Joshua Baker

Joshua Gabriel Baker (March 23, 1799 – April 16, 1885) was the 22nd Governor of Louisiana during Reconstruction. Early life Joshua was born March 23, 1799, in Mason County, Kentucky. His father was Joshua Baker and his mother was Susan Lewis. In 1803, the Baker family moved to the Mississippi Territory and by 1811 they had settled at Oaklawn Plantation in St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, in the Territory of Orleans Baker attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York from 1817 to 1819. Whereupon, he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Army Artillery Corps and served as an assistant professor at West Point before resigning in October 1820. In 1821, he moved to Litchfield, Connecticut, to study law, joining the bar in Mason County, Kentucky, in 1822. Career Baker returned to Louisiana to practice law at the Opelousas, Louisiana, office of John Brownson during 1822–1829 and 1832–1838.