West Virginia University - Monticola Yearbook (Morgantown, WV)

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s .ih. . ; became a partner of Hon. Frank Cox. This firm continued for sixteen years, to January i, 1005, during- which time each member of the firm acted as Prosecuting Attorney of Monongalia County for four years. Mr. Cox from January I, 1889, and Mr. Baker from January 1, 1893. ( )n lanuarv 1, 1905, he was unanimously elected President of the Bar Associa- tion of his county. The firm of Cox Baker for sixteen years had a splendid practice. On the death of Dr. George B. Morris in 1897, he appointed George Coleman Baker sole executor of his large estate, and by the provisions of his will gave him absolute control thereof for twenty years, to invest the estate as he should deem proper. He has managed the estate with exceptional business sagacity. For many years he has been a member of the ( )fficial Board and one of the Trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in the building of its splendid new stone edifice he is one of it ' s liberal contributors. In the great struggle for equal and fair taxation in the state, he has been in the public eye, in his single-handed contest for equal and uniform taxation upon the lease and leasehold estates, held and owned by the trusts and corporations, which have escaped taxation for a third of a century in this Commonwealth, during which time the land owners and plain people of the state have practically paid all the taxes. By his sound, logical arguments, striking illustrations and plain discussions on the subject of equal and uniform taxation, he started a reformation, which spread like a conflagration over the state, from hilltop to valley, into every city, town and hamlet. Public sentiment grew intense on the subject, endorsing his view of taxing leases and leaseholds as personalty on the personal property books, as chattels real. In this view he has been sustained by the best legal talent in the state. The county court of his county has employed him to make the contest for its people, and 011 his petition it has directed that the corporations, including the great Standard ( )il Trust, shall be taxed back for a period of five years upon their leases and leaseholds for oil and gas, from which millions of wealth have been realized and taken from the state. I lis position on this most important subject

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W. VA. UNlVgKSIT lion. (Seorge Coleman ! aker Hon. Ge orge Coleman Baker, to whom this volume is dedicated, is a son of Andrew Coleman Baker, deceased, and Hannah (Vance) Baker. He was horn on the old Baker farm, March 4. 1862, in Union District, Monongalia County, West Virginia. The Baker homestead was patented to his great great grand- father during the reign of George III. of England, in 1772, and has continued to he and still is in the Baker family. His great grandfather, George Baker, was a gunsmith, who made the old flintlock guns with which to fight the Indians and the redcoats of old England. In this pioneer home John Norris Baker, his grand- father, was horn July T7, 1801, and was buried July 17, i8 )4, ninety-three years of age, respected by his neighbors and beloved by his church. Andrew Coleman Baker, father of this sketch, was born January 20, 1832, and died June 14, 1863. He was a Christian gentleman of the highest and best type — a pillar in the Methodist Church, a volunteer in the militia, and died early in the great Civil War. The subject of this .sketch attended the free schools at Morgantown, West Virginia. Graduated at the W ' est Virginia University with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in June, 1883, at which institution William L. Wilson was then President, afterwards the distinguished Congressman from this District, and Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee under Grover Cleveland ' s admin- istration. In June, 1886, he graduated in the Law Department of the University, and that year the degrees of Bachelor of Law and Master of Arts were conferred upon him. On January 1, 1887, he entered into partnership with Judge R. L. Berkshire and Hon. George C. Sturgiss. which co-partnership lasted for aboul two years. On January 1, 1889, having withdrawn from said partnership, he

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W. VA. UJttVL U0IARY is sustained by the State Tax Commissioner, in his recent instructions issued to the assessors of the state, directing that leaseholds shall be assessed this year as personal property. No more important measure has been brought to the attention of the people of the state since the gre at Civil War. than the subject of fair and equal taxation, as against the corporations and great trusts, controlling the wealth of West Virginia, and compelling them to pay taxes on their property like the people of the state. For thirty years, oil and gas have been produced in West Virginia. During that time over a hundred millions of wealth have escaped taxation. Over twenty million dollars, in value, each year, for oil and gas, are being realized, mainly by non-residents, and especially by the Standard Oil Trust, upon propertv held by leases, none of which have paid any taxes whatever. Being con- trary to the express provisions of the Constitution, and standing upon fundamental law, with the strong public sentiment behind him. and with eternal justice to sustain him, there is no doubt whatever hut that the trusts and combines will have to surrender to the Constitution and the law. after thirty years of flagrant breach, and pay their share of the taxes in the state. This is truly a reforma- tion for the common, plain people of the Commonwealth. 1 lis fight for equal- handed justice has built for him a monument in the hearts of the people more enduring than marble or bronze. Being twice a graduate of the University, his Alma Mater is proud oi his record.