Local History: The Baker Hoax
- Terri
- Jul 3
- 7 min read
If your surname is Baker or you have Baker ancestors, as I do, you might have heard of the “Baker Hoax.” You see, scams are definitely not something that just came up in the 21st century. This particular scam, by some estimates, persisted for as much as a hundred years or more, despite the fact that it was disproven over and over.
The Baker Hoax
The premise for this hoax varies over time and from one location to another. It always involves the Baker family, though it could also apply if your surname was Becker or Bickers. The earliest reference I could find in old newspapers was in 1877. The Sun, a New York City newspaper, ran a front-page Sunday edition article about potential heirs to a $215 million dollar estate holding an organizational meeting. The case in question was that of Colonel Henry Baker, who died in 1801
and left his entire estate to his sister in Bavaria. The sister did not take proper care of her right of ownership and gave another man power of attorney over her affairs, after which he took control of the property. This man’s heirs are now enjoying the benefits of ownership of this property, the bulk of which is now a large portion of Philadelphia. Good news, though – the original administration papers were recently discovered, and now the case can go through probate with all of Henry Baker’s heirs entitled to a piece of the fortune. On top of that, meeting attendees were told that Carl Schurz, Secretary of the Interior under President Rutherford Hayes, is the one who discovered the papers and “believes in the justice of their claim.” They are expecting to hear from Mr. Schurz at their next scheduled meeting. There was no mention in this article of the fees that might be collected in order to prove the case.
In 1878, the Springfield Massachusetts Daily Republican reported on a $315 million dollar estate of Revolutionary War Colonel Jacob Baker, who died in 1801 in Canada. He was a bachelor, known for being eccentric, and descendants of his brothers are being sought to pursue his estate in court. It does not offer a reason that this estate has lingered in limbo for so long.
Meetings were being held many places in the U. S. and Canada to recruit Baker heirs to push this fantastic estate through the court system. The estate holdings were expanded to include mines in western Pennsylvania and the land on which the city of Chillicothe, Ohio, was built. Soon, however, headlines began to tell a
different tale. The Boston (MA) Evening Transcript, 1879: THAT TWO-HUNDRED-MILLION-CLAIM CANARD. The Pittsburgh (PA) Post Gazette, 1889: THE BUBBLE BURST, THE COL. BAKER HEIRS RECEIVE A DEATH-BLOW TO THEIR HOPES – NO SUCH ESTATE EXISTS. Still, groups popped up in different places with a slightly different story, as well as an escalating value of the purported estate. In 1921, it was so widespread that at least two large articles that were written to debunk the claim were circulated in newspapers all across the country. Now the estate was worth up to $800 million dollars and involved land leased from the Jacob Baker estate for a period of 99 years. The lease has now long expired and the rightful heirs to this property must unite to force the court system to probate the estate. There is a fee, of course, to join the Baker Heirs Association and additional fees for an expert genealogist to generate your family tree. This is one of the articles that was circulated, including pictures of some of the high-buck buildings and a map of the “heart of Philadelphia.”
Regardless of this effort to educate the public, by the later 1920’s, this hoax started popping up again. Every scam needs a good conspiracy theory to go with it, and the most common one with the Baker hoax was that the powerful businessmen in Philadelphia were buying off judges and keeping the truth buried. Headlines started appearing in Illinois, such as The Streator Times, 1927: BAKER’S HEIRS FORM ASSOCIATION. Decatur Herald and Review, 1927: BAKER HEIRS MEET IN PANA – ATTEMPT TO CLEAR QUESTIONS REGARDING FAMOUS LARGE ESTATE. Once the stock market crashed in 1929 and the Great Depression set in, it only seemed to intensify the hopes and dreams of a big Baker windfall. In 1934, the Decatur Daily Review reported that Albert T. Baker, a Pana attorney, had traveled to Philly to represent local heirs on the belief that the will of Jacob Baker had been discovered in which he left thousands of acres in 17 different Pennsylvania counties to his sons. Should the court allow it to be entered into probate, of course, a hundred years of descendants would benefit. Later that year, however, the Clinton Daily Journal and Public reported that a man in Seattle, Washington, had been arrested for mail fraud. He was charging people from $1 to $25 to pursue their claim to the Baker estate, though there were at least two individuals from whom he scammed $9000 each.
