William Sumner Baldwin

BALDWIN, SHARP, PALMER, FRALEIGH

Posted By: CJeanealogy
Date: 5/25/2019 at 11:26:58

Cedar Rapids Times February 6, 1879
SAD ENDING OF A "DAY'S FUN."--
Friday morning last two young men, residing six or seven miles north of Marion, hitched up a team and came to Cedar Rapids, as one of them testified, "to have some fun." Their idea of fun, as the sequel shows, consisted in gorging themselves with whisky and lager, not forgetting to put a good supply of the former in their pockets when they started home. When some two miles out on the boulevard, near the crossing of the C.M. & St. P. road, one of them, W.S. Baldwin, was thrown out of his wagon, the hind wheel of which passed over his head, causing a fracture of the skull, from which he died in about fifteen minutes. The following synopsis of the testimony before the coroner's jury will give the particulars of this terrible affair:
C.A. Palmer testified that he knew deceased; was his brother-in-law. His name is William Baldwin; is about twenty-three years of age; a farmer by occupation. He occasionally got under the influence of liquor.
Samuel Johnson testified: Knew deceased; was in company with him yesterday in Cedar Rapids. We started to go home about [?] o'clock P.M. Saw him drink several times; did not think but what he was capable of taking care of himself. When near the railroad crossing, and while he was driving, he started the horses fast and then stopped them suddenly, and the clevis between the whiffle-tree and evener broke, and the tongue of the wagon fell down, and he fell out over the forward wheel and got hurt. He must have lost hold of the lines, as I think he was not dragged from where he fell. He was driving very fast; the horses were running; he hallooed to the team and got them under headway and then stopped them suddenly. We had no business in the Rapids, but came for fun. I saw him pay for two glasses of beer and five glasses of whisky. I paid for the whisky in the bottle. We were in different places in the city. We did not buy any by the glass where the bottles were filled. We drank some from one bottle to taste it.
Dr. Homes testified that when going to Marion, Friday afternoon, saw a team ahead of me going furiously and then stop suddenly several times; saw a man fall out of the wagon and between the wheels; the hind wheel struck him. He continued to breathe about fifteen minutes after I got to him when he died. He lost a large quantity of blood before he died. I examined the body; death was caused by fracture of the skull over the left eye; there was also a fracture of the lower jaw.
Dr. Carpenter corroborated Dr. Holmes' testimony.
The jury returned the following verdict:
We, the jurors, upon our oaths do say that the deceased, W.S. Baldwin, came to his death in Rapids township, on the 31st day of January, 1879, by falling from his wagon and fracturing his skull over the left eye, he being at the time under the influence of strong drink.
JOSEPH HOLLAN, H.B. STIBES, HENRY MOTT. JURORS.

The foregoing tells its own sad story; a story which points its own moral. A terrible ending of a "day's fun"--an ending in death, and in a terrible sorrow to a widowed mother. Whisky did it.

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