CASPER WOLF BAKER – 118th INFANTRYPOSTMASTER IN HARKNESS FOR 33 YEARS - When the son of Stephen Baker and Lydia Barlow, Casper Wolf Baker, enlisted as a private in the 118th Infantry at Ausable to serve for 3 years on August 12, 1862. he didn’t imagine he would only spend 2 years, 5 months and 16 days in uniform.The Adirondack Regiment, as it was known, left Plattsburgh for Washington on September 3, 1862, and spent its first few months near the capital with the Department of Washington DC. They had only 4 engagements in 1863 between April and July before returning to Yorktown, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Newport News, VA, for further garrison duty. By this time, Casper had been promoted corporal.In 1864, the 118th had two minor engagements with the Army of the James in Virginia and then was sent to the Operations before Petersburg and Richmond. During their fourth battle of the Operation, Drewry’s Bluff on May 16, 1864, Casper was shot in the arm and the hip and was taken to hospital. He was discharged for disability on a Surgeon’s Certificate on March 22, 1865, in Philadelphia. By September of the same year he started receiving an Invalid’s Pension.Despite his injuries, he lived to be 80 years old and died in 1921. His death notice was in the Plattsburgh Daily Republican of October 8, 1921 – “Casper W. Baker of Harkness and one of the oldest and most respected residents of this county, diet at the Physician’s Hospital yesterday forenoon at 10 o’clock, after an illness of several weeks, during which he bore his suffering without the slightest complaint.For 33 years, Mr. Baker held the office of postmaster of Harkness, and in point of service was one of the oldest postmasters in the state. He was appointed to the position on July 8, 1888, and during his long term of service, the affairs of the office were conducted in a manner which on more than one occasion brought complimentary reports from his supervisors.Mr. Baker conducted a general store at Harkness in connection with the post office and in this he also met with continued success. Because of failing health, he disposed of the store 2 years ago.Mr. Baker is survived by one son, E. E. Baker of Plattsburgh and one daughter, Mrs. William McFadden, and 3 stepchildren, Henry Macomber, Mrs. Samuel Gordon, and Mrs. James Felio.His funeral will be held from the M. E. Church in Harkness tomorrow afternoon at 1:30 o’clock.”Casper and his wives, Mary J., who died in childbirth in 1877, and Clarissa M. Beardsley, who died in 1914, are buried under the same stone in the Harkness Cemetery. His newborn son, Alonzo, is buried with his mother.
