Jacob Thompson Baker

Jacob Thompson Baker (April 13, 1847 – December 7, 1919) was an American Democratic Party politician from New Jersey who represented New Jersey's 2nd congressional district from 1913 to 1915.

Biography

Baker was born near Cowan, Pennsylvania on April 13, 1847. He attended the public schools and Bucknell University. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1870 and commenced practice in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. He was chairman of the Democratic State convention in 1905. Baker moved to New Jersey and was one of the founders of Wildwood and the borough of Wildwood Crest. He was the first Mayor of Wildwood, New Jersey in 1911 and 1912, and was a delegate to the 1912 Democratic National Convention.

Baker was elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-third Congress, serving in office from March 4, 1913 to March 3, 1915, but was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1914 to the Sixty-fourth Congress.

After leaving Congress, he resumed real estate activities in Wildwood. Baker died in Philadelphia on December 7, 1919, and was interred in Cold Spring Presbyterian Cemetery in Cold Spring, New Jersey.

Baker's home, the J. Thompson Baker House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.