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When the Civil War ended Baker no longer had an excuse to keep his gang together and was forced to disband it. He and his wife returned to the Sulphur River country where he operated the Line Ferry for a short time. Baker was not a successful ferry operator and to add to his woes his wife died March 1, 1866. His actual or pretended grief was so intense that some thought he had become insane; yet within five months after his wife's death he became a suitor for the hand of her sixteen year old sister, Belle Foster. His rival suitor was a young, crippled school teacher, Thomas Orr, who soon married Miss Foster. Bitter over Orr's success with Belle, Baker encountered Orr and beat him into unconsiciousness. In June 1867 Baker and a comrade robbed the store of a Mr. Rowden in open daylight while Rowden was absent. When Baker sobered up, the merchant demanded pay for the stolen articles. A few nights later Rowden was called out of his house and shot. He lived long enought to tell the family that Baker was the one who shot him. The insame murderer next went to a settlement of freed slaves and ordered them to go to work on a plantion which he specified. When they refused, Baker shot several of them down in cold blood. These and other acts of violence caused the commander of the United States forces stationed at Jefferson, Texas, to send detachment of troops in pursuit of Baker, who fled to the familiar haunts of the Sulphur River swamp.
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