Captain James A. Baker of Houston, 1857-1941

Chapter Five: Building Institutions

177  Captain Baker applied the full force of his considerable emotional energy, intellectual ingenuity, and professional pride to a single, monumental quest from the moment a messenger handed him Charlie Jones’s telegram on Monday afternoon, September 23, 1900, until the hour he climbed to the speakers’ platform at the Rice Institute Academic Festival on Saturday morning, October 12, 1912. Before him for more than twelve years loomed his task: to protect the legacy of his client William Marsh Rice and to create an institution for the advancement of science, literature, and art. Although he was forced to focus on this overarching challenge, Captain Baker’s world did not stand still. Urban Powerhouse Houston,apleasantmarkettownof45,000in1900,becameTexas’largest city by 1910, with 79,000 residents; by the close of World War I, Houston was a major American manufacturing and commercial center of 138,000, “growing a thousand acres of skyscrapers, building schools and factories Chapter Five Building Institutions Illustrations: Portraits of Alice Baker and Captain Baker painted by Elizabeth Gowdy Baker, New York City, 1910. Courtesy of Baker College Library. book TAM Kirkland.indb 177 book TAM Kirkland.indb 177 5/30/12 2:47 PM 5/30/12 2:47 PM Chapter Five  178 and churches and homes.”1 One Institute professor described the energy that thrilled newcomers: “When I began my work at Rice, stonecutters from Italy were still chiseling on the ornamental figures outside my office windows: great dredges were biting deep into the inland soil of Texas, slowly but surely bringing the waters of the world’s ‘seven seas’ to the doorsteps of Houston . . . it was an inspiring moment.”2 At the hub of this activity stood James A, Baker, senior partner of Houston’s oldest and most forward-looking law firm, chairman of an educational institution whose endowment comprised the largest single financial resource in the region, president of the city’s second-largest bank, and officer or director of several important regional companies. Change was the by-word of the young century, and Captain Baker saw opportunity in the city’s transformation. The 1900 hurricane changed Galveston’s relationship to Houston, which supplanted the island city as Texas’ flagship port. Legal battles following William M. Rice’s death changed Baker’s law practice and propelled him to modernize and enlarge his firm. Rice’s legacy changed the city’s appearance as Baker expanded the Institute’s endowment by lending funds to Houston builders who were developing commercial and domestic real estate projects for the hundreds arriving daily to live and work in the Bayou City. While Baker was pursuing Rice’s murderer in New York, an event occurred near Beaumont, Texas, eighty-five miles to the east, that introduced a new source of wealth to Texans. At 10:30 a.m. on January 10, 1901, Captain Anthony F. Lucas’s gusher erupted at a salt dome called Spindletop. For nine days the well spewed oil two hundred feet into the air; within weeks, nearly 50,000 fortune seekers rushed to the area and erected hundreds of wobbly wooden derricks to pump for black gold.3 The petrochemical industry soon dominated Houston business as oilmen made investments that changed the region’s economy. Newcomers like oil entrepreneur Joseph S. Cullinan, civic visionary William C. Hogg, and drill-bit inventor Walter Benona Sharp not only brought fresh ideas and modern industries to the city, but also they understood the farsighted idealism of William Marsh Rice and his handpicked trustees, who believed a great educational institution would make Houston a great city. Like Baker and the other Institute directors, they identified personal and family success and good fortune with the achievement of their community and the well-being of their neighbors. In the years after Spindletop, they joined the men and women who had book TAM Kirkland.indb 178 book TAM Kirkland.indb 178 5/30/12 2:47 PM 5/30/12 2:47 PM Building Institutions 179  already prospered in Houston to build commercial, cultural, and social service institutions they believed would attract talented citizens and allow Houston to compete on a national and world stage. While Captain Baker focused his attention on securing the Rice legacy, he and his wife Alice took major steps to change Houston’s economic and civic life. The Captain wielded power through his access to legal and financial resources in New York, Boston, Chicago, Kansas City, and...