Remembering Murray Baker

The name Murray Baker means nothing to folks today, but in the first quarter of the last century, Murray Baker had a huge presence in the birth of the mechanized agricultural industry in the U.S. In this issue, we include a 1952 interview of Baker, when he was 80 and reflecting on a career in which he worked as a salesman, district representative, dealer, branch manager, promoter, financier and manufacturer.

Early on, Baker was unusually nimble in his career, transitioning from company to company and position to position. Clearly, he gained from each experience and steadily applied his business acumen to the advantage of each employer. But by 1909, the die was cast, and he would remain as a leader of Caterpillar in Peoria for the next four decades.

In the interview, originally published in Iron Men Album, writer Hal Higgins captured the essence of a man and shared that with the reader in direct quotes. What came through most clearly to me was a man of noteworthy integrity.

For instance, when members of the Holt family dithered over how, exactly, their new enterprise in Illinois should be structured among themselves, Baker found work to do. “I was not interested in the Holt family affairs and made up my mind to attend to my own business,” he told Higgins.

Later, when urged to take over management of the new organization, he liquidated his other business affairs and became executive vice president of what was then Holt Caterpillar Tractor Co. He was given the opportunity of what he referred to as “the privilege” of purchasing sufficient common stock of Holt Mfg. Co. to equal the interests of others (except Benjamin Holt). Imagine any investor today referring to a similar scenario as “a privilege.”

As a retiree some 40 years later, Baker remained committed to the organization. “The common stock I purchased at that time I still hold, which, I feel, is an expression of my everlasting faith in the company and its products,” he told Higgins.