(I had just finished writing an article about Lloyd Baldwin when I noticed that Tom Beardsley had also written about him. And so this week we’ll look at Tom’s article. Mne will follow next week.) One of the most valuable resources of Willimantic history is a series of weekly articles  published in the Willimantic  Journal in 1895-96, entitled  "Willimantic Before 1850,"  wherein the author takes readers on a tour of each street, describing every early building  and mill. He also provided valuable historic information on the people who helped to develop the village, then the borough of Willimantic. The writer knew what he was talking about. He built many of those mills and buildings, and was widely known as the "man who built Willimantic."  "General" Lloyd Baldwin is a forgotten figure today, but he was one of Willimantic’s civic giants and a passionate advocate for his adopted town.  Baldwin was born in Norwich in 1810, a direct descendant of John Baldwin, one of the original 35 settlers of Norwich in 1635. Baldwin's father, Eliphalet Baldwin Jr. (1787-1819), was a well-known manufacturer of carriages in Norwich. In 1826, Baldwin was apprenticed to a Mansfield carpenter. His first major job brought him to the nearby Tingleyville section of Willimantic in 1828 to build a cotton mill for the Windham Manufacturing Co. The Windham Manufacturing Co. was founded by Arunah Tingley of Providence in 1823', a name preserved in a Willimantic street. In 1828, Tingley expanded his cotton weaving undertaking by constructing a mill from Will- mantic gneiss mined from the bed of the Willimantic River.  T‘ingley’s east mill measured  118 by 46 feet. It stood to the west of Bridge Street and was demolished in the early 19605, and was last utilized by the Electra-Motive Company. Lloyd Baldwin's abilities were soon recognized, and in 1831 he went into business as a contractor and builder. Willimantic was growing rapidly, and Baldwin was hired to build its churches; factories, mills and private dwellings. In 1845 he was lured by the Welles Co.  to build a large cotton mill on the Willimantic River in the section of the borough known as Sodom. The company quickly ensured the name of the locality was changed to Wellesville. Baldwin also built their millhouses, which still stand at the junctions of Ash Street, Route 6 and Route 14.  The Welles mill had a distinctive mansard roof It became the Willimantic Linen Co.’s Mill No. 3 in 1877, and was demolished by their successors, the American Thread, in 1929. Baldwin also built the borough’s first public building, the  Franklin Hall, in I844. He built new mills for Smithville Cotton Co. in 1846 and 1848.  These structures stood on the eastern side of Bridge Street, and were demolished in 1939.  In 1862, Baldwin built the Grosvenordale Co.’s first cotton mill at Masonville in Thompson. He also built churches in Danielson, Bozrah, Westchester, West Granby, Haddam, West Suffield, South Coventry  and Norwich, and railroad stations at Andover, Bolton, Vernon and Manchester. Baldwin was a staunch Jacksonian Democrat. He represented Windham in the General Assembly, was warden of the borough, and Willimantic’s postmaster in 1843. He was also a founder of the Willimantic Savings Institute in 1842,  Baldwin's title was a relic of  the old state militia, where he  was a general of the fifth brigade from Windham and Tolland counties. His proudest        moment came in 1842 when he acted as ex-President Andrew Jackson’s personal escort during a visit to Norwich.  Baldwin was first married in1833 to Lora Sessions of Mansfield, an aunt of General Eugene Stowell Boss, the long serving agent of the American Thread Co. She died in 1864, and two years later Baldwin married Ellen Parmele Guilford, but the couple had separated by the time of Baldwin's death in April, 1896, shortly after his 86th birthday. On April 20, he acted as a pallbearer, for an old friend, 91 year old Elisha G. Hammond.  The strain proved to be too much and Baldwin died the following morning.  Fortunately, the "General" had just completed his historical record of pre-1850 Willimantic. The last of the series appeared just two weeks before his death. (to be continued)