Booth and Andrew Jackson

[historybuff22]

I have lived in Lansing, Michigan for the past 45 years. As it turns out, both Lafayette C. Baker and his cousin Luther B. Baker spent part of their childhood near Lansing and both moved back to Lansing after the conspirators were hung. Between the two of them, they purchased over a dozen properties in Lansing.

In 1865 Luther paid $8,000 for a 5.6 acre farm on the outskirts of Lansing. Other farms in the area at the time sold for anywhere from $175 to $300. Two-years later he sold the same farm for $285.

Lafayette purchased 3 lots from the state of Michigan in downtown Lansing for $285 total. He sold all three of them in October 1866 to O. F. Winchester of the firearms company for $30,900. Six weeks later he sold the same lots to Hiram Sibley, at the time the largest dealer of agriculture goods, for $10,000. About 9 months later he sold the same lots to John W. Longyear, a Senator from Michigan, for $60,000. Both Winchester and Sibley filed lawsuits to get their money back. When Lafayette died in 1868, Winchester dropped his lawsuit. Sibley did not and two years later got a judgement for $14,000 to be paid by Lafayette's wife Jane.

Rick Brown
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