Freeborn Garretson Baker

F. G. BAKER, Professor of Sacred Music, in Wheaton College, died July 12,1879, on his native hills in Connecticut, surrounded by his beloved wife, daughter, and the friends of his youth, including relatives of himself and family. He was born at New Hartford, Conn., Aug. 19, 1813, and was not quite sixty-six years of age. He experienced religion and joined the Reformed Methodist Church in 1831, and united with the Wesleyans in 1843. In Sept. 1841 he married Miss Louisa Jewett, who survives him, after a loving walk of forty years together, in which they adorned every relation in life which they filled. Prof. Baker early chose rnusic for his profession, which he studied with Dr. Lowell Mason, and commenced teaching at the early age of 22, which he continued till his death. He excelled in music as an art, and in success as an instructor; and thousands are singing with him in heaven whom his piety, breathed in song, aided on their way there, while his tones live and sweetly reverberate in the memories of other thousands still living on earth. He was appointed a Trustee of Wheaton College in 1857, and soon after moved to Wheaton, where he continued to fill his professorship, trusteeship, and membership in the College Executive Committee, until he closed his labors and his life. He was "an Israelite indeed, in whom was no guile;" and his last days were filled with ecstatic views of heaven. Surely "the memory of the just is blessed." He was beloved as a neighbor, respected as a man, revered as a Christian, and honored as an officer of the College and the Church. Register of Wheaton College, 1882 (catalog), p. 19