ABNER BAKER, JR.

By Ron Allen

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A biographical sketch of Dr. William J. Baker is found on pages 373/4 in "The French Broad Holston County". Two of his brothers are mentioned in that sketch, Dr. Leonidas Baker, "who practiced in Knoxville, but returned later to Kentucky", and Dr. James Harvey Baker, also a Knoxville Physician, "who was killed in Knoxville during the Civil War". William Baker also had a third brother, Abner Baker, Jr. - - the subject of this short article - - who is unmentioned in the biographical sketch in that book. The original Baker home is a well-known Knoxville landmark, still standing, today housing the Bakers-Peters Jazz Club and Restaurant.

On September 13, 1844, Abner Baker, Jr. shot and killed his brother-in-law, Daniel Bates, in Clay County, Kentucky. Baker was eventually tried, convicted of murder, and executed on October 5, 1845. The case is described in a rather obscure book compiled by Dr. C(arrick) W. Crozier, published in 1846 in Louisville, Kentucky, titled" Life and Trial of Dr. Abner Baker, Jr., A Monomanic, who was Executed October 5, 1845, for the Alleged Murder of his Brother-In-Law, Daniel Bates." The author, Crozier, was Abner Baker, Jr's brother-in-law, the husband of Baker's sister, Elizabeth B. Baker Crozier.

Dr. Abner Baker, Jr. was the youngest son of Captain Abner Baker, of Lancaster, Kentucky. Besides the three brothers already mentioned, he had eight sisters. Abner Baker, Jr. lived in Knoxville on two different occasions. He was first in the city when he attended East Tennessee College (the University of Tennessee.) Following a stint in the Navy, he secured his medical degree from the Louisville, Kentucky Medical Institute. He then returned to Knoxville, where he practiced medicine. Apparently his practice in Knoxville was relatively short-lived, beginning some time after 1839, and perhaps for a couple of years thereafter. He then returned to Clay County, Kentucky, where he continued his medical practice, and where he married Susan White, the daughter of James White, of that county.

The circumstances that led to the eventual trial, conviction, and execution of Baker reveal an interesting series of events. There were odd twists in the case. Initially, On September 24, 1844, an examining Court initially declared Baker not guilty and he was released. His brothers then took him to their home in Knoxville, where he was under their care for two months, and he then was sent to Havana, Cuba, said to have been in an attempt to cure his maladies. On January 26, 1845, Kentucky Governor William Owsley issued a warrant for the arrest and return of Baker to Kentucky, to stand trial for the murder. A reward of one thousand dollars accompanied the proclamation.

In a letter dated February 11, 1845, Baker's father stated that his son "was not a murdered, although he killed him (Daniel Bates), and verified that Baker Jr. was then living "in a more mild and temperate clime" outside the United States (i.e., in Havana). Eventually, Abner Baker Jr's father and brothers brought him back to Clay County, Kentucky, and the trial began on July 7, 1845.

The testimony of witnesses at the trail reveal that Abner Baker, Jr. had become convinced that his wife, Susan White Baker, had committed adultery with several different men. One of those men was Daniel Bates, the husband of Baker's sister, Polly Baker Bates. Baker and his wife Susan had lived at the Bates home, a circumstance - - according to other statements Baker had also made to others - - , in order to protect her from her husband, Daniel Bates, who then had been at odds with Baker, and whom Baker had accused of mistreating his sister, Mrs. Bates.

The transcripts of the testimony presented at the trial reveal that acquaintances of Baker had encounters with him in the days preceding the murder trail, at which times Baker had made accusations that his wife had illicit affairs intercourse, not only with Bates, but with her uncle, her father, a negro, and a minister of the gospel, and had referred to her as a whore and harlot. He had even accused his mother and sisters with keeping a house of prostitution. That Baker was insane seemed to be evident in view of the trial testimony, which reveals that such accusations apparently had come only from the mouth of Baker himself, and nowhere in the proceedings was any evidence presented, either by the defense or the prosecution, to indicate that anyone other than Baker himself had actually witnessed or had any personal knowledge of the supposed illicit affairs by Mrs. Baker, either with Bates or any others. Nonetheless, Baker was obviously convinced that his wife had such and illicit encounter with Daniel Bates, and on September 13, 1844, he had ridden his horse to the saltworks of his brother in law, walked towards Bates with a pistol in hand, and shot him at point blank range. Bates died the following morning from the gunshot wound.

In the Preface of the book by Crozier, the author states that he had issued the publication for the purpose of relating the facts of the case to the public in the belief that "our happiness as a great family and as individuals depend upon the administration of justice and truth, uninfluenced and unbiased by prejudice or a spirit of revenge." A portion of the cost of publication of the book was to have been furnished by executors of the Baker estate, but at the time of publication had not been forthcoming. Any profits from the book were stated to be designated for donation to the Lexington, Kentucky Lunatic Asylum.

Baker was obviously considered by many persons, not only his own family, but prominent physicians and others, to be insane, Following his conviction and sentence to death, numerous letters were sent to the Governor, asking the Baker's sentence be commuted, and that he instead be confined in a lunatic asylum. Those communications were from the father of the accused, his brothers, a number of physicians, and even from members of the jury that convicted Baker. Nonetheless, excitement and revenge were rampant in Clay County, and Governor Owsley refused to consider clemency. Abner Baker, Jr. was executed on October 3, 1845.

Having read the book, including the transcript of the trial, I still find it difficult to arrive at a conclusion as to whether to believe that Baker was deranged, or that he was acting in a passionate, if irrational, manner, when he took his brother-in-law's life. The fact that it was reported earlier that Bates had offered freedom to one of his slaves if he would kill Baker seems to add another possible motive for the eventual decision by Baker to kill Bates, and the report of Bate's deathbed bequest of ten thousand dollars, to assure the conviction and execution of Baker, tends to raise ones eyebrows. But the preponderance of the evidence presented at the trial seem to point to the fact that Baker was in fact insane. In any event, this was an early American legal case when the defense of insanity was unsuccessfully employed, for whatever reasons. It is also the story of a man who was received college education at the University of Tennessee (then East Tennessee College) in Knoxville, and a physician who for a while was once a practicing doctor in the city. His name is apparently unmentioned in the published histories of the Knoxville. Today, it is likely that few if any Knoxville residents have even heard of Abner Baker, Jr. I thought he should at least be briefly mentioned, as a footnote to Knoxville history.

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