Things came to a head in December of 1936 when postal inspectors indicted at least 28 persons across the country for mail fraud. Albert Baker and his wife of Pana were two of them. At this time, Albert was described as having worked for the WPA early in the year, being unemployed since May – not an attorney. His wife operated a small candy shop out of their modest home to cover postage for the Baker documents they circulated. Their contact, a “higher-up” one might say, was a William H. Baker, an operative of the association, recently deceased. He would provide the Pana couple with newsletters to distribute; they in turn would seek out people willing to pay for a lineage chart connecting them to the Philadelphia Jacob Baker. (Side note: William also manufactured and sold “Wahoo Bitters” for rheumatism, made of 75% rye whiskey.) Front page headlines covered the central Illinois papers. The Decatur Herald printed part of “Baker Heirs’ Bulletin,” the Baker Association newsletter, that was distributed in 1929 (part of what led to the mail fraud indictments).
One woman, a Mrs. Rice, who had attended association meetings at the Albert Baker home in Pana said as many as 300 people might show up. At one meeting, she said, they collected $325 and at another, close to $500. It was Mrs. Rice who sought the assistance of Clinton attorneys L. O. Williams, who was also a state senator, and his colleague Arthur F. Miller. Williams said there were 30 or 40 DeWitt County Bakers interested in the case. He actually travelled to Philadelphia to investigate, determined it to be a fraud, and returned to central Illinois to break it to his constituents. Mrs. Rice brought attorney Miller with her to the July 8, 1935 meeting at the Baker home in Pana, and that turned out to be the last one. Mr. Miller set the attendees straight and broke up the meeting.
The December 18, 1936, issue of the Decatur Herald Morning Edition bore the page-wide headline: U. S. MAY WIDEN BAKER ESTATE PROBE. Underneath is a large picture of Clinton attorney Arthur F. Miller, crediting him with revealing the fraud. He called it “a crooked, money making scheme,” which indeed it was. A lengthy article accompanies the picture. Oddly enough, the Clinton paper barely mentions the affair, stating simply that Mrs. Rice consulted some Clinton attorneys, who investigated at their own expense and advised concerned parties that it was a fraud.
It seems like calling this a “hoax” is grossly inadequate, even unfair. “Hoax” implies something harmless or even amusing. This scam persisted for generations, and in its final revival, preyed upon people who were already struggling to survive through the Depression. From the point of view of a genealogist, it both helped and hurt the science of genealogy. I’ll give you examples from my own tree.
I have a copy of a form filled out in the 1920’s entitled “Statement of Claim, Genealogical Proof.” It was filled out by a distant cousin who shares a Baker ancestor with me. He begins with his own family, then his parents, and so forth until he reaches Peter Baker (our common ancestor). He goes on to state that Peter came to America in 1727 with brothers George, Henry and Jacob, though he has no Bible or other papers to reflect their existence. He added “only what my parents told me that the estate was there for us.” I’m 99% sure the part about the brothers was a total fabrication. Many Baker family histories likely hold similar information, probably recorded on a form provided by the Baker Association.
On the other hand, I have a letter that my grandmother received from a paternal aunt in the early 1920’s. My grandmother would have been a young wife and mother at the time, and the way the aunt’s letter is worded, my grandmother must have asked her if there were any Bakers in their tree. There were not, but the aunt wrote everything she did know about their ancestors, which was a great help to me 80 years later. Funny how things turn out sometimes.
Sources:
Terri Lemmel was born and raised in DeWitt County near Kenney. Upon completing her education at Clinton High School, she lived in Bloomington for several years before returning to Clinton in 1990. Her interest in genealogy was piqued in the mid-90s when she found unidentified obituaries in her late grandmother's scrapbook that family members could not identify. While she initially dabbled in the subject, it wasn't until her retirement in 2018 that she jumped in with both feet. Terri joined the Genealogical Society and has been serving as its President since 2022. Research is a passion of hers, and there are lots of interesting stories to uncover! You can find Terri in the DeWitt County Genealogical Society room at the Vespasian Warner Public Library every Thursday completing research and helping others with their family and local history research.
To learn more about the DeWitt County Genealogical Society, feel free to reach out to them via phone at 217-935-5174, email at dewittcgs@gmail.com, their website, or their Facebook page.
The Vespasian Warner Library, located at 310 N. Quincy St. in Clinton, IL, features an extensive collection of local history and archives. To learn more, visit our Local History Page on the website or stop by in person! We are always excited to showcase our local history resources and discuss DeWitt County's local history.
Until Next Time Library Friends!
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