Biographical History of Pottawattmie Co., IA

ALEB BALDWIN was born April 3, 1824 about five miles southeast of the borough of Washington, in the State of Pennsylvania. He enjoyed the advantages of a good primary education, and after completing his preparatory studies he entered Washington College, in his native State, and graduated with honor in the class of 1842. As it was the custom in those early days for students to teach for a year or more before beginning the study of law, he went to Paris, Kentucky, and taught school for one year. He then returned to Washington and studied law with the Hon. T. M. T. McKennan, a distinguished jurist and statesman of Pennsylvania, and at one time Secretary of the interior under Millard Fillmore, was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1846, and afterward removed to Fairfield, Iowa, and commenced the practice of law. His manhood more than justified the promise of his youth, for he rose to marked eminence in Iowa. He resided in Fairfield for eleven years, during which period he was three times elected Prosecuting Attorney of Jefferson County, a position he resigned to accept the appointment of District Judge tendered him by Governor Grimes.

At the expiration of his term as District Judge he removed to Council Bluffs, in 1857, where he continued to reside the remainder of his life. Two years later, in 1859, he was chosen by the popular voice as one of the Judges of the Supreme Court. Up to that time the judges of the Supreme Court had not been elected directly by the people, and many doubts were entertained whether the choice of a tribunal of such power could be safely trusted to the voice of the masses. In the canvass of that year it was argued with particular vigor against Judge Baldwin that he was a new and an untried man, and that the State had no assurance that he would be equal to the high position to which he had been nominated. Making no personal appeal to the people, he quietly awaited their choice, and in company with ex-Governor Ralph P. Lowe and Hon. L. D. Stockton was elected by a handsome majority- In the classification by lot of the members of the court he drew the four-year term, and after the expiration of two years became by succession the Chief Justice of the State. He discharged the laborious work of his office with such ability, and by his ceaseless attention to the duties of his position and by his impartiality and unassuming manners had so won the confidence of the people, that after the close of the four years he was universally desired by the members of the bar of his own party to accept a renomination, and had he consented would have been chosen by acclamation. He deemed it his duty, however, to decline nomination, and retired for a time from public life to resume the practice of his profession. Warm-hearted as a friend, energetic and public-spirited as a citizen, and able and impartial as a judge, he carried with him into his retirement the confidence and affection of the people of the entire State.

At a meeting of the Supreme Court the following preamble and resolutions were passed:

In 1864 he was appointed by President Lincoln United States District Attorney for the District of Iowa, which position he held until after the assassination of President Lincoln and the assumption of the Presidency by Andrew Johnson, when he resigned. He again resumed the active practice of his profession at Council Bluffs, associating with him the Hon. George F. Wright. He remained actively in the practice until 1874, when he was appointed by President Grant one of the members of the Alabama Claims Commission, which position he held until his death, which occurred at Council Bluffs, Iowa, December 15, 1876.

Judge Baldwin's life was one of unusual activity and usefulness. As a lawyer he stood at the head of his profession and was without a peer in the West. He was possessed of a natural genius for the law, cultivated and strengthened by careful study and experience. Fortunate in his early legal training, and still more fortunate in being endowed with the strictest integrity and an untiring industry, he infused into his decisions and thus into the legal monuments of the State the spirit which he imbued from a life-long intercourse with the highest sources of the law. As a judicial writer Judge Baldwin had clearness, succinctness and force. He always meant what he said and said what be meant in the fewest possible words and most direct manner, and seldom, if ever, failed to illustrate clearly and logically his earnest and honest convictions whatever the subject with which he dealt. As a citizen of Council Bluffs Judge Baldwin was active in all public affairs and zealous for the upbuilding of the city and its future welfare. He was closely identified with its struggles, growth and prosperity. Nor did he limit his work to the city. He helped build his State. He carried to public position what be had shown in private life, -- business habits and a carefully trained legal mind.

Nature had endowed Judge Baldwin with a form of manly dignity and a face of impressive benevolence. With remarkably pleasing manners, he commanded the admiration of all who met him. In his influence over men and their emotions he had a sublime mastery, and he took pleasure in affording needed relief and imparting to others that desirable inspiration which he himself possessed. As a friend he was generous, kind, true and faithful. He was deliberate in drawing conclusions and judging faults. His heart was large enough to embrace within its sympathies all classes. Ever willing to lend a helping hand, whether to one in need of encouragement or in distress, affable and obliging, Judge Baldwin was personally popular with rich and poor, high and low, alike. He was a leader and controller of men and a great organizer, and he was, as has often been said of him, "the Von Moltke of Iowa polities;" but the essential element of his success had a surer foundation than this. He was distinguished for his unchallenged honesty; holding some of the most responsible positions in his State and nation, his course was ever marked by unswerving integrity. He was faithful to every public duty and true to his friends. He never betrayed a public trust or a personal friend. In private life he was genial and companionable, in the home he was the dutiful, son, an affectionate husband, a kind and indulgent father.

In 1848 Judge Baldwin was married to Miss Jane Barr, a daughter of the Rev. Thomas Barr, of Rushville, Indiana. She was a woman admirably fitted to be the wife of so noble a husband. She had more than average intellectual force, and her natural powers had been cultivated, enlarged and developed by careful study and training. For this reason she was an acquisition to society, and it enabled her to fulfill the duties devolving upon her as the wife of a prominent man and the mother of a large family. After the death of her husband she held the office of Postmistress in the city of Council Bluffs during the administration of President Hayes and part of Garfield's. Her administration of that office was, marked by the utmost fidelity and acceptance, and she left behind her a monument of virtue that the storms of time, can never destroy. Her deeds of kindness, love and mercy, shown to the many with whom she came in contact year by year, will never be forgotten.

Judge Baldwin died December 15, 1876, after a long, and painful illness. Calm, resigned, with an unswerving faith in the future, he passed quietly and peacefully away, just as he had reached the zenith of his capabilities, just as his mind fully disciplined by exercise, matured by experience and enlarged by observation, was capable of its best and grandest achievements, in the midst of public employment and arduous duties, surrounded by a host of earnest friends, and the bosom of an interesting family. In the power of example. in the wealth of an earnest, active, true life, he still lives.

As a mark of the high respect and esteem in which he was held by the Court of Claims, and also by the Iowa delegation then in Congress, resolutions fittingly portraying his character and virtues were unanimously adopted by both these bodies, spread upon the record of the Court and the history Iowa in Congress.

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