OSCAR H. BAUM, president of the Troy Steam Laundry Company, and president of the Union Overall Company at El Paso, was born at Palmyra, Marion county, Missouri, January 28, 1863, and acquired his education in that locality. When a young boy he worked in the printing office of the Hannibal Courier, where he learned typesetting, and before he had attained his majority he started for the west, making his way to Texas. He was in El Paso as early as 1881, and for some years he was connected with railroading, being a conductor on the Texas & Pacific, Rock Island and Mexican Central Railroads, with headquarters at El Paso. As the years passed he gradually acquired business and real-estate interests in this city, making judicious investments, and in the course of time he discontinued railroading in order to devote all of his attention to business affairs in the city. One of his main business enterprises is the Troy Steam Laundry Company, which he organized in 1898 and of which he is the president. He is likewise president of the Union Overall Company, manufacturing of overalls, treasurer of the E. B. Welch Company, wholesale and retail dealers in furniture, and one of the owners of Altura Park, a beautiful subdivision of El Paso, where much building is now being carried on. He is likewise interested in other real estate business enterprises here.
Mr. Baum was married in Manhattan, Kansas, to Miss Nannie Foy, and they have an attractive home in El Paso. Although a Republican, and thus representing the minority party in El Paso, Mr. Baum was elected a member of the city council, representing the third ward during the Mayor Hammett administration, which is noted for having brought about some of the most beneficient and substantial improvements that El Paso has ever had, and which have started it on the way toward becoming a great city. These include the International Water Company, furnishing an ample supply of pure water, the electric street car line, the Union depot and the Phelps-Dodge Railroad. Mr. Baum is president of the State Republican League and has done much for the party in Texas, carefully controlling and conserving its interests, while his intense and well directed energy has made him a representative business man of El Paso.
Source: B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. II, pp. 383-384.