As brothers Baker and Robert Armstrong grew into young adulthood, they began casting about for lucrative jobs. For years they had evidently worked in the mercantile and druggist business, associated with the grocery store and pharmacy owned by their older half-brothers David Gibson Armstrong and William Dillon Armstrong. Their father's choices after the Civil War did not lead to the money-making enterprise Edward had hoped for, and the boys felt increasingly responsible for the family. Both boys had probably attended Roanoke College, for among the family papers are references to that college. (And if the amount of material here were not so overwhelming, I could put my finger on those references. I'll post more information later. ) But I am taking up the story here after Robert and Baker were finished with school and looking for employment. Various letters from druggist and mercantile businesses suggest that Baker was looking for opportunities elsewhere. The image above (click on it for a better view) is a reproduction of a note sent to William Dillon Armstrong from a wholesale druggist in Baltimore, Maryland. This was most likely a person with whom William Armstrong did some regular business, for he evidently had written Thomsen & Muth a letter of introduction for his younger half-brother, Baker.
Three months later, February 15, 1881, Baker received a letter from his Uncle James Dillon Armstrong (lawyer who served in the Virginia Senate before the Civil War and later became Judge of the Twelfth Judicial Circuit of West Virginia) which indicates that Baker had thought of pursuing medicine:
I am much pleased with your desire to be a physician but I doubt if your plan of becoming a commercial traveller for a Drug House in Baltimore is the best. You will lose time by it, and you have none to lose. Would it not be better to stay awhile longer with the Dr. and study all you can. How much will it cost for you to attend the lectures as long as you and the Dr. think necessary, and how much of that will you have. Let me know. I am anxious you should get to practicing as quick as possible. I wish you were ready to come here now. There is a fine opening.
Baker seems not to have followed his uncle's advice, according to all the clues in the family papers, for some time in 1883, he moved to Baltimore and found work there with George B. Seal, Druggist. That he continued to desire a position where he could make more money is apparent in the letters exchanged with his brother Robert. What placed Baker on the course he was to take, as a druggist and as a traveling wholesaler? We can't know for sure, but perhaps there is a clue in a letter he received from a friend whose identity may forever remain a mystery, for the letter is signed simply: "your most sincere friend, B. R. A." The letter is dated January 29, 1881, and it's written on paper with this letterhead: Office of J. C. Russell & Co., Wholesale Grocers, Agents for Laflin & Rand Powder Co. and the Celebrated Kelley Plows, Clarksville, Texas.
My Dear Friend
I have just received your letter and being at leisure just at present I will give you an example of promptitude. Words can scarcely express the pleasure your letter afforded me. If you will send me yours I will see if I can find you a photo. I perceive from your letter, you have a desire for roaming, a feeling every young man has at our age. If you should chance to ever wander this way, you must be shure (sic) to stop in our little burg. I sometimes wish you were with me, in some of my trips on horseback across the state which is I believe about 500 miles square. I have crossed it east and west on different routes four times. Going on horseback is the only way to learn the true caracter (sic) and disposition of the people and it is said they are peculiar. I have almost quit hunting. While I was travling last summer I bought a one 1/2 and 1/2 blud (sic) and red bone hound that would run horse cow or man or anything else.
Before I left the farm I cought (sic) nineteen coons and about 52 opossums and other varmints. He is the best dog I ever saw, can trail a track 24 hours old.
Jack is well and doing well & sends his kindest greetings. I am the green clerk at present but have not entirely quit the cattle business. Yet I remain as ever
your most sincere friend
The letter writer and Baker were obviously acquainted. Were they related, too? Whatever the relationship between the two, it is tempting to conclude that perhaps this letter planted the seed for Baker's leaving Virginia for Texas, for by the end of 1884, Baker White Armstrong was in Bryan, Texas.
Photo of drugstore--may be the one in which Baker worked in Bryan, Texas
Click on images for larger view
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