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Baker, David Jewett

lawyer, jurist, congressman, was born Sept. 7. 1792, in East Haddam, Conn. He had an extensive practice, and was probate judge of Randolph county, Ill. He was a senator in congress from 1830 to 1831, carrying through congress the important measure of selling the public lands to actual settlers in parcels of forty acres; and was United States attorney for Illinois from 1833 to 1841. He opposed the introduction of slavery into Illinois in 1823 with such energy that his opponents tried to kill him. He died Aug. 6, 1869, in Alton, Ill.