Hiram Baker (more often referred to as "Doc Baker" or simply "Doc") is the friendly doctor and veterinarian who services Walnut Grove and the surrounding areas.
Dr. Baker's office, which he opened years before the events of Little House's premiere episode "A Harvest of Friends," is located in the same building as the post office; he rarely worked with help except on a few occasions. On occasion, he will travel out of town to assist with various widespread illnesses and to treat others in need. He sometimes will refer his patients to the nearest hospital, in Mankato or even Minneapolis-St. Paul, when a situation is beyond his care.
He is good friends with Charles Ingalls and his family, Nels Oleson, Lars Hanson and the Rev. Alden. In his spare time, he enjoys backgammon, checkers and poker, and also plays baseball on occasion. He is active in town, church and school affairs and a key organizer in community events. Like most of the town's businessmen, Harriet Oleson often creates conflict with Dr. Baker, in his case most often when he warns against miracle cures or other circus-show elixirs she is determined to sell at Oleson's Mercantile, which she and her husband, Nels, co-own.
Background[]
Dr. Baker was the physician who could be counted on to keep Walnut Grove healthy. When a virus would become widespread, he willingly quarantined himself along with the patients to contain the illness and help restore them to health, no matter how long it took. He once turned Walnut Grove Church into a makeshift hospital when a typhus outbreak was spreading in Walnut Grove (Episode 118: Plague), while a few years later it was the School for the Blind that became a temporary infirmy when dozens of area residents fell ill eating mutton contaminated with anthrax (Episode 523: Mortal Mission).
Dr. Baker often worked without an assistant, but sometimes did ask others to help out. One time, when Mrs. Oelson's niece Kate came to visit, she accompanied him during his rounds, and he unwittingly fell in love with her. He eventually broke off the relationship when he realized he could never marry a woman less than half his age. The relationship with Kate was Dr. Baker's only serious romance during Little House's run; he is heartbroken when the relationship ends, and takes a week off before returning to duty. (Episode 117: Doctor's Lady) In "Plague," it was Charles Ingalls and Rev. Alden who helped tend to those falling ill due to typhus, while in "Mortal Mission," Caroline Ingalls, Mrs. Oleson, Alice Garvey and Hester-Sue Terhune – all whom had not eaten the anthrax-laced meat and thus avoided getting sick – provided much needed respite and nursing to the patients, although more than a dozen people die. A few years later, Caroline again works as Dr. Baker's right-hand nurse when they travel to a remote gold prospecting camp stricken by a smallpox outbreak, nursing the miners and their families back to health. (Episode 820: A Faraway Cry)
When Walnut Grove faced a severe economic crisis and most of the townspeople – including the Ingallses, Olesons and Garveys – move from the area, Dr. Baker was, along with Rev. Alden, among the few who remained. Dr. Baker is the one who provides care to Lars Hanson after he falls into a deep depression and suffers a massive stroke. When the Ingallses, Olesons and Garveys, among others decide to return and restore Walnut Grove, Dr. Baker steps forward and helps rebuilding the town, giving Mr. Hanson confidence on his deathbed that his beloved town will be strong and vital once again.
Dr. Baker also works well with children, and even has the respect of the Olesons' children, Nellie and Willie (despite their mother often refusing to let him provide their medical needs). He helped a young boy suffering from obesity with a wellness plan (Episode 809: For the Love of Nancy), and in the same episode simultaneously is both the powerful anti-drug advocate and caring optometrist to two youths with completely different needs (Episode 916: Home Again (Part 1) and Episode 917: Home Again (Part 2)). He is also shown to strongly speak out when those claiming to have superior knowledge or healing powers use their charisma and persuasion to attempt to call into question both his expertise and established medical and scientific knowledge. (Episode 610: The Faith Healer)
When Nellie, a Christian, becomes engaged to a Jewish man named Percival Dalton and the two marry, it is Dr. Baker who performs the interfaith wedding ceremony. (Episode 624: He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not (Part 2)) With help from Caroline, Dr. Baker helps deliver Nellie's twin children, a son and daughter, when they are born a year later (Episode 713: Come, Let Us Reason Together); he also had delivered Caroline's daughter, Grace, and both of Laura's children. (Episode 420: A Most Precious Gift; Episode 818; Days of Sunshine, Days of Shadow (Part 2)).
Crises[]
On two occasions, Baker temporarily closed his practice after one of his patients died, the result shaking his confidence each time.
