Augustus Baker

   In March 1863, Augustus Baker and about 50 others met to organize a company of enrolled militia in Nevada. There was considerable interest taken in the selection of a captain, but, finally Augustus C Baker, a conservative Union man who lived on the Missouri side of the Kansas line a few miles northeast of Fort Scott, was chosen over C. C. Frizzell, a citizen of this county and resident of Clear Creek township. He worked hard for the captaincy of the company, borrowing to his already bad reputation and the belief of many that he only wished to be commissioned in order to carry out a design of land piracy, he was defeated and Baker, who was known to be an honest, safe man was chosen. Frizzell took his defeat in ill humor, alleging that the damn rebels had defeated him, and swearing to get even.

   On May 6, 1863, about 7:30 p m two men approached the Baker house on the Ball Town Road west of Nevada. They identified themselves as Federals from Butler County and asked Rebecca Baker to fix supper for them. When Augustus Baker returned, they demanded his money, then searched the house and took Mrs. Baker's money and some guns. They asked Mr. Baker if he was expecting Quantrill's men.They returned to the kitchen and shot Augustus in his head while his wife stood by him with her hand on his shoulder. She identified one of the men as Frizzell.

   This began retaliation from both sides. Bushwhackers attacked men, killing two of them, from St. Clair and Cedar Counties, as they were returning home after Frizzell's trial. This began more retaliation from the Union Militia led by Capain Anderson Morton. 100 men from Cedar and St Clair charged into into Vernon County. They burned every building in Nevada after giving the citizens 20 minutes to collect possessions. Two houses, those of Thomas A. Austin and James A. Moore were spared because these men had buried victims of the earlier raid by bushwhackers.

   C. C. Frizzell stood trial in Ft. Scott. Captain Anderson Morton was a witness for the defense. He was found guilty and was hanged the day after Nevada was burned. Although he was convicted and hung for being a murderer, Frizzell was buried in the National Cemetery at Ft. Scott. Three years after the murder, Rebecca Baker married Samuel l. Shackleford and had a son they named Augustus Baker Shackleford.

From:

Page 311, History of Vernon County, Missouri,  Published 1887 by Brown & Co., St Louis, Mo. 

Notes:

Augustus Baker was born about 1826  in Germany. He married Rebecca Prior, on March 1, 1851 in Osage, Missouri. He died May 5, 1863. She was born May 10,1830 in Ohio and died in Bourbon Co. Kansas on August 14,1885.

Augustus Baker is buried in the Coleman-Baker Cemetery north of Eve, Mo.

Their children were;

Emma Ann.  b. ca 1852

Mary Elizabeth  b. ca 1855

Laura A.  b. ca 1859

Adeline b. aft. 1860, d. 13 Mar. 1864

On the 1850 Census, Augustus was single and a farmer in Bates County. Rebeca was living with her brother, Claibourne, not far away. At that time, the area that became Vernon was still a part of Bates.

1860 Census, Deerfield, Vernon County, Missouri 

Augustus Baker    31       b. Germany

Rebecca Baker    30        b. MO

E.A. Baker             8         b. MO

Mary E. Baker       5         b. MO

Lana Baker            8/12   b. MO

John Mamin           30   farm hand

Samuel Ebor         18   farm hand