Daniel Baker (Presbyterian minister)

Daniel Baker was born on August 17, 1791 in Midway, Georgia.[1][2] His father was William Baker.[1] His mother died when he was an infant.[1] His father subsequently remarried.[1] He had six siblings.[1][3]

Baker attended Hampden–Sydney College from 1811 to 1813. However, due to the War of 1812, he transferred to the Princeton University, and graduated in 1815.[2]

Baker started his career as a Presbyterian minister in Harrisonburg and New Erection, Virginia in 1818.[1] By 1822, he became the minister at Second Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C..[1] In 1828, he became the minister at Independent Presbyterian Church in Savannah, Georgia.[1] He then preached in Frankfort, Kentucky.[1] He moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama in 1836.[1]

Baker moved to the Republic of Texas in 1840.[1] He preached in Galveston, Houston, and Chriesman.[1] Later, he preached in Victoria, Cuero, Clinton, Goliad, Gonzales, New Braunfels, Bastrop, Wharton, Columbia, Port Lavaca, La Grange, Palestine, Brownsville, Rio Grande City, as well as cities like Austin and San Antonio.[1] In 1848, he became the minister of First Presbyterian Church in Galveston, Texas.[1]

Baker served on the Board of Trustees of the Chalmers Institute, a boys' school in Holly Springs, Mississippi, where he had served as pastor in the 1840s.[4] He founded Austin College in Huntsville, Texas in 1850.[1] He hired Samuel McKinney, an Irish-born Presbyterian minister who had founded the Chalmers Institute, as the first president of Austin College from 1850 to 1853.[4] When McKinney resigned, Baker served as its second president from 1853 to 1857.[2][5]

Baker married Elizabeth McRobert on March 28, 1816.[1] His wedding ceremony was conducted by Moses Hoge.[1] Baker and his wife had four children.[1]

Baker died on December 10, 1857 in Austin, Texas.[1][2] Daniel Baker College was named in his honor.[1]