Ezra Baker

Ezra Baker was an American politician and physician who served a single term in the United States House of Representatives, representing the at-large congressional district of New Jersey from 1815 to 1817 as a member of the Democratic-Republican Party. He was born in Tuckerton, in the Province of New Jersey, around the year 1765, during the final decade of the colonial era. Little is recorded about his family background, but his early life in coastal southern New Jersey placed him in a region closely tied to maritime trade and small-scale commerce in the years leading up to and following the American Revolution.

Baker was educated for the medical profession, undertaking the training necessary at the time to qualify as a physician. After completing his medical education, he commenced practice and established himself as a doctor. In 1799 he moved to Absecon, New Jersey, a community in what is now Atlantic County, where he continued his medical practice. His dual identity as a physician and a public servant would later shape his standing in local affairs and his eventual entry into national politics.

In addition to his medical work, Baker held a federal administrative post in the years preceding his congressional service. He served as collector of customs at the port of Great Egg Harbor from February 18, 1813, to March 1, 1815. In this capacity he was responsible for overseeing the collection of customs duties and enforcing federal trade and navigation laws at a time when the United States was engaged in the War of 1812 and coastal trade and shipping were of strategic and economic importance. This position enhanced his prominence in southern New Jersey and provided him with experience in federal administration.

Baker was elected as a Democratic-Republican, then commonly referred to as a Republican, to the Fourteenth United States Congress. Representing New Jersey’s at-large congressional district, he served a single term from March 4, 1815, to March 3, 1817. His tenure in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history, immediately following the War of 1812 and at the outset of what would later be called the “Era of Good Feelings.” As a member of the Republican Party representing New Jersey, Ezra Baker contributed to the legislative process during his term in office, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his constituents in debates over postwar policy, national finance, and the ongoing development of federal institutions, although the specific details of his committee assignments and floor activity are not extensively documented.

Following his service in Congress, Baker did not seek or did not secure reelection and instead turned to new pursuits. In 1818 he moved westward with his sons, reflecting the broader movement of Americans into the trans-Appalachian and Gulf Coast regions in the early nineteenth century. He engaged in the culture of castor beans for the New Orleans market, participating in the expanding agricultural economy that supplied raw materials—particularly castor oil, used for industrial, medicinal, and domestic purposes—to growing urban centers. The later details of his life, including the exact date and place of his death, are not clearly recorded in surviving historical sources, but his career as a physician, customs official, and one-term representative places him among the many early nineteenth-century Americans who combined professional practice with intermittent public service at the national level.