation of the student’s attendance at the Litchfield Female Academy and/or the Litchfield Law School. If a citation is absent, the student is thought to have attended but currently lacks primary source confirmation.

Records for the schools were sporadic, especially in the formative years of both institutions. If instructors kept comprehensive records for the Litchfield Female Academy or the Litchfield Law School, they do not survive. Researchers and staff have identified students through letters, diaries, family histories and genealogies, and town histories as well as catalogues of students printed in various years. Art and needlework have provided further identification of Female Academy Students, and Litchfield County Bar records document a number of Law School students. The history of both schools and the identification of the students who attended them owe credit to the early 20th century research and documentation efforts of Emily Noyes Vanderpoel and Samuel Fisher, and the late 20th century research and documentation efforts of Lynne Templeton Brickley and the Litchfield Historical Society staff.
CITATION OF ATTENDANCE:
Bond, William Key. Lectures on law by the Honable. Tapping Reeve and James Gould esquire at Litchfield, Connecticut, An. Dom: 1811 & 1812 Rare Book Collection, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale University.

Catalogue of the Litchfield Law School, Hartford, CT: Press of Case, Tiffany and Company, 1849, 10.

Litchfield County Bar Association Records, 1812, Litchfield Historical Society, Helga J. Ingraham Memorial Library.
Secondary Sources:
http://www.bostonhistory.org/sub/bakerschocolate/

The Boston Daily Atlas July 25,1848, Boston, Massachusetts

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