Baker, Daniel

Baker, Daniel D.D., a Presbyterian minister, was born in Midway, Ga., Aug. 17, 1791, and studied at Hampden Sidney College, and at Princeton, where he graduated A.B. in 1815. He studied theology with Mr. Hill, pastor of the Presbyterian church in Winchester, Va., and was ordained pastor of the church in Harrisburg, Va., March 5, 1818. Finding himself called to a missionary career, he resigned his charge in 1821; and from 1822 to 1828 was pastor in Washington, D. C. Here John Quincy Adams was one of his hearers, and several acts of great kindness on the part of that eminent man are recorded in his life. Here he wrote A Scriptural View of Baptism, afterward expanded into a work with the quaint title, Baptism in a Nutshell. In 1830, his great success as a revivalist having been noised abroad, he began to travel among the churches, and the remainder of his life was chiefly spent in this way. His travels extended throughout the Southern States, and even to Texas, where he finally settled. Here, among other labors, he founded Austin College, of which he was the first president. He died at Austin, Dec. 10, 1857. — Memoirs of Daniel Baker, by his Son (Philadelphia, 1859, 12mo).