John Miller Baer was born March 29, 1886, on a farm in Blackcreek, Outagamie County, Wisconsin, to Captain John M. Baer, author, and poetess Libbie C. (Riley) Baer. Baer attended Lawrence University, in Appleton, Wis., and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1909.
Shortly after, Baer moved to Beach, North Dakota. There he married Estella G. Kennedy, on December 28, 1910. They had two sons. While in Beach, he was engaged as a civil engineer and in agricultural pursuits, was appointed postmaster, and among other duties, managed and farmed 5,000 acres. He furnished cartoons and articles to newspapers, like Labor, from 1909 to 1917.
John Miller Baer was the first Representative elected to Congress that received the endorsement of the National Nonpartisan League. In 1915 Baer was elected as Republican of the 1st District of North Dakota to the Sixty-fifth Congress to fill the vacancy of Henry T. Helgesen. Baer was reelected to the Sixty-sixth Congress on the Nonpartisan ticket, receiving a majority of 3,017, and served from July 10, 1917 to March 3, 1921. While in the Sixty-sixth Congress, he was chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Agriculture.
Baer was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the Sixty-seventh Congress in 1920. Instead, he resumed his previous activities as a cartoonist and journalist for Labor. John M. Baer died February 18, 1970, in Washington, DC. He is buried in the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Silver Spring, Maryland.
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