Colonel Thomas Baker

Thomas Baker, the founder of Bakersfield, was born November 5, 1810 in Zanesville, Ohio. He married and English woman named Mary Featherstone and they had four children. Mary died of gold fever. in 1857, he married Ellen M. Whalen, a 20-year old daughter of a doctor. Perhaps because of her standing in the community, Mrs. Ellen Baker was known as the “Mother of Bakersfield.”