Baker, Charles Reeder, 1880-1970

Charles Reeder Baker was born on April 8, 1880, in Lansing, Illinois (25 miles south of Chicago), son of Francis Ransom Baker and Luanna Brown Huff Baker. Charles had at least one sister, Carrie. The family moved to Riverdale in 1883, and Francis Baker became a station agent for the Pennsylvania Railroad. After graduating from grammar school in 1894 Charles completed the business and stenography course at the Chicago Business College. He graduated from the Northwestern University Dental School in 1903.

While in grammar school Baker worked with his father after classes were over each day, and when he had finished at the Chicago Business College he worked full-time as a stenographer for several companies. After four years of this Baker, influenced by his dentist and friend George B. Macfarlane, Chief Demonstrator at the Northwestern University Dental School, decided to become a dentist. Prior to entering the Northwestern Dental School in the fall of 1900 Baker completed a year of high school at the Chicago Y.M.C.A. evening school.

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