Christopher Baine About 1832-1899 Carpenter and Firefighter Buried in City Loosley Cemetery, exact location unknown (photos courtesy of Baine descendants via Tim Kovacs) Christopher Baine was born about 1832 in Dublin, Ireland—possibly to Lawrence and Ellen Bain. It is not known when he immigrated to the United States but, by 1860, he was living in Sacramento, California, and working as a wheelwright and wagon-maker. Several newspaper articles attest to the fact that, while living in Sacramento, Baine was a member of the city’s fire department. He served in Engine Company #2.
Baine was in Arizona City (now Yuma), Arizona, in 1868, when he married Jesus Dominguez Esquer, born 1844. At the time of the marriage, Jesus Dominguez already had a little daughter named Maria Cruz by her previous relationship with Donaciano Cruz. With Baine, she had a daughter Guadalupe, born 1869; a daughter Emilia, born 1871; a son Thomas/Tomás, born in 1873; a daughter Sarah, born in 1875; and a daughter Juanita, born in 1879. Baine seems to have been well-respected while living in Yuma. He worked as a carpenter and served for a time as coroner and school trustee. He also owned a store on the corner of Main Street, Maiden Lane, and Second Street, which he rented to Isaac Lyons. The Baine family’s life in Yuma was thrown into turmoil on July 29, 1879, when Baine shot and killed his brother-in-law, Antonio Ruiz, who was married to Jesus’s sister. At about 1 AM, Ruiz, drunk, appeared at the Baines’ house, from which he had been ejected a month before. When told to leave, he did, but returned a few hours later. Baine, fearing that Ruiz had come back with a gun, again ordered him to leave. When Ruiz advanced instead, Baine fired four times. Ruiz died several hours later. Baine immediately turned himself in to the sheriff. The grand jury set his bail at $1000. It does not appear, however, that Baine was charged with anything beyond defending his home from an intruder. As time went on, the Baines had two more children: a son Angel, born 1882, and a son Jose, born 1888. Newspaper articles describe Baine as working as a carpenter, joiner, and cabinet-maker between 1880 and 1895, although somewhat hampered by neuralgia. By 1884, the Baine family had relocated to Phoenix. On January 23, 1899, Christopher Baine died of typhoid fever and was buried in City/Loosley Cemetery. So thoroughly was Baine identified with the Mexican community, that an El Paso newspaper described him as “one of the best known and most respected Mexicans of Maricopa County”. Although the exact location of his grave is no longer known, Baine has a cenotaph brick in the Pioneer & Military Memorial Park’s memorial garden. © 2023 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised June 15, 2023. If you would like assistance researching our interred, you can find more information on our website. You can contact us at [email protected] at any time. Thank you for your interest to preserve the history of Arizona's pioneers!
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ERLINDA TÓRRES
3/18/2024 08:28:05 pm
Christopher Baine
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