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Nelson Henry Baker was born on February 16, 1842, in Buffalo, New York, second of four sons, born to German immigrant Lewis Becker and Irish immigrant Caroline Donnellan.
Lewis, who changed his last name from Becker to Baker, was a German Evangelical Lutheran, and Caroline was a Roman Catholic. The couple raised their boys as Catholic.
Lewis, a retired mariner, opened a grocery and general goods store in Buffalo, and it was there that he shared his business knowledge with the boys. This knowledge would come in very handy for Nelson who would one day need it to deal with creditors and parish finances as a pastor.
From April 12, 1861, to April 9, 1865, the United States was engaged in a Civil War between the northern states (the Union) and the southern states (the Confederacy). In July 1863, 21-year-old Nelson volunteered to serve as a Union soldier in the 74th regiment of the New York State Militia.
When Nelson returned home from the war, he and his friend Joseph Meyer, also a veteran, started a feed and grain business. Their business was a success. It was during this time that Nelson joined the St. Vincent de Paul Society, an international Catholic organization designed to help the poor. He also took classes in Latin at St. Michael’s residence in Buffalo that would become Canisius College in 1870.
In the summer of 1869, after taking some time off to discern what he wanted to do with his life, Nelson decided to become a priest. So, on September 2, 1869, Nelson entered Our Lady of Angels Seminary. Nelson did fine in the seminary, but he had to take off 18 weeks because of erysipelas, a bacterial infection.
One of the special highlights of his seminary time was a pilgrimage to Rome in 1874 with 107 other seminarians to lend support for the restoration of the Papal States. During their European trip, they also visited Paris, France and toured Our Lady of Victory Sanctuary. Many of Nelson’s biographers believe that tour led him have a lifelong devotion to Saint Mary under that title. The group of seminarians were also able to meet Pope Pius IX in Vatican City.
Nelson was ordained for the Diocese of Buffalo on the feast of Saint Joseph, March 19, 1876, at St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Buffalo. The next day, he returned to Our Lady of the Angels to celebrate his First Mass of Thanksgiving.
Father Nelson’s first assignment was to assist Father Thomas Hines at Limestone Hill, New York, today known as Lackawanna, N.Y. That parish consisted not only of St. Patrick Church, but also St. Joseph’s Orphanage and St. John’s Protectory. (A protectory was a place for youth who needed special attention on their life journeys. Protectories were a often a cross between an orphanage and reform school.)
In 1881, Father Nelson was transferred to St. Mary parish in Corning, N.Y. to assist Father Peter Colgan, but one year later, Fr. Nelson was back at Limestone Hill to be Superintendent.
When Father Nelson returned to Limestone Hill, creditors told him that the three parish institutions had amassed much debt and demanded he pay it off immediately. That was impossible. However, based on the knowledge he had gained helping his father in his business, Father Nelson made a deal with the creditors. He paid off some of the debt with his money, made a verbal promise to pay off the rest, and then created a group to help him. He called this group “The Association of Our Lady of Victory.”
After obtaining the names of Catholic women in towns across the United States, he invited them to become members of the Association for just 25 cents per year. They would help solicit funds for the orphanage and protectory. He also started a journal called The Annals of the Association of Our Lady of Victory in 1888. It was published until 1929 when it became absorbed by The Victorian Magazine.
By June 1889, Father Nelson had paid off all the debt of the parish, and he worked hard to ensure it would never be in debt again. Amazingly, in 1891, a natural gas well was discovered on the land of the parish, so this helped heating costs.
Father Nelson was named the Vicar General of the Diocese of Buffalo in 1904, and in 1923, he was honored by the Vatican for his service by being named a “Protonotary Apostolic ad instar Participantium,” an honor that only five other clergy had at that time.
Father Nelson died on July 29, 1936, at the age of 94. He was declared “Venerable” of the Catholic Church in 2011.
Venerable Nelson Henry Baker was named “Buffalo’s most influential citizen of the 20th century” and had a major bridge named after him on New York State Route 5.
