John Baldwin

John Baldwin, The Educator

• Find A Grave Memorial ID # 8795556
• John Baldwin, Cleveland History, Case Western Reserve
• John Baldwin's Wikipedia Page
• John Baldwin Papers
• Life of John Baldwin, Sr. of Berea, Ohio
• Quarry Story, John Baldwin
• Baldwin, St. Mary Parish, Louisiana

John Baldwin was a philanthropist, founder of multiple universities/schools, inventor and industrialist.

Born in North Branford, Connecticut on October 13, 1799; the son of Sergeant Joseph (DAR Ancestor A005306) and Rosanna Meloy Baldwin. He married Mary Dunn Chappell in 1828; removed to Berea, Ohio, and started a farm. Seven children.

Founded the grindstone industry; devised uses of water and steam power; built sawmills, gristmills, railroad; promoted the development of Berea. Made a large fortune and then invested it largely in Methodist schools: Baldwin College (now Baldwin Wallace University), Berea, Ohio in 1846; Baker University, Baldwin City, Kansas in 1859. Bought Darby Plantation, St. Mary Parish, Louisiana in 1867; founded Baldwin Seminary; helped Freeman’s Society secure land and establish the Godman’s School; later becoming the Gilbert Industrial School, then Gilbert Academy, it later moved to New Orleans; becoming part of Straight University, which later combined with Dillard University.

After 1934 the original plant was operated by the Sager-Brown Foundation, as a school and home for orphans and local African-Americans. Founded Baldwin Boys’ High School and Baldwin Girls’ High School in Bangalore, India, for children of Methodist missionaries.

He had a strong New England Puritan upbringing, the grandson of Deacon Aaron Baldwin: he opposed slavery, alcohol, tobacco; and favored Christianity, the education of women, the poor and all minorities.

Operated a plantation, sugar mill, sawmill in Baldwin, LA, until death on December 28, 1884; interred grounds of Darby House; his body was later moved to Berea, Ohio.

SOURCES: A. R. Webber, Biography of John Baldwin, Sr. (1925); Virginia Gatch Markham, John Baldwin and Son Milton Come to Kansas: An Early History of Baldwin City, Baker University and Methodism in Kansas (1982).

THE BALDWIN SCHOOLS

• Baldwin-Wallace University, Berea, Ohio, United States
• Baker University, Baldwin, Kansas, United States
• Baldwin Boys High School, Bangalore, India
• Baldwin Girls High School, Bangalore, India
• Darby House, Baldwin, St. Mary's Parish, Louisiana, United States

FREE PDF: Download of the Baldwin Geneology, from the State of Connecticut

Deacon Aaron Baldwin was the cousin of the author's 9th great-grandfather Deacon Henry Baldwin of Woburn, Massachusetts.

Aaron Furtado Baldwin, BW '1989