pack train of flour. After crossing the Deschutes River Indians drove off his horses in the night and left him with his supplies. He constructed a rough clay and stone bakeoven and made bread which he sold to miners and prospectors going to the mines. The old oven was in existence for many years after the owner abandoned it. H. H. Bancroft, in his History of Oregon, volume I, page 787, says that the baker was a German and that the event occurred when Joseph H. Sherar took a party to the mines in 1862. The post office of Bakeoven was established December 1, 1875, with Mrs. Ellen Burgess first postmaster.
BAKER, Baker County. Baker was originally known as Baker City and it was, of course, named for Baker County. The post office was first established on March 27, 1866, with William F. McCrary as postmaster. In 1911 the name of the post office was changed to Baker to conform to the new style adopted by the incorporated community. For additional information about the origin of the name see under BAKER COUNTY and also editorial in the Oregonian, November 13, 1925, page 14. McCrary was the first postmaster at Auburn post office, which was established November 1, 1862. It is reported that McCrary moved the office to the present site of Baker in the fall of 1865 and opened a variety store. Whatever the facts are about this unauthorized move, the Baker City office was established March 27, 1866, with McCrary postmaster. Despite McCrary's move, Auburn continued to have a post office until October, 1903. Baker Bridge, Clackamas County. This bridge was named for Horace Baker, who took up a donation land claim nearby in pioneer days. His land office certificate was number 4967. The bridge is near Carver.
BAKER COUNTY. Baker County was created September 22, 1862, by the state legislature (General Laws of 1862, page 112). It was made from the eastern part of Wasco County. It was named for Edward Dickinson Baker (1808-61) who was elected United States senator from Oregon in 1860. He was killed at Balls Bluff just after he had been appointed a major-general. His biography appears in the Oregonian January 15, 1875, by Tom Merry; May 31, 1908, by Clark E. Carr; January 19, 1896. He first came to Oregon in December, 1859, and, in the following February, moved his family to Oregon. For the narrative of his death, ibid., July 16, 1893, page 4; October 21, 1906, page 49; tribute to his strong oratorical power, ibid., April 5, 1899, page 3, by P. B. Johnson; reminiscences of Baker, by George H. Williams, ibid., July 29, 1906, page 41; Baker's speech in Union Square, New York, in April, 1861, ibid., May 30, 1906, page 8; his oration over the body of Senator Broderick, ibid., October 14, 1883; his reply to Breckenridge, ibid., July 30, 1905, page 43; description of the grave of E. D. Baker at San Francisco, ibid., March 13, 1892; June 4, 1872, page 3. For biograph. ical narrative, by William D. Fenton, see OHQ, volume IX, pages 1-23. For a description of Baker County in 1880 see the Oregonian for December 28, 1880; in 1885, ibid., October 19, 1885, by Alfred Holman; in 1881, ibid., December 6, 1881, by George H. Atkinson. Details concerning the origin of Oregon counties may be obtained from OHQ, volume XI, No. 1, for March, 1910, which contains an address on the subject by Frederick V. Holman.
BAKER GULCH, Wallowa County. Baker Gulch drains into Joseph Creek in township 4 north, range 45 east. It was named for James, Sam For a bep 28. Decem of March,
