Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/621

 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 559 Judge Thomas Edward BALowaN. There is one mystery in tliis brief lil'e and that mystery is deatli. Wliat we call history is a long procession of hitman beings, reaching back into the ages, who an-ive on this earth, act, hate, love, accumulate, strive and then go back. Each one of us has one spark of life and then death, the mysteiy of the un- known. The thought of death should stimu- late a man to better work and harder work, that he may shine in some way while his little spark is still a light. Whether Thomas Edward Baldwin ever reflected just along these lines or not, the fact is that he made the most of his life while he w'as here and when the spark went out, reflections from it still remain. He was born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, October 23, 1849, and died May 27, 1904, at Kennett, Missouri. His father, Thomas Baldwin, was born in Scott county, Missouri, November 16, 1810. He married Elizabeth Lobdell, and both died in 1859, when the Judge was but ten years of age. John Bald- win, father of Thomas, was born in Berkeley county, Virginia, October 26, 1771 ; and mar- ried Rachel Wellbourne, January 28, 1796, in Washington county, Georgia. The family came from Georgia to Missouri in 1803, lo- cating at what, in the early days was known as Baldwin's Landing, in Scott county. Mis- souri. John Baldwin was a descendant of one of three brothers who, in 1643, came from England and settled at New Haven, Connecticut. One of these brothers later removed to Virginia and is the progenitor of this branch of the family. Judge Baldwin was as a boy thrown ujDon his own resources and got what education was possible in the schools of Cape Girardeau, where he remained uutil twenty-one years of age. He then came on the old road to Clark- ton. Dunklin county, Missouri, where he clerked in a store owned by Mr. Whitelaw. Previous to that time, however, he had clerked for Leech and Company at Cape Girardeau. Young as he was, he was appointed Circuit and County Clerk to fill a vacancy soon after coming to Clai-kton, which necessitated his living in Kennett. Subsequently in 1878, he was elected and in 1880 re-elected to the same office and by that time had decided to re- main in Kennett. In 1882 he was elected probate .judge, serving four years, during the last two of which he was also county treasurer. Judge Baldwin became a partner of W. F. Shelton in a general store at Kennett in 1886, under the firm name of W. F. Shelton & Company. For four years he remained in the store as book-keeper and credit man, at the end of which time he sold out his share to his partner, buying a drug store on the site of the present Baldwin Drug Store. The store had formerly been owned by the late Dr. A. B. Mobley. After conducting the di'ug store for two or three years he erected a brick block, in which he installed his drug store. His building and the one erected by W. F. Shelton about the same time, 1892, were the first brick buildings in Kennett. He con- tinued to manage the drug store until 1896, when he sold out to 0. S. Harrison, who had been his druggist. He next became inter- ested in real estate and was for years agent of the Great Chouteau lands, but in addi- tion to this he bought and sold on his own account. At one time he owned several thou- sand acres of swamp land, four thousand acres in one tract. At the time of his death he owned two thousand acres and a three hundred and twenty acre farm near Kennett that he had cleai-ed. He laid out Rose Park Addition to Kennett, selling the lots himself. He was an organizer of the Bank of Kennett, being its president until a few- months be- fore he died, his interest still remaining in the bank. He was always ready to do any- thing he could for the betterment of the town and also served the county as its rep- resentative in the state legislature. He was a Democrat, always active in county and local campaigns. In 1872 he married Mary J. Pankey, daughter of Dr. G. Pankey. Her father was born at Richmond, Virginia, where he re- ceived his education, being brought up on the farm. He became a tobacco grower and dealer in the south, owning a great number of slaves to cultivate and pick the tobacco. He always treated them in the most con- siderate manner and they were devoted to him. He married Miss Sally Jones, a charm- ing Southern woman, a native of Richmond like himself. All business was beginning to be very much demoralized in the south and Mr. Pankey was losing money on his planta- tion. He therefore sold off everything he possessed, except his slaves. These he brought with him to Missouri, settling at Clarktou, where he bought a small farm and started a store. In 1861, when the war broke out, he raised a regiment for the Confederate army, he being its Colonel. He served throughout the war, at the end of which time