AUGUSTUS C. BALDWIN. There is in the anxious and laborious acquisition of an honorable competence and the solid career of the business or professional man, lighting the everyday battle of life, but little to attract the idle reader in search of a sensational chapter. But for a mind thoroughly awake to the reality and meaning of human existence, there are noble and immortal lessons in the life of the man who, without other means than a clear head, a strong arm and a true heart, conquers adversity, and toiling on through the work-a-day years of a long and arduous career, sits down at the evening of his life with a good name. Such a man is the subject of this sketch, and it is to those who appreciate the value and would emulate the excellence of such lives, that the writer addresses the remarks which here follow. Augustus Carpenter Baldwin was born at Salina, Onondaga County, N. Y., December 21, 1817. He is the seventh in lineal descent from Henry Baldwin, of Woburn, Mass., who, according to the earliest records of the family, came from Devonshire, England, and settled in Woburn shortly before 1650. The father of Augustus C. was. Jonathan Baldwin, born in Canterbury, Conn., and his mother was Mary Carpenter, and his family name he bears. He is the eldest child and only son in family of three children, Augustus C. Pamelia and Mary. His father was engaged in the Mercantile business, out, like many of the pioneer settlers of Western New York, possessed slender capital, said at his death, which occurred in Salina in 1822, is family were left and somewhat strained circumstances, the children being all young, and a husband and father there only stay in provider. Thus left an orphan in his fifth year, the boy Augustus was committed to the care of an uncle, a former partner with his father. From the time of the death of his father he resided with his paternal relatives until 1828, and he went to Lancaster, New York, to live with his mother’s relatives. After that he had to care for himself, and devoted his time to the performance of such duties as offered to a boy, attending school and pursuing such elementary studies as his age in means permitted, and rapidly acquiring the fundamental principles of an English education. In the fall of 1836 he went from Erie County, New York, to visit his father’s relatives in Connecticut. Where he taught school during the ensuing winter. For short time he attended the Academy at Plainfield, Connecticut. The limited advantages offered to young man of energy in the Eastern states, costing to turn his eyes toward new and wider fields. In the fall of 1837 he set out for the great West. A November 12, of that year, he arrived in Oakland County, in the newly admitted the state of Michigan, and during the ensuing winter taught a public school and Southfield. For the next five years he taught and studied by turns, delving all the while as he deeply into history and standard literature as a time in the books of his command would allow. Having determined upon the law as his profession, are subject began reading under the tuition of John P. Richardson, Esquire, of Pontiac, Michigan, in 1839. During this time he took advantage also other facilities afforded by the branch of the state University, then located at Pontiac, for higher advancement in his academic studies. Subsequently he entered the law offices of the Honorable O. D. Richardson, at Pontiac, and their continued until his admission to the bar in 1842. In June 1842, he settled and began practice at Milford, in Oakland County, Michigan. It was during his nearly 70 years residence here they one to himself the solid business confidence, and establish those habits of close application, temperance and strict economy, which lie at the foundation of his exceptional success. It was at Milford that he faced and overcame those two mighty obstacles which lie in the pathway of almost every young lawyer, poverty and obscurity, and there he made the proverbial first thousand. But the demands of his growing practice made his presence at the County seat more and more necessary, and in 1849 he moved to Pontiac, where with the exception of two years residence upon a farm which he owned in Commerce. His home as ever since been. Since this, his last and permanent location, these careers than that of a busy and successful lawyer, eminent, trusted and honored, with such interspersions of official station and public duty as naturally fall to a man of superior intelligence and high character. He has participated in many of the capital cases that have been tried in Oakland, Lapeer and other counties since he came to the bar, and the records of the courts bear his name as Council through a greater variety and extent of litigation than, probably, any other attorney of Oakland County. For the last thirty-five years Judge Baldwin as only been an acknowledged leader at the bar, but is also student is one of the ablest counselors and most courageous champions of the great Democratic Party, of which he has from the attainment of his majority been an active member. He has been efficient and influential coadjutor with the best men of Michigan in improving and perfecting the government of the State in all of its institutions and departments; as well as in the upbuilding of his profession and strengthening of his party, as great instruments of justice and of good within the Commonwealth.

a brief outline of his official in public record, aside from his professional and private employments, will serve to show the esteem in which he has been and is still held by his compeers, and in some degree the extent of the services and usefulness. The first public officer held by him was that a School Inspector for Bloomfield Township, Oakland County, to which he was elected in 1840. He was elected to the House of Representatives in the Michigan Legislature of 1843 and 1845, serving during the sessions of 1844 and 1846. He was appointed Brigadier General of the Fifth Brigade of the State Militia in 1846, and continued such until 1862, when the militia system as an existing was abrogated by law. He was Prosecuting Attorney of Oakland County during 1853 and 1854.

