The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1902-12-27
GEORGE FREDERICK BAER.
FROM CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY IN THE "CosMo
PoLITAN'' FOR DECEMBER.

GEORGE FREDERICK BAER.
FROM CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY" IN THE "cosMo-
PoLITAN" FOR DECEMBER.
Recent events have caused the pub
lie to feel great interest in the presi-
dent of the Reading Railroad. What
manner of man is he who for so long
time stood almost sing1e-handed
against any settlement of the coal
strike? There is an impression in
the public mind, based probably upon
his name, that George F. Baer is of
recent German origin. This is an
error. His family has been Ameri-
can for several generations, although
his ancestors came originally from
Germany. Fleeing from the Palati-
nate to escape persecution, they set
tied in eastern Pennsylvania long be-
fore the Revolution, and some of them
took part in the war for independence.
Mr.. Baer, therefore, comes OF fight
ing stock. His fight for the coal
operators during the summer and fall
is still a matter of immediate public
interest. He could not have made a
more determined struggle if, with ex-
President Kruger, he had announced
to the world that he would "stagger
humanity" before he would fail
Mr.. Baer early evidenced his fight
ing blood. At the age of nineteen he
raised and became captain of the One
Hundred and Thirty third Regiment
of Pennsylvania Volunteers. That
was in 81. He went to the front
and participated in the battles of An
tietam, Charlottesville and Freder-
icksburg. Before his twentieth birth
day he became a major. He was one
of the youngest officers in the Army
of the Potomac, and the youngest to
reach the rank of major.
A son of Solomon and Anna M.
Baer, the future president of the Phil
adelphia and Reading Railroad was
born in Somerset Township, near the
village of Evansville, in Someset
county, Pennsylvania, on the thir-
teenth day of April, 1842. He is,
therefore, sixty years of age. His
parents were of limited means, but
they made up in industry what they
lacked in capital. Inheriting merely
this trait of industry, Mr.. Baer other
wise owes his advancement chiefly to
himself.
In I848, the family moved to farm
near Somerset Borough, then known
as the Isaac Ankany place, and now
known as the Highland Inn." For
three years they occupied this farm
as tenants, and during this time young
Baer attended the common schools of
Somerset county. Later, when his
parents moved into the town, he at
tended the little high-school of the
Rev. Charles Loose, on South street.
In his early youth, he became an
apprentice to Chauncey F. Mitchell,
of the Somerset Democrat printing
office. After learning the printer S
trade, he spent year at the Franklin
and Marshall College, at Lancaster,
Pennsylvania, (of whose Board of
Trustees he is now president. After
this year at college, with his brother S
help he gained control and became
the editor of the Somerset Democrat.
As might be expected, his editorial
policy was strongly Democratic. At
the beginning of the Rebellion, the
paper, under his management, did not
cry Justify for war, as so many other
papers and individuals about it did.
Overzealous radicals did not approve
of his moderations. They stopped
their subscriptions. They did more
than that. They organized a mob,
and marched to the newspaper-ofice
for the purpose of wrecking the build
ing.
Armed with the old "light-horse"
pistols which had been worn (more
for ornament than use) by his father
S Brigade-inspector of Somerset
county, young Baer, accompanied by
his friends, who were armed in SINH
lar fashion, de6ed the mob from the
door and windows of the building,
and it finally dispersed, as mobs will
when they are faced with courage.
The seat he occupied in those days
could not have been called an "edi-
tor easy chair. +" In the end he pre-
ferred physical to mental fighting,
and laid down the pen to take up the
sword.
Upon the expiration of his term OF
service in the Federal Army, with
the early-won promotion already re.
corded, he returned home and began
to read law in the Office of one of hi:
brothers. He was admitted to the
bar on the twenty-sixth day of April
1863, and for several years there.
after practised before the Somerset
county courts. The first day of April
1864, marked his removal to Read
ing, in search of a wider field of &C
tivity. This step he was advised to
take by the Honorable Alexandel
King, at that time the presiding
Judge of the Somerset county courts
Judge Kings prediction of thirty
four years ago that this then twenty
six-year-old attorney would some day
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