John Baker (Baker Brook) dating history

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John Baker (January 17, 1796 – March 10, 1868) is the namesake of the towns of Baker Lake (Lac Baker) and Baker-Brook, New Brunswick, Canada, just west of Edmundston. He was a successful sawmill and gristmill businessman who became a well-known pro-American activist in New Brunswick and Maine during the 19th century and was nicknamed "the Washington of the Republic of Madawaska", which he had declared in response to the unwillingness of the Van Buren Administration in Washington to support Maine's claim to sizable areas of territory covering adjacent parts of the British colonies of Lower-Canada and New Brunswick, part of British North America. At least 22 years earlier, the War of 1812 had ended in a draw and had seriously depleted the US Treasury, demonstrating the will of Britain to engage in full warfare to guard British North America against US encroachment, including invasion of US territories and punitive raids. This had resulted in Washington adopting a policy of appeasement towards states with claims to British territories, which clashed with Maine's expansionist intentions that continued to simmer during the 1830s.