In 1862 Judge Baldwin was elected a member of the thirty-eighth Congress from the fifth district of Michigan over R. F. Trowbridge, Republican, serving on the Committee on Agriculture and Expenditures in the Interior Department. Any issue which arose during the Congress concerning the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, abolishing slavery, he voted in support of the amendment, in favor of its submission to the states for their approval. He was nominated for reelection by his party 1864 with Mr. Trowbridge again as his opponent. The state had in the meantime an active a statute authorizing Michigan soldiers in the Army to vote in the field. The Supreme Court of the state, upon a test case, declared the statute unconstitutional. Judge Baldwin received a clear majority a lawful home vote. Nevertheless, the House of Representatives, upon a strictly party contest, gave his seat in Congress to Mr. Trowbridge, in direct defiance of the decision of Michigan’s own Supreme Court. Besides having been during the past forty years a frequent member and officer of the state

Judge Baldwin was Mayor Pontiac in 1874, and for eighteen years, 1868 to 1886, he was a member of the board of education of the city. During this period very important improvements in the local school system have been made, largely to his influence, and the presence find school buildings have been erected. He was active in securing the location of the Eastern Asylum for the Insane at Pontiac, and has been for many years and still is one of his Board of Trustees, a state appointment. Then noble institution, the Michigan military Academy at Orchard Lake, four miles from Pontiac, all souls much to him for its remarkable success. He has for several years been one of its trustees and is now it’s president. He has for many years then President of the Oakland County Agricultural Society, and is now President of the Pioneer Association of the County. In 1875 he was elected judge of the Sixth Judicial court of Michigan for the ensuing full term of six years. He presided upon the bench over four years of his term with the ability which is eminent legal attainments would indicate, when the utter inadequacy of the salary, which the state refused to increase by the requisite constitutional amendment, caused him to resign the ermine and returned to the regular practice at the bar.

besides having been during the past forty years a frequent member and officer of the state and local political conventions, Judge Baldwin was a delegate to the National Democratic Conventions at Charleston and Baltimore in 1860; delegate at large to the National Convention at Chicago in 1864; delegate to the national Peace Convention at Philadelphia 1866, and at different times a member of the National and State Central Committees. From early manhood he is been a member of the Masonic fraternity, and is Past Eminent Commander of Pontiac Commandery, No. 2, of Knights Templar.

the judge is slightly above medium stature, standing 5’11”, tips the scales at about 185 pounds, and is naturally of a strong Constitution and robust physical frame. By temperament and prudent habits of life his powers have been well preserved and he is still active and strong for one of his years. He still applies himself diligently to his business, being at the present time solicitor for the Pontiac Oxford and Northern Railroad.

this record would be incomplete, especially for those by its subject is held personally and highest esteem, some reference were not made to the individual qualities of mind and heart, and the modes of life and action, belonging to the man who for more than a generation has been so intimately identified with the affairs of the city, County and state.

the most prominent traits in Judge Baldwin’s character our industry, strong communication sons, and that kind of moral courage which people call decision of character. And financial affairs he is a prudent and cautious, but just; thrifty, but not miserly. When he gives he gives generously, but not to every petitioner. His industry is unceasing. He has never idle except when asleep, and then he is very busy resting. His mind is clear and accurate rather than brilliant. He is not reach a conclusion and a flash. He acquires with deliberation, but a subject once mastered is mastered forever. His power as an advocate lies in clear, straightforward reasoning upon the facts of this case. His arguments are severely practical. He is not magnetic as an orator, nor classically brilliant, but he derives home facts and figures with merciless force. He loves poetry but deals in a hard, plain prose. Person to do not know thoroughly sometimes accuse them of a lack of warm, human sympathy, but this is unjust. He is positive in the resentments, he cannot tolerate a meeting action, he is sometimes harsh in his denunciation of wrong and wrongdoers, but his heart is warm, and he is true to his attachments. He is a steadfast friend, to the act which betokens his friendship may be performed with few words. His style of living, dress, etc. is characterized by plane which abundance, nothing from mere display. But a generous regard for comfort and good taste. Having amassed a comfortable fortune, he has invested quite extensively in farming lands, and indulges a natural fancy for nice stock, poultry, fruits, flowers and rare plants. But his ruling case is for books, and is especial delighted, apart from devotion to learning and literature of his profession, is his private library of general literature and miscellaneous works. This collection comprises of many thousand volumes, and is His residence. In his steadily grown under his fostering care throughout the years along and labor’s life, his pet, his entertainer, his counselor, his philosopher and friend, until it has become part of his being. He turns to it when the day’s tasks are completed, as to a sort of souls rest. In the departments of history, poetry and drama, Judge Baldwin’s library is probably unsurpassed by any in the state, except perhaps, the state library at Lansing and that of the one of the University at Ann Arbor. So constantly has he associated with those thousands of silent friends, the each one has become to him a personal and familiar acquaintance. He loves pictures and has some line ones., But they by no means equal his literary treasure. His wife, whom he married in 1842 and who is still living, is Isabella Churchill, of Pontiac Michigan. They have one daughter.

While another of a different mind, particularly endowed, might bear a vast assembly upon the loftiest wave of impassioned eloquence, or we over millions of hearts the raptures of an immortal poem, yet and all that goes the benefit practically the common mass of men, and to bear society forward and all that is meant by that expressive term civilization, but few men in Michigan, thus far, can with justice the assigned a place coequal with Augustus C. Baldwin.