March 26, 1889 - July 23, 1945
WWI Registration card June 5, 1917
Born in Fayette, Alabama, March 26, 1889
railway automation (Block signal maintenance)
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul RR
With N.F. Manning, 45, of Davis Junction, he had been riding on the handcar checking signal wires between Wilkinson and DeKalb, when the car apparently hit gravel on the track and left the rails.
Mr. Baker was thrown between the tracks and is believed to have died instantly from skull fracture when his head struck a rail. Mr. Manning, tossed into the grass along the right-of-way, was able to return to his home after being treated for shoulder and back injuries.
The fatal accident occurred at 3:15 at a country road crossing seven miles southeast of Kirkland and one mile north of Wilkinson.
Mr. Baker, a signal maintainer, for 30 years employed in the signal department of the railroad, was checking the wires on the Erie station of the track formerly known as the old Gary line.
Wife Stunned
A dispatcher's phone was in operation in the Baker
home, by which he could receive messages at any time from various points along
the track. It was by this means that his wife heard the stunning news of her
husband's death when a report of the accident made by that phone system came over the wires into her home.
An inquest will be held within the next two or three days, W.W. Cooper of Genoa, DeKalb County coroner, has announced.
Mr. Baker previously had several narrow escapes during his extensive period of railroad service. His wife recalls how he had a close scrape with death some time ago when his motor car struck a horse on the track during a blinding snowstorm. Several times his life was endangered by snakes on the track, once by a cat lying on the rails, which provided a real hazard for the small hand car.
Mr. and Mrs. Baker came to Kirkland three years ago from Tama, Iowa. Previously they had resided 14 years at Lanark.
Legion Worker
Mr. Baker was born March 26, 1889, at Fayette, Alabama, a son of Marshall
and Martha (Watson) Baker. He was married to Julia Mayer of Omaha, Nebraska,
October 1, 1917. Richard was a handcar operator for the Chicago, Milwaukee,
& St. Paul Railroad out of Manning, Iowa, where he met Julia, a 1916 graduate of Manning High School.
In addition to his widow he is survived by one daughter, Mrs. June Plager of Freeport, Illinois; and a granddaughter, Bonnie Lee; one brother, H.C. Baker, of Wichita Falls, Texas; and one sister, Mrs. Loyal Collins, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
He was a member of the American Legion, a Veteran of World War I. Active in the activities of the Masons, he was past master of the Lanark Mason's Lodge, a member of Blue lodge and the Royal Arch Masons.
Funeral services will be held Thursday afternoon at 1:30 in the Vrba Funeral home at Kirkland, with the Masonic order in charge.
Burial will be in a Lanark City Cemetery, Lanark, Illinois.