Jim Baker (1818–1898), known as "Honest Jim Baker", a few miles from St. Louis, Missouri. His parents were Phoebe Neeley and William Baker, who were Scot-Irish farmers from the Nashville, Tennessee, area. They were both born in Tennessee and moved to Illinois as young adults. They had eight children, one born in Belleville and the rest in Sangamon County. His parents operated a mill along the Sangamon River.

Baker had sisters Eliza, Elizabeth, and Adelia and a brother John. He learned to hunt for game with a gun and fish as a child. He and his siblings had little education. When he was seventeen, his father sent him to his grandfather at St. Louis for schooling, but he was sent home when it was clear he had no interest in education. Interested in living a life on the frontier, he went to the American Fur Company in St. Louis to sign up to be a trapper.

Fur trapper and hunter

thumb|left|[[Rocky Mountain Rendezvous scene at which trappers and mountain men sold their furs and hides and replenished their supplies.]]

Baker was hired by Jim Bridger to work for the American Fur Company for 18 months, for which he received $465 (). On May 15, 1838, The family lived on the first level the second floor was used for storage, Westminster, Colorado, commissioned a statue of Baker. His portrait was created in a stained glass window for the Colorado State Capitol building in Denver.

Jim Mountain in northwest Wyoming is named after him.

Notes

References

Bibliography

  • Kankakee Valley Historical Society
  • Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office