John Baker

Who was John Baker?

John Baker is the namesake of the towns of Baker Lake and Baker Brook, New Brunswick, Canada, just west of Edmundston. He was a successful sawmill and gristmill businessman who became a well-known pro-American activist in New Brunswick and Maine during the 19th century and was nicknamed "the Washington of the Republic of Madawaska", which he had declared in response to the unwillingness of the Van Buren Administration in Washington to support Maine's claim to sizable areas of territory covering adjacent parts of the British colonies of Lower-Canada and New Brunswick, part of British North America. During the previous decade the War of 1812 had ended in a draw and had seriously depleted the US Treasury, demonstrating the will of Britain to engage in full warfare to guard British North America against US encroachment, including invasion of US territories and punitive raids. This had resulted in Washington adopting a policy of appeasement towards states with claims to British territories, which clashed with Maine's expansionist intentions that continued to simmer during the 1830s.

John Baker, often referred to in local lore as "Colonel" John Baker operated a gristmill and a sawmill on the north bank of the Saint John River, and was the leading American in the disputed territory. He was dissatisfied with the official borders, and in 1827 declared his village to be capital of the "American Republic of Madawaska". John Baker was a native of Kennebec, Massachusetts. Kennebec was located within the area that became the state of Maine in 1820 and during his early adulthood Baker was a staunch promoter of the state's expansion toward the St.Lawrence. His confidence was such that he had established most of his mills in an area that Washington had recognized as being under legitimate British control. The region was nonetheless claimed by Maine. Baker also had several facilities in the actual state of Maine but these were less substantial. Baker's "Republic" only included his New Brunswick properties and may have been a ploy to avoid paying taxes on either side, but the concept was popular with many of the local French speaking population who had no particular sympathies for the British or the Americans but felt a strong attachment to the area, as would Baker himself throughout his life.