William H. Baker was born in Brooklyn in 1889, the son of Rhoda and Charles Baker of Brooklyn. William married Bertha Gollnick of New Jersey on September 10, 1910.  The couple had eight children; William, Bertha, Henry and Ruth, Carl, Robert, Elenore and Walter.  William H. Baker was an electrician by trade and had his own business according to the 1930’s census. William descended from a whaling and shipbuilding and a Shinnecock Indian maiden. 

Until 1916, William only owned a horse and carriage which he exchanged for an automobile.  At this time he began taking trips to Brentwood.  By 1920 he had purchased a home on Clark Street in Brentwood.  In 1930 the house was valued at $4,000.  The house was built in 1905 by the original owners; Mr. and Mrs. George Seiffert.  There new home hardly had any conveniences as compared to their home in Brooklyn.  There were only four rooms and a hand pump in the kitchen connected to a cistern in the yard.  There were outer houses in the backyard.  With the purchase of a cow, 100 chickens and other small farm animals they started their new life in 1921 in Brentwood.  In 1926 a forest fire broke out on their property taking part of the barn.

Soon after the fire William H. Baker was appointed a New York State Fire Warden.  As a Fire Warden he enlisted volunteers to patrol the area for forest fires.  After another series of fires, William H. purchased a 1926 Cunningham automobile which he converted for fighting forest fires. The fire truck was outfitted with a 350 gallon tank of water, a suction pump which provided pressure for the fire hoses and other equipment.  In 1938 William H. resigned as Fire Warden.  Perhaps if William H. Baker did not move to Brentwood there would more homes and property that would have sustained damage caused by fires.

 History Room Newsletter July 2007

William Baker was born in Brooklyn in 1888.  He and his wife, Bertha, came to Brentwood on a weekend trip in 1916. They immediately fell in love with what William called “the charm of the secluded hamlet in a bower of majestic white pines and enveloped in the cool and refreshing atmosphere of the forest ”.The Bakers returned to visit Brentwood many times over the next four years. In 1920,they bought the home of Mr. and Mrs. George Seiffert on Clark Street and renovated it, adding two new rooms, many modern conveniences and even a small farm.

And therein lies a story.

                   William became a New York State Fire Warden in 1926, just as his family’s barn was partly destroyed in a forest fire. This inspired him to create a forest fire patrol in the north and west sections of Brentwood with the help of his sons William Jr. and Henry, as well as Daniel Holmes. They took hourly turns patrolling the area and received wide acclaim. After the 1928 forest fire that destroyed several local landmarks,including the Ehlers Hotel, William acquired a 1926 Cunningham automobile and refurbished it as a fire truck. The truck was then assigned to the New York State Forest Patrol, and it provided much needed service to Brentwood and the surrounding areas for six years.

                   Baker credited this success to the volunteers who worked with him: Edward Sonderling, Daniel Spence, William Steinle, Herbert Raeth and his own sons William, Jr., and Henry. Sonderling, Spence and William Jr. all became Fire Wardens themselves.

William himself retired as a Fire Warden in 1938, but he continued to be a staunch supporter of both the patrol and the Brentwood Fire Department, especially after they saved five homes, including his own, in the 1941 forest fire that destroyed five other homes in the same two-block area.      

N. Ziino, Local History Newsletter, July 2008.