Part of the Indiana Biographies Project
Jonathan Baldwin
Jonathan Baldwin was born in Guilford County, N. C., Dec. 4, 1815, a son of John and Charlotte (Payne) Baldwin natives of North Carolina, his father born Nov. 4, 1781, and his mother, Aug. 4, 1778. His parents were married in 1803, and in 1825 came to Wayne County, Ind., and settled in Clay Township. They bought a farm of ninety-three acres and entered a quarter section of wild land, which he gave to his two sons. The father died in 1856 and the mother in 1857. They were members of the Society of Friends. They had a family of nine children. Four are now living, of whom our subject is the next to the oldest. He has lived in Wayne County since ten years of age. He by his own efforts obtained a liberal education and taught school several terms. He was married in 1836 to Mary A., daughter of Jesse Albertson, and a native of Wayne County, born in 1815. Soon after his marriage his father gave him $100, and he entered eighty acres of land in Hamilton County, Ind., where he spent two years. In 1838 he returned to Wayne County and bought a farm in Clay Township. He remained there till 1878, when he moved to a farm two miles from Richmond, and in 1881 to Earlham place, West Richmond, on the land where he now lives. He has always followed farming and stock-raising, and has been very successful. He was a member of the Board of County Commissioners three terms, or nine years. At the June term of Com. Court, 1875, there were thirty-six applicants for a license to retail spirituous liquors. Mr. Baldwin, being conscientiously opposed to a license law, resigned being a member of the board rather than grant license under said law. He and his wife reared a family of five children, four of whom are still living, all good citizens of this county. He has been an active member of the Society of Friends many years, and is an enthusiastic worker in the temperance cause.
Source:
History of Wayne County, Indiana. Chicago: Inter-State Publishing Co. 1884. Volume 2. Page 154 and 155.