A Good Man Undone: The Death of Adam Baker

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The Baker family plot is one of the most prominent burial plots at Seltzer Cemetery in Wichita. Buried in this family plot is Adam Baker with his wife Madora, his son Arnot, and an unnamed baby.

When Adam died in 1900, his wife purchased the large granite monument for Adam from Peniwell Monument Works and had the family plot lined with curbing for a total cost of $300.

“Received of Mrs. Madora Baker Three Hundred dollars in full payment for monument and cemetery curbing erected on family cemetery lot of Adam Baker now deceased.”

Who Was Adam Baker?

Adam Baker was born in Canada and he migrated to Kansas as an adult around 1871. He was one of the original homesteaders of Seltzer Springs, claiming 160 acres adjacent to Thomas Means. Means owned the land where the cemetery was established.

Adam Baker’s homestead adjacent to Thomas Means’ homestead and the cemetery, which is not shown on the map but is circled here. Adam also owned land in Butler County. Source

Adam married Madora McPeek in Sedgwick County in 1873. Madora was born in Ohio and came to Kansas with her family as a teenager.

Madora “Dora” McPeek Baker

Adam and Madora had ten known children together, nine of whom lived beyond childhood.

Adam, Madora, and their first child, Rosie. Photo probably taken in 1875, prior to the birth of their next child, Albert.

Adam was a respected farmer and a great husband and father. He made a good life for his family and amassed some wealth here; his homestead had “one of the finest farms and most comfortable homes” in Sedgwick County, and he was considered “well to-do,” or prosperous.

The Wichita Eagle, Wichita, KS, Mar 9, 1890

Probate documents detailed his assets when he died, and they confirm his success. When he died, Adam had over 100 cattle of different types (including cows named Charlie, Ed, Jim, and Whale Face), over 10 horses (including horses named John, Frank, Dolly, Jenny, and Fred), and over 80 hogs, pigs, and sows. He also had a lot of equipment, buildings, and supplies. What wasn’t given to his wife and children was sold at auction, and the proceeds from the auction were distributed amongst his family.

Adam was just 56 years old when he died, and he struggled publicly near the end of his life with some family and legal trouble that may have contributed to his untimely death.

Bastardy and Defamation

Nellie Bales, a neighbor of the Bakers, became pregnant by one of Adam and Madora’s sons, Albert, in 1898. She gave birth to a daughter named Vivian in 1899, and she said Albert was the father.

The Weekly Eagle, Wichita, KS, May 25, 1900

Lloyd Cook was friends with the Bales, neighbors of the Bakers, and a witness against Albert in the bastardy case. Lloyd’s testimony against Albert led to “bickerings and quarrels” between Adam and Lloyd that horrified the neighbors.

The Wichita Eagle, Wichita, KS, Sep 15, 1899

Because of Lloyd’s testimony in the bastardy case, Adam began to talk “pretty freely about the Cook family.” He told anyone who would listen that Lloyd, a married man and a father, was “the daddy of the Bale girl’s baby,” not Albert.

The Wichita Eagle, Wichita, KS, Feb 25, 1900

Adam also took it a step further; he told people that Lloyd Cook’s family home was a brothel, or “bawdy house,” and that he had seen women inside “dressed in the style of mother Eve,” or naked. He said Lloyd invited him inside when women were “lying naked on the floor.”

The Wichita Eagle, Wichita, KS, Sep 15, 1899

Lloyd Cook responded with a $10,000 defamation lawsuit against Adam in the fall of 1899.

The Wichita Eagle, Wichita, KS, Sep 15, 1899

The lawsuit made statewide news, mostly because of the sensational blip about naked women lying around, or “not clothed as respectable women should be.”

The Blue Mound Sun, Blue Mound, KS, Sep 22, 1899

The Wichita Daily Beacon reported that Adam would file an answer to the lawsuit and “make a vigorous fight,” but I didn’t find anything about his response. Lloyd did get arrested later that year for disturbing the peace of his sister, but no further troubles with Adam were reported.

Death of Adam Baker

Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, Adam began displaying disturbing behavior. His appearance became disheveled and he was reportedly saying things that didn’t make sense.

Adam already supposedly had heart trouble, but now he also struggled with “great worry over a large damage suit now pending.” He began to experience paranoia; he was concerned that his friends were conspiring against him, and he had a fear of being arrested.

Adam began wandering away from the house at night, which scared his family. A few days before he died, Madora found some poison that Adam had hidden.

Baker family plot covered in poison ivy.

The day before he died, Adam “grew very wild and riotous.” He somehow got his hands on a revolver and “used it in a threatening manner” until one of his sons took it away from him, and then Adam ran out of the house.

When his son caught up to him, Adam was beating himself in the head with “a heavy piece of iron rod with a knob on the end.” His son wrestled the rod away from him and he was carried back home. He had injured himself so badly that his family was sure he would die.

Later that night, Adam broke out of the family home again, this time in his night clothes in the frigid February cold. When his family found him, “he was almost chilled to death, and is said to have been violently insane.” They managed to get him back home again, where he died not long after.

Poison ivy eradicated, thanks to Minneha Township.

The Wichita Daily Eagle reported that Adam died “by his own hand” from the self-inflicted head injuries and intentional exposure to the cold.

The Wichita Eagle, Wichita, KS, Feb 25, 1900

His death certificate says his death was accidental, with no other detail about the alleged accident, his injuries, or his mental state.

It also says he would be buried at Highland Cemetery in Wichita, but he wasn’t. Source

Adam’s family told everyone his death wasn’t an accident and he certainly wasn’t insane or suicidal; he just had heart trouble.

The Wichita Eagle, Wichita, KS, Feb 27, 1900

Adam is buried in the family plot with Madora and at least two of their children.

Adam’s wife Madora.

The infant in this plot is presumably a child of Adam and Madora, and would have been the last child Madora had.

Their son Arnot died from tuberculosis in 1908. His girlfriend was so distraught over his impending death that she committed suicide.

Albert, the defendant in the bastardy case that led to the defamation lawsuit against Adam, is also buried at Seltzer cemetery. He shares a plot with his wife Minnie (née Massey), whom he married when Nellie was five months pregnant with his “illegitimate” daughter Vivian. Albert and Minnie’s infant son Edwin, born ten months after Vivian, is also buried here.