JAMES A. BAKER
The Captain helmed critical projects, from Rice Institute to top energy firm
The Captain had a hand in nearly every successful venture or institution in the city, from education to fine arts.
James Addison Baker — known for much of his life as Captain Baker — didn’t have a need for the spotlight. But the quiet, steady leader was an organizing force behind a long list of Houston institutions.
A lawyer, banker and civic leader, Captain Baker would help steer Houston’s growth at the turn of the century as it developed from a modest town into a hub of energy and commerce. He’d play a major role in the founding of Rice University, start a bank, organize several prominent companies and help make his law firm — now known as Baker Botts — one of the most prominent in the country.
And Captain Baker’s descendents would go on to make their own impact; the Baker family continues to be an important part of Houston today.
The Baker family “was steeped in Presbyterian beliefs of the 19th century: If much was given to you, you should give back to your community,” said Kate Sayen Kirkland, author of a book about Captain Baker and his family.
The first James Addison Baker arrived in Texas in 1852, a 31-year-old widower who came from Alabama at the urging of his late wife’s family. He settled in Huntsville, where he practiced law, bought land, built a business and became a district judge before moving south to Houston. He married again in Texas, and his son, also named James A. Baker, was born in 1857.
This Baker — who would grow up to be known as Captain — enrolled at the Texas Military Institute, then moved to Houston after graduation to begin his career in law. He joined his father’s law firm and soon took on an important client, William Marsh Rice.
Rice was a New York millionaire who’d made his fortune in Texas, and Captain Baker handled his legal affairs in Houston. In September 1900, Rice died under circumstances that seemed supiscious to Baker, who traveled to New York and helped police investigate the death. Rice, they discovered, was murdered by his valet and another lawyer, who had conspired to use a forged will to claim Rice’s estate for themselves. The murder of a prominent millionaire was sensational news, and by the time Rice’s killers were tried — a spectacle newsmen called the “trial of the century” — Captain Baker and his law firm were national names.
Saving his client’s fortune may be Captain Baker’s most famous contribution to the city of Houston. Rice had arranged for his capital to be used to build an institute of higher learning in Houston. It was a fairly vague directive, but Baker “greatly expanded Rice’s vision,” Kirkland said, using his client’s money to create an institute designed to compete with Princeton, Stanford and fine schools around the world. “He saw a great university would be important to the city of Houston,” Kirkland said.
Baker then served as chairman of the board of trustees for the next 40 years, staying involved to shape Rice into a first-class institution.
But the Rice Institute wasn’t Captain Baker’s only contribution to the city of Houston.
At the dawn of the 20th century, two events occurred that ended up shaping Houston: A hurricane in September 1900 wiped out much of Galveston, and a few months later, a well at nearby Spindletop struck oil, triggering the Texas Oil Boom.
“That completely changed the economy of Houston,” said Bill Kroger, a partner in the energy litigation group at Baker Botts, where he’s also taken on the role of firm historian. “And Captain Baker recognized two things: That he’d need a much larger firm to handle all of that new work, and that they’d need to have energy expertise.”
Captain Baker hired a team of young lawyers to make the firm ready for the 20th century. “These weren’t the rich kids in town,” Kroger said. “He didn’t hire people for their connections; he hired people because they were smart and talented and hardworking.”
That’s a trait of the Baker family, Kirkland said; charged to give back to their community, they helped build a city that could serve everyone — not just the wealthy.
“The man certainly made money, but that wasn’t his paramount goal in life,” Kirkland said. “He was very well grounded. People respected him so much that when he said something needed to be done, they listened and followed his leadership.”
At the turn of the century, “Houston was this pretty small town with not a lot of fascinating things going on,” Kirkland said. “And within a few years, you have a body of people creating a university, a symphony, an art museum, parks — all within the first two decades of the century.”
Captain Baker, she points out, had a hand in nearly all of it.
Captain Baker helped charter Commercial National Bank, which became one of the biggest banks in the state — and as a banker, he helped prevent Houston’s banks from collapsing when Wall Street crashed in 1929. Captain Baker was also involved in the founding of Memorial Park, Glenwood Cemetery, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Houston Country Club.
His wife, Alice Baker, became involved in causes to help the less fortunate. She organized the Houston Settlement Association, which today is known as Neighborhood Centers. She participated in groups that helped children, immigrants and the working poor; she wanted a “decent standard of living for all” and “saw everyone who lived in Houston as her neighbor,” Kirkland writes in her book, “Captain James A. Baker of Houston, 1857-1941.” The couple’s children would carry on their legacy. James A. Baker Jr. joined the Army just before World War I, returned a decorated war hero, and spent the rest of his career at his father’s law firm. James A. Baker III, Captain Baker’s grandson, became chief of staff to two presidents; in the Reagan administration, he served as Secretary of the Treasury, and he was President George H.W. Bush’s Secretary of State.
Houston became the city it is today because of the Baker family, Kroger said, especially Captain Baker.
“He thought about the community as a whole and not just his personal interests,” he said. He wasn’t given to theatrics or self-aggrandizing, so often, he was just outside the spotlight. “But on the other hand,” Kroger said, “he was someone whose support of a project was critical for its success. You see his name on just about every venture that was being undertaken in that era.”