I just discovered this information about the canteen's first owner, Henry W. Baker, on Findagrave.com:
Henry died while serving in the Civil War in the 147th Reg of Company G of the PVI. They were in Dumfries, VA when there was an outbreak of Tyhoid Fever. His brother, George, had come to visit and found him sick.
According to "Lamented Comrade's Writings Tell of Service Of Locally Recruited, Civil War Unit in 147th Regiment" by
By M. S. SCHROYER, "Arrangements were made, the body embalmed and brought home for burial. He was placed beside Lewis C. Schroyer in the First Lutheran cemetery, Selinsgrove.
Joseph Lumbard's Diary of the Civil War, "Serg't. Henry Baker, who in the very prime of life had left his wife and family of little ones, having enlisted in the company to assist in restoring the Union of his fathers, was the second member of the company to die. The members of the company all remember how sudden and unexpected the news came, he appeared to be enjoying his usual good health when the attack came. Seated in our tent writing a letter home, we were startled by an unusual disturbance in one of the tents of the company, and upon going to ascertain what it was, we found that Serg't. Baker was laboring under some strange hallucination, that some strange person was in his tent, and he had kicked the upper bunk, sending its occupants, Serg't. F. H. Knight and W. E. Fausnacht up against the roof of the tent. He was at once taken with camp fever, and in the morning he was sent to the Division Hospital in the town, and grew steadily worse until the night of the 3rd of April, when a kind Providence relieved him of his suffering by sending the angel of death to his relief. The sudden and unexpected death of Henry W. Baker, cast a gloom over the company. He was a model soldier, one who obeyed promptly every order, and who expected those under his command to render a willing obedience to him. His brother, George Baker, who had come to visit him accompanied the corpse home, where it was interred in the 1st Lutheran Cemetery, near the remains of Lewis C. Schroyer. Thus ended the brief military career of one whom, if he had been spared to serve his time of enlistment with the company, would no doubt have acquitted himself with honor and, credit."
Burial:
Old Lutheran Cemetery
Selinsgrove
Snyder County
Pennsylvania, USA
Bringing the