BAKER, Samuel Thomas, Jr.

Date of birth:  About 1881
Date of death: 3 Apr 1894 – Franklin, Johnson County, Indiana

The Franklin Democrat, Friday, April 6, 1894,
Volume XXXIV Number 39, page 1 column 6

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Thomas, son of Samuel Baker, a col­ored citizen, was killed Tuesday even­ing about eight o’clock by holding a wire connected with an electric light. The carbons in the lamp did not meet and were not burning and Baker at­tempted to shake the lamp by means of the wire and bring the carbons together. In so doing he broke a thin board that acts as a nonconductor in the hood of the lamp and instantly the current ran into the wire which allows the lamp to be raised or lowered. He could not let go the wire until the lamp began burning, when he fell to the ground dead. His hands and the balls of his feet were badly burned, the body hav­ing formed the connections for the electric current. The funeral occurred Thursday afternoon.

Link to Samuel Thomas Baker, Jr.’s grave

The Johnson County Indiana WPA Death Index, 1882–1920, page 8, referencing Book H-17, page 22, records that Samuel T. Baker, a thirteen-year-old colored male, died 6 [sic] Apr 1894 in Franklin.

Submitted by Mark McCrady, Cathea Curry and Lois Johnson