Butte County
Biographies
WILLIAM THOMAS BALDWIN
WILLIAM
THOMAS BALDWIN.--Formerly tax-collector, and for years an expert in all
matters pertaining to Butte County abstracts, William Thomas Baldwin has also
become prominent in mining circles, having had a leaning for mining adventure
from a lad. Born at Chariton, Iowa,
August 13, 1862, he is the son of Chester Baldwin, a native of Connecticut,
and a member of an old New England family, who came to Iowa
and was a harnessmaker and saddler. In the Civil War
his father enlisted in Company K, of the Forty-sixth Iowa Volunter
Infantry, and served with his regiment through many severe engagements until,
as corporal, he received his discharge. After the war, Chester Baldwin removed
to Wyoming, Iowa,
and engaged in the furniture business until the spring of 1874. Then, with his
wife and two children, he came to California, and
stopped for a while at Marysville; but he soon moved on to Colusa, where he
resided for four years, and then went to Camptonville,
Yuba County.
Near that town he settled down to farming, later moved north to Washington,
and afterward returned to California; and in Oroville he
resided until his death, in 1914, at Los Angeles.
Chester
Baldwin's bride was Miss Elizabeth Matson, a native of Ohio,
and the daughter of Thomas H. Matson. He was born in Pennsylvania,
and there grew up, and afterward, at an early day, he removed to Iowa.
The honored mother, full of years and blessed with
happy recollections of a useful life, still resides in Oakland.
She was also blessed with three children, of whom William Thomas is the oldest.
Educated
in the public schools of Colusa and Yuba Counties,
William Thomas Baldwin attended the University
of California for two years, when he quit to engage as a bookkeeper in a mercantile establishment in Lodi.
In order to get away from the heat, however, he left this position at the end
of two years, and went to Humboldt County
for a rest, and at Eureka he formed
a friendship with the hotel proprietor, who was a teacher. When the latter
learned that Mr. Baldwin had attended the university, he persuaded him to take
up teaching in the county; and the suggestion having been made to the county
superintendent of schools, that official gave him a choice of two appointments.
Mr. Baldwin then began school work in Humboldt on Redwood Creek, and the next
year he returned to Yuba County.
Having married there Miss Nellie Miller, a native of Sierra County, he followed
the life of a pedagogue for six years in Yuba County, and in that time he
became principal of the Camptonville School. At the
conclusion of that period, he made another radical departure by moving to
Gridley, Butte County,
where he engaged in the livery business, and then for six years managed a
warehouse.
Having
been nominated by the Democrats for county tax-collector, in 1898, he was
elected to that office and held that responsible position until 1907. In 1899
he removed with his family to Oroville, and in 1908 began his abstract and
title work for which he has become widely known. He did not wish for a third
term as tax-collector, and so took over the abstract plant already in
existence, and when a competitor started another abstract office, which
eventually was sold out by sheriff sale, he bought the business. In 1907, he
took a trip to Nevada, but soon came back persuaded that
California was the more
attractive state, and that Oroville was the best place. The Butte County Title
Abstract Company was established in 1877, and has continued in its activity of
furnishing title insurance ever since, the office possessing the most complete
set of abstracts in the county.
A
very progressive member of the Chamber of Commerce, who soon makes his leadership felt, William Thomas Baldwin is also interested
in mine development. He built an eight-stamp mill on the old Mascot Mine in
Oregon Gulch district for development work. He is endeavoring to help out the United
States government by developing chrome
prospects in the Lumpkin district and elsewhere.
Mr.
Baldwin is the father of five children: Herbert A., who is associated with him in the
abstract office; Irene L., now Mrs. W. G. McAdams, Donald W., who is a corporal
in Company I, One Hundred Fifty-ninth Infantry, U. S. A., Fortieth Division
American Expeditionary Forces; Rachael E. has become Mrs. John C. Boyle, of
Oroville; and William C., who is employed in the Moore and Scott shipyards in
Oakland. Mr. Baldwin is a member of the California Land Title Association, and
of the American Association of Title Men. He has also been active in promoting public
education, serving as a trustee of the Gridley school.
He was made a Mason in Live Oak Lodge, No. 232, F. and A. M., at Gridley; is a
member of the Knights of Pythias in Oroville, in
which he is past Chancellor Commander; he was associated with the Uniform Rank
of Knights of Pythias until it disbanded; and he was
the first president of Oroville Aerie, No. 196, F. O. E., and also belongs to
Chico Lodge, No. 423, B. P. O.
Transcribed by Sande Beach.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 783-784, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Sande Beach.
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