General Baldwin-1 by Tom Beardsley and Pete Zizka 6-11- 2022 |
(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)
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