WABASHA COUNTY, MINNESOTA
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Biography transcribed & donated to Wabasha County, MN Bios by
Barbara Koska Timm.  For more information, please check
out her site "Biographies and Historical Sketches of Wabasha County,
Minnesota" at <http://www.rootsweb.com/~mnwabbio>.
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			HISTORY OF WABASHA COUNTY


            TOGETHER WITH BIOGRAPHICAL MATTER, STATISTICS, ETC.
                   GATHERED FROM MATTER FURNISHED BY 
                       INTERVIEWS WITH OLD SETTLERS,
        COUNTY, TOWNSHIP AND OTHER RECORDS, AND EXTRACTS FROM 
                FILES OF PAPERS, PAMPHLETS, AND SUCH OTHER 
                     SOURCES AS HAVE BEEN AVAILABLE. 

                                   ALSO A 

                        HISTORY OF WINONA COUNTY

                                  CHICAGO:
                      H. H. HILL & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS.
                                     1884




  Baldwin, Myron Augustine, (deceased). The demise of this highly-esteemed citizen was to Lake 
 City what the death of President Garfield was to the nation. He was born in Sheldon, Wyoming 
 county, New York, May 21, 1832, and died of cerebro-spinal fever in Lake City, February 23, 1881. 
 His parents, Eleazer and Rachel (Martindale) Baldwin, removed with their family from Sheldon to 
 Varysburg in 1843. The next year the father died and the family returned to their farm in Sheldon, and 
 kept together till 1851. Mr. Baldwin, then in his nineteenth year, engaged as a clerk in the store of 
 Hon. Wolcott J. Humphrey, and in 1854 went to Wallingford, Vermont, to serve in the employ of his 
 uncles, Edwin and William Martindale, the former of whom he in time bought out, and thus 
 commenced business for himself. His mercantile pursuits were continued in Wallingford till 1868, 
 when he sold out, and with a view to recuperating his failing health, removed to Minnesota, 
 permanently locating in Lake City. Here he soon regained his health sufficiently to embark in active 
 business pursuits, and from that time till overtaken by his last illness he was one of Lake City's most 
 active and esteemed citizens. November 1, 1873, he was made a director in the Lake City Bank, and 
 in 1876 transferred his interests to the First National. He was then made one of its directors, and 
 before the close of the same year was made its president. In April, 1880, he was elected mayor of the 
 city as the people's candidate. During his residence in this city his principal vocation was dealing in 
 livestock, and only those who were his intimate friends could form an adequate conception of the 
 magnitude of the business transacted under his personal supervision. With this great strain of mind and 
 body, and with a physical constitution insufficient to endure the labor which his extraordinary brain 
 devised, it was evident to those who best knew him that his work was too great for him. Nevertheless 
 he remained in the business harness till but a few hours before his death. Upon the announcement of 
 his death the flag on the council chamber was placed at half- mast, and a further mark of respect the 
 business-men throughout the city closed their doors on the day of his burial, and formed one of the 
 largest funeral processions ever witnessed in this city. The directors of the First National Bank met 
 and passed the following resolutions: Whereas, our immediate associate and friend, M. A. Baldwin, 
 the president of this bank, was removed by death on the twenty-third of this month from our number; 
 therefore, Resolved, that we recognize in this an agreeable companion and a valued and honored 
 friend, and that we desire in this manner to testify to our high appreciation of his character and worth 
 as a man, and to his ability and integrity in his official trust: Resolved, that while deeply impressed in 
 contemplating the shadow of gloom his absence must bring to the home late so securely happy in his 
 presence, that we hereby extend to the widow and son our most heartfelt sympathy and condolence in 
 this their hour of sorrow. The Ancient Order of United Workmen, and the Temple of Honor and 
 Social Temple passed similar resolutions of respect and condolence, making them a matter of record, 
 and at the same time presenting the widow with certified copies. Mr. Baldwin had been twice 
 married; first in 1863, at Wallingford, Vermont, to Miss Marcella Townsend, whom he lost by death 
 about a year thereafter. His second marriage was in 1866 to Mrs. Anna E. Sweet, a daughter of 
 Smith Emery, Esq., of Newport, Vermont, who with their only child, Myron Alpheus, still resides in 
 Lake City.