BAKER, EDWARD DICKINSON, was born Feb. 24, 1811, in London, England. His father, Edward Baker, was an educated gentleman, and his mother a sister of Capt. Thomas Dickenson, of the British navy, who distinguished himself at the battle of Trafalger. Edward D. was the eldest of five children. About the close of the war with England, in 1815, his father and family emigrated to America, landing at Philadelphia, Penn. Here Mr. Edward Baker engaged in teaching. On account of the financial embarassments of the family, as soon as Edward D. was old enough, he was apprenticed to a weaver. In 1826 his father moved to Belleville, Ill., where he opened a select school, and young Edward D. Baker evinced such a taste for literature that the late Gov. Edwards, then a resident of Belleville, gave him free access to his library. From Belleville young Baker went to St. Louis, and to procure funds for necessary expenses, drove a dray for at least one season. From St. Louis he went to Carrolton, Ill., and began the study of law and at the same time acting as deputy in the county clerk's office. He was married April 27, 1831, to Mrs. Mary A. Lee, a widow with two children. In the spring of 1832 Mr. Baker enlisted in the Black Hawk war, and in 1835 moved to Springfield, and soon after became a law partner of Stephen T. Logan. He delivered the oration at the laying of the corner stone of the old State house, July 4, 1837. In the latter year he was elected to the General Assembly to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Hon. Dan Stone, and was re-elected the following year. In 1840 E. D. Baker was elected State Senator for four years, and elected to Congress in 1845. When the war broke out with Mexico, Mr. B. hastened home, raised a regiment, which was accepted by the government as the 4th Ill. Inf., Col. E. D. Baker, commanding. Arriving on the Rio Grand, he discovered that the troops were in need of additional tent equipage, munitions of war, etc., and for a few months accepted the position of bearer of dispatches to the war department, and repaired to Washington. Congress was in session, and not having resigned his seat in the House, availed himself of his privilege as a member, and made a speech of great and almost magical power in favor of a vigorous prosecution of the war, and in behalf of the volunteers then in the field, and rejoined his regiment. After the battle of Cerro Gordo, the term of Col. Baker's enlistment expired, and his men not wishing to re-enlist, he reluctantly left the field, and, returning home, resumed the practice of his profession. In the spring of 1848 he moved to Galena, Ill. As one of the Whig electors for the State at large, he took an active part in the Presidential campaign of 1848. He took his seat as Representative in Congress, the second time, in Dec., 1849. In 1851 he entered into an agreement with the Panama Railroad Company to grade a portion of that road, but after several months exposure to a tropical sun, he and his men fell sick and abandoned the country. In 1852 he emigrated with his family to California, establishing himself in practice in San Francisco. There he delivered the funeral oration of two of his early friends, fallen by the fatal bullet of the duelist, Ferguson and Broderick. The latter stands alone as the most brilbrilliant funeral oration ever delivered on the continent of America. After the death of Boderick, Col. Baker moved to Oregon, and was elected U. S. Senator from there in 1860. For the first time in his life he was placed in a position congenial to him. The decorum and courtesy that usually marks the intercourse of Senators, was most grateful to his habits of thought and feeling.

Col. Baker was a man of action as well as of words, and soon after the fall of Fort Sumter he recruited a regiment in Philadelphia and vicinity, which was called the California regiment, and soon after, President Lincoln tendered him a Brigadier-General's commission, but he declined it, probably because it would have vacated his seat in the Senate. At the first session of the 37th Congress, convoked by President Lincoln, July 4, 1861, Col. Baker was in his seat, and participated prominently in the passage of those important measures which became necessary to place the nation on a war footing. On the adjournment of this special session, Col. Baker rejoined his regiment, which was attached to and formed a part of the army of observation on the Potomac. He, however, was restless in camp, and a vague prescntiment of his approaching fate seemed to haunt him wherever he went, and he said to a friend that since his campaign in Mexico he could never afford to turn his back on an enemy. He returned to Washington, settled his affairs, and called to bid the President and family farewell, when the lady of the Executive Mansion, who, in her, then, high position, was gracefully mindful of early friendship, gave him a boquet of late flowers. As though partially soliloquizing, he said: "Very beautiful; these flowers and my memory will wither together." He pressed with quiet earnestness on his friend, Col. Webb, the measures which might become necessary in regard to the resting place of his mortal remains, then mounted his horse and rode gaily away to his death. He was leading his men at Ball's Bluff, and, when ten feet in advance of them, fell, pierced by eight bullets, Oct. 21, 1861. His body was borne tenderly away, embalmed, and removed to Washington City, where appropriate funeral honors were paid to his remains; then sent to New York City, and from there by steamer to San Francisco, where he was buried in Lone Mountain Cemetery, of that city. Of the two children of Mrs. Baker by her first marriage--

MARIA L. LEE, born in 1827, was married Feb. 11, 1845, to James H. Matheny. See his name.

FRANK LEE went to California, and died there.

Hon. Edward D. Baker and wife had four children, namely:

LUCY S., born about 1832 in Carrolton, Ill., brought up in Springfield, was married in San Francisco to Charles Hopkins. They have four children, CHARLES, CAROLINE, ROBERT and RALPH, and reside at Olympia, Washington Territory. Mr. Hopkins is U. S. Marshall for that Territory.

CAROLINE C., born in Carrolton, Ill., brought up in Springfield, was married in San Francisco to Robert J. Stevens. They have two children, ROBERT and CARRIE, and reside in Washington City.

ALFRED W., born in Springfield, resides in San Francisco.

EDWARD D., Jun., born in Springfield, married Saccha Alma Bradshaw. He is a Captain in the U. S. Army, and is on duty at some western military post.

Mrs. Mary A. Baker died in San Francisco.

The great and fatal mistake of Col. Baker was one that did honor to his noble and chivalrous spirit. He had fairly and honorably reached the highest position in our government that any adopted citizen could attain. In the Senate of the United States he was the peer of any man in the nation, and his counsels there were worth a hundred fold more than it could have been in the field. When he volunteered to lead a regiment, he was liable to become subordinate to men far, very far, inferior to himself, and that proved to be his destruction; but he had, no doubt, weighed well the step he was about to take, and thereby laid the most costly sacrifice on the altar of his adopted country that it was possible for any citizen to make, even though he were to the manor born.