My Genealogy Hound

EDWARD BALDWIN.
All loyal citizens of the republic cannot but feel a deep interest in the story of the Civil war and the men who fought for the preservation of the Union. They flocked from counting houses, the workshops, the farms and the offices to meet under one flag for the common purpose of upholding the supremacy of the national government. They faced the same hardships and dangers, endured the same privations, and when the war was ended they returned to their respective homes to again take up the pursuits of civil life and carry forward the nation’s great work of development along material, intellectual and moral lines. Edward Baldwin is numbered among Creston’s citizens who wore the blue uniform in the darkest hour of our national history. He was but a young lad of eighteen years when he enlisted m 1861 for his birth had occurred in Warren county, Ohio, in 1843.

His father, Martin Baldwin, was a native of the Buckeye state and died in 1892, when well advanced in years. He was a farmer by occupation and on leaving Ohio removed to Knox county, Illinois, in 1853, there purchasing land which he cultivated and improved until 1865, when he went to Kansas where his remaining days were passed. He was energetic and industrious in his farm work and accumulated some property His political allegiance was given to the democracy. In early manhood he wedded Eliza Ann Crosson who was born in Ohio and died in 1901, at the age of seventy years. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and was a devoted wife and mother. The family numbered nine children, of whom five are yet living.

Edward Baldwin, the second in order of birth, was reared on the home farm and attended the country schools. He always carried on general agricultural pursuits while engaged actively in business and brought to the starting point of his career the broad practical experience which had come to him while assisting his father in his boyhood and youth. He removed to Iowa from Knox county, Illinois, in 1871, and settled on a farm of eighty acres in Highland township, where he remained until 1905. He then removed to Creston and is now living in a pleasant home on West Montgomery street, enjoying in honorable retirement a well earned rest. For many years he was very actively engaged in the work of the fields and now owns three hundred and twenty acres of rich and well improved land in Highland township. He brought his fields under a high state cultivation and in addition to the cultivation of cereals best adapted to the soil and climate he raised thoroughbred shorthorn cattle and good horses, his stock-raising interests proving an important source of revenue to him.

The only interruption in his farm work from his boyhood days up to the time of his retirement came in August, 1861, when at Knoxville, Illinois, he enrolled as a member of Company D, Seventh Illinois Cavalry for service in the Civil war. He continued at the front as a faithful defender of the Union until the close of hostilities and participated in a number of important battles, including the engagements at Shiloh, Corinth, Port Hudson and Nashville. Much of the time he was under command of General Thomas and was mustered out at Nashville.

Mr. Baldwin then returned to his home and resumed the pursuits of peace. In 1866 he was united in marriage to Miss Caroline Harvey, whose birth occurred in Clermont county, Ohio, in 1849. Unto them have been born nine children: Estella, the wife of Armstrong Wray a grocer of Creston; Joseph, deceased; William, a railroad engineer on the Union Pacific, living at Omaha; Albert, who is on the old homestead farm; Maude the wife of Ernest Day, of Highland township; Lizzie, the wife of Fred Akers, whose home is in Greenfield, Adair county; Harvey and Amanda, both of whom have passed away; and Eva, who is yet under the parental roof.

Mr. Baldwin exercises his right of franchise in support of the men and measures of the republican party but has never sought or desired office. He belongs to Union Post, G. A. R., and his wife is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Both are highly esteemed for their many good qualities and in all matters of citizenship Mr. Baldwin is today as true and loyal to his country as when he followed the stars and stripes upon southern battlefields.