The special report from the US House’s Committee on Invalid Pensions of 25 July 1854 mentions the case of Jacob Baker. The report was originally located because a copy of it was contained in Baker’s War of 1812 pension file. I was not searching for it specifically.
GenealogyBank has the Congressional Record (in their “Historical Documents for Genealogy” collection) for the time period when most War of 1812 veterans would have been applying for special pension authorizations from Congress. Full text searches of the Congressional Record can be done using the search interface at GenealogyBank. Searches for names like Jacob Baker are problematic given the common nature of his name. A little finesse is necessary to find individuals with names of this type.
The report on Jacob Baker does not include the phrase “War of 1812,” (some reports very well could) however, there are other key items about him that are mentioned in the report and which would be helpful when performing a full text search:
- name of his unit: Benjamin Smead’s Company, 11th regiment
- location of incident where he was injured: Fort Erie
- rank: fifer
- residence after war: Canada West
Of course, using these items as search terms for Baker does require that one know them before reading the document. That’s not always realistic. There are notable items missing from the report:
- Baker’s age
- Baker’s current residence
The only reason Baker’s residence in Canada is relevant is because that is where he was living when his service documentation was destroyed in a fire.
Many pension applications were denied. Some veterans (or their widows) did receive special pension authorizations from Congress.
We’ll have an update to see if the Center for Legislative Archives has any additional information on Baker’s situation.
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