User:Texh&tc/sandbox/Eppinger & Baker Texas

John Eppinger and Francis C. Baker, Map of Texas, “Compiled from surveys recorded in the General Land Office by J. Eppinger & F. C. Baker, 1852.” engraved transfer color lithograph on paper, 78.5 x 62.5 cm. (sheet) folds to fit cover 14.4 x 9.3 cm. (New York: Sherman & Smith, 1852). The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries Special Collections, Gift of Virginia Garrett

This map of the state of Texas was one of the first commercial pocket maps to appear after the more famous (and less rare) map of Texas by Jacob DeCordova of 1849. The first edition of the Eppinger & Baker map was issued in 1851 and the second one, shown here dated 1852, is identical except for the date. The map includes all Texas Counties created up to 1849 as well as some of the 1850 additions such as Wood, Freestone, Uvalde, and Kinney counties. The map shows rivers, creeks, and such topographical features as Comanche Peak and the Cross Timbers as well as towns, settlements, and roads as they existed before the construction of railroads. Battlefields of the recent U.S. War with Mexico and the Texas War of Independence appear in south Texas and across the border in northern Mexico. An inset shows California and the vast Territories of New Mexico and Utah. John Eppinger and Francis C. Baker both lived and worked in Jefferson, a thriving community which at that time was part of Cass County in far northeast Texas. Eppinger was a young lawyer born in Georgia around 1825. Baker was born in Indiana in 1821. A partner in William C. Baker & Company of Jefferson, Francis also edited, wrote articles, and published local newspapers. Both men separately produced plans of Jefferson that were later lithographed and distributed. In late April 1848 Eppinger, Francis Baker and a relative, J. D. Baker, announced that they were leaving Jefferson with the intention of conducting a “scientific exploration of Texas” and creating a map after “visiting every county in the state.” In the same article, they also left a detailed list of the scientific instruments they intended to bring along. More details of this exploration are not known. Unfortunately, in November 1850 Eppinger was killed in a hunting accident. Baker returned to Jefferson where he continued to work as a newspaperman, promoting a southern route for the transcontinental railroad. He was still living there as late as 1871. References "Cartographic Connections," University of Texas at Arlington Libraries, Jacques D. Bagur, Antebellum Jefferson, Texas: Everyday Life in an East Texas Town (Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2012), pp. 55, 98-99, 102, 111, 112, 146, 165, 179, 271, 284, 292, 301, 302, 358, 396, 484, 526, 574. Democratic Telegraph and Texas Register (Houston, Tex.) 13:18, ed.1, Thursday, May 4, 1848, p. 3, col. 2; The Star State Patriot (Marshall, Tex.): Saturday, April 3, 1852, p. 2, col. 3, had an advertisement for their Texas map; Handbook of Texas Online, Clinton P. Hartmann, "BAKER, FRANCIS C.," accessed October 21, 2019, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fba27. Uploaded on June 12, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association; Dorothy Sloan Auction 25 Abstracts, https://www.dsloan.com/cms/auction/25/item/map-eppinger-baker-texas-1852, retrieved 10/21/2019.