One time, Dr. Baker is unable to save a beloved area farmer who was suffering the end stages of a terminal illness and undergoing hospice care. Rather than understand the man was terminally ill and was not going to recover regardless of whether he received outstanding care as sometimes happens, Dr. Baker chalks it up to incompetence. A new doctor, Asa Logan, replaces him. Logan seems to have all the skills required for the job, but he quickly shows himself to be the exact opposite of Dr. Baker: cold and clinical, lacking in empathy and attentiveness and outright cruel. He often demands immediate payment from his patients, and the townspeople soon realize they need their beloved doctor back. Charles convinces Dr. Baker that he has all the qualities Logan does not: empathy, listening, seeing the patient as a person, determination to help the patient at all costs, giving good advice ... all of that and more. When a young, pregnant woman begins suffering symptoms of a severe illness, Dr. Logan is nowhere to be found and Dr. Baker is the only one who can help ... and he does, eventually saving both mother and her baby son. His confidence restored, Dr. Baker decides he's not going to quit after all, and Dr. Logan is run out of town. (Episode 407: To Run and Hide)
A few years later, Laura, one of Dr. Baker's most loyal patients and supporters, turns her back on him after the Wilders' infant son dies of a sudden illness – today, one potential cause might be Sudden Infant Death Syndrome – and whatever the cause of death, Baker was unable to detect anything amiss at the baby's most recent physical. Laura is so grief-wrought that she not only refuses to have anything more to do with Dr. Baker, she quickly spreads word that Dr. Baker has lost his skills and is unworthy of being a doctor anymore. Mrs. Oleson takes the bull by the horns and – having frequently been at odds with him in the past – gleefully spreads rumors that the good doctor was all along worst than incompetent. This sends Dr. Baker's practice into a tailspin and shakes his confidence to the core, and one night he drunkenly reveals to Mr. Edwards that he's leaving town. Later that night, Laura's 1-year-old daughter, Rose, becomes badly ill with smallpox, and Almonzo – defying Laura's order to have nothing to do with the doctor, and perhaps even risking the marriage – summons Dr. Baker. Laura grudgingly agrees to go along but adamantly says she's still lost respect for him and nothing he can do will even begin to restore that respect. After quarantining himself at the Wilders, he is able to restore Rose to good health, Laura is still angry at him ... until the next day, when it appears Dr. Baker is indeed following through with his plan to leave for another town and start over. Laura realizes that her words hurt a cherished friend and someone she, her family and friends and the entire community had trusted for many years. Flanked by the businessmen, townspeople and farmers of Walnut Grove, Laura goes all-out to convince Dr. Baker to stay. He is so moved by the show of support and Laura's heartfelt words that he decides to stay after all. (Episode 918: A Child With No Name)
Dr. Baker is not without his prejudices, and even a good man like him is shown to have a hint of racism hidden in him. This comes when he decides to expand his practice and hires a second doctor, Caleb Ledoux, who is Black and has a university medical degree. His advanced medical training is even beyond what Dr. Baker himself can offer, and when Ledoux's superior skills become apparent, a jealous Dr. Baker lets his prejudices surface and gives him menial tasks. (This, despite already being friends with a Black woman, Hester-Sue, who he hired to help with the anthrax outbreak several years earlier, with no signs of bias.) Eventually, Dr. Baker realizes that his attitudes were completely wrong, but not until after Dr. Ledeoux is called to perform an emergency cesarean section on a young woman suffering pregnancy-related complications ... and Ledeoux is able to deliver a healthy baby boy and save both lives. A shaken Dr. Baker openly admits he never did get such training and the woman and her baby would have died had Ledeoux not helped the mother. At church the next Sunday, Dr. Baker publicly admits his thinly-veiled racism and vows to change and never let it cloud his judgment again ... and Ledoux accepts the apology. (Episode 804: Dark Sage)
Dr. Baker remains in Walnut Grove until the townspeople destroy all the buildings, in an effort to foil a land baron's plan to take over the town. (Little House: The Last Farewell).
Behind the scenes[]
Doctor Baker was portrayed by Kevin Hagen in all of his appearances. He is one of just five cast members who appeared in all nine seasons and the post-series movies as regular cast members. (The other cast members to remain throughout the entirety of the series' run were Melissa Gilbert, Dabbs Greer, Richard Bull and Jonathan Gilbert. A sixth cast member, Michael Landon, had two guest appearances in Season 9 but appeared in the first eight seasons and two post-series movies.)