Theresa Baldwin(1799-1882)

BALDWIN, DOUGLAS

Posted By: Anne Hermann (email)
Date: 9/27/2008 at 10:48:29

Jackson Sentinel
February 9, 1882

BALDWIN – On the 2d of February, 1882, at the residence of Dorson Baldwin, in Van Buren township, Jackson county, Iowa, Mrs. Theresa Baldwin, relict of Eleazer Baldwin (deceased) and mother Dorson Baldwin, aged 82 years, 6 months, and 21 days.

“Grandma Baldwin,” as she has been familiarly called by an entire neighborhood for years past, was born in the state of Vermont on the 12th of July, 1799. Her maiden name was Douglas, a distant relative of the great statesman, Stephen A. Douglas, and was married to Eleazer Baldwin in the year 1820. Shortly after their marriage they moved into the county of St. Lawrence, N. Y., and in a few years thereafter to Canada, where they resided until the outbreak of what was known as the “Patriot War,” or “Rebellion” as Britous chose to call it, in 1837. Mr. Baldwin’s natural sympathies being on the side of the patriots and, although taking no active part in the “rebellion,” he was compelled to sacrifice almost a good home and with a family of eight children made his way to the state of Michigan, as the best way to escape imprisonment for expressing an honest opinion against the power of tyranny. In the summer of 1840 they came to the then territory but now state of Iowa, and settled on the farm now occupied by their son, Dorson Baldwin, where Mr. Baldwin, Sr., died in the year 1859, and where “Grandma has continued to reside until her decease. “Grandma Baldwin” was one of those kind old ladies one seldom sees but to love, and whose mission on earth seemed to be to do what she could among her fellow beings in this life and trust to Providence for such reward as He in His wisdom should think best in a world beyond the grave. She was loved and respected by the whole community in which she has so long resided, and at the age of over four score years has gone to rest respected and mourned for by an entire neighborhood. R.B.W.