Bennington

BALDWIN Family

Vermont Historical Magazine, No XI, October 1867, pp 186-187

The BALDWIN family became established in Dorset [Bennington County, Vermont] 
by the immigration to the town of four brothers: Benjamin, Asa, Eleaser, and 
Elisha, and two other relatives, Silas and Thomas BALDWIN. Benjamin came 
first into the town in 1768, and established himself about a mile east of the 
village. Being a man of almost herculean strength and of great business 
talent and enterprise, he soon surrounded himself with the principal 
necessaries and many of the comforts of life. On his farm were grown the 
first apples raised in town. He was a warm hearted and generous man. His 
home became the resort, not only of the social, who lived Uncle Ben's spicy 
stories and good cheer, but also of the poor and needy, who were never sent 
away empty. In all his purposes and desires, looking in a benevolent 
direction, he was earnestly seconded by his wife, the kindly tempered, 
patient, and loving Aunt Ruth, the mother not only of a dozen children of her 
own, but the foster mother of every poor child in the neighborhood. He 
[Benjamin BALDWIN] at one time was a man of the most substance of any in 
town; but his generosity getting the better of his prudence, his property 
gradually melted away until he became very much reduced in his circumstances. 
His children mostly emigrated to the West. He [Benjamin BALDWIN] died in 
1830, aged eighty-eight. Meantime such was the esteem in which he was held, 
the young men of the town claimed the privilege of erecting a tombstone to his 
memory, on which is inscribed their testimony of filial respect. His wife, 
the Aunt Ruth of precious memory, died at age sixty-five. Her tombstone 
bears the following inscription:

"The tender parent, 
Loving wife, 
The glory of domestic Life, 
The best of friends, 
Her husband's pride, 
The poor man's trust, 
Her children's guide."

Asa BALDWIN, a brother of the foregoing [Benjamin BALDWIN], settled on a farm 
adjoining, and was the first Town Clerk of Dorset. He was a strict churchman 
and embraced the royal [British] cause in the Revolution and being an 
outspoken man was soon arrested and committed to Bennington jail by order of 
the Council of Safety. His wife taking one child in her arms and another 
behind her on her back, with a few such other articles as she could carry, 
abandoned her home in pursuit of her husband. After a ride of thirty miles 
she was remitted to him, only however to soon be torn from his embrace and 
subjected to the dire necessity of journeying alone from Bennington to the 
residence of her parents somewhere in Dutchess County, New York. The strong 
man who had unflinchingly met the contumely and reproach which was heaped 
upon him in consequence of his attachment to the royal cause, melted and wept 
like a child to see his lone defenseless wife and babes thus depart. His 
farm now abandoned, it was taken possession of by the family of General 
STRONG, recently driven from their home in Addison [Vermont]. Indeed, near 
the spot where the writer now resides, occurred the meeting between General 
STRONG and his wife in the log house so graphically described by the 
historian of the town of Addison. On 12 December 1777 the Council of Safety 
discharged Asa BALDWIN and others "from whatever they may have said or acted 
relative to the disputes between Great Britain and this country." And he was 
duly restored to his family and his property.

Submitted by Cathy Kubly