Territory. As chairman of the committee on schools he framed a bill, which became a law on the 24th of December, 1838, providing for public schools in each county free to all children between the ages of four and twenty-one. The bill also provided for the building of schoolhouses. Dr. Bailey was reëlected to the House of the Second Legislative Assembly and in 1840 was elected a member of the Council where he served two terms. In 1844 he was a member of the First Constitutional Convention. In 1845 he was appointed by the President United States Marshal for Iowa. In 1857 he was elected to the State Senate, serving in the Seventh and Eighth General Assemblies. This honored pioneer lawmaker, who helped to frame the first statutes and first Constitution, has long been the only survivor of the earliest legislators and has lived to witness the marvelous development of the educational system he helped to found in the First Territorial Legislature of Iowa. He was for forty years one of the trusted leaders of the Democratic party of the State.
JAMES BAKER was born in Gallatin County, Kentucky, December 25, 1823. His father removed to Shelbyville, Indiana, where the son received his education. In 1852 he came to Iowa, locating at Bloomfield in Davis County, where he studied law and entered into partnership with his brother-in-law, H. H. Trimble. At the beginning of the Civil War Mr. Baker entered the volunteer service and received a commission as captain of Company G, Second Infantry. In November he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and eight months later became colonel of that famous regiment. He was mortally wounded while gallantly leading his regiment at the Battle of Corinth on the 3d of October, 1862. He lived until the 7th of October, when death ended his sufferings.
NATHANIEL B. BAKER is a name which will for all time be intimately associated with Iowa's war history. He was born at Hillsborough, New Hampshire, September 29, 1818. A graduate of Harvard, he entered the law office of Franklin Pierce in 1839 and began practice in 1842. He was for three years editor of the New Hampshire Patriot and in 1846 became Clerk of the Supreme Court. In 1851 he was elected to the Legislature and chosen Speaker of the House of Representatives, serving two terms. In 1852 he was one of the presidential electors and voted for his old preceptor for President. In 1854 he was elected Governor of New Hampshire and was the last Democrat who held that office before the political revolution which left his party in the minority. In 1856 Governor Baker became a resident of Iowa, locating at Clinton. In 1859 he was elected to the Iowa Legislature and when the War of the Rebellion began he led the war wing of his party to give cordial support to Governor Kirkwood's administration. The Governor appointed him Adjutant-General of the State and all through the Rebellion his superb executive
