Baldwin Family Papers, 1855-1987, 2004 | Oberlin College Archives

Cyrus Grandison Baldwin (1852-1931)

Cyrus Grandison Baldwin, the youngest son of Cyrus Harcourt (d. 1909) and Mary Plumb Fairchild Baldwin (d. 1854), was born at Napoli, New York on October 10, 1852.  He entered the Preparatory Department at Oberlin College in 1868 and the following year was classified as a freshman in the college.  He graduated with an AB in 1873.  Following graduation, he studied theology at Andover Seminary for two years (1873-75) before accepting the position of Professor of Latin at Ripon College, Wisconsin, where he taught for nine years (1875-84). He received an AM degree from Oberlin College in 1876, and in the same year, on August 5, married his former classmate, Ella Viola Billings (d. 1937), Oberlin College class of 1873.

In 1884, he moved to Des Moines, Iowa to become secretary of the YMCA of Iowa (1884-89) and in 1889 relocated in California to assume a similar post with the Los Angeles YMCA where he helped to secure financing for a new building.  His successful fund raising attracted the attention of the trustees at Pomona College, and in 1890 he became the first president of the two year old college.

President Baldwin was immediately and cordially liked by both faculty and students.  His first project was to establish a program that would both ensure high academic standards and lighten the workload of the faculty by increasing the recitation periods to a full hour, reducing the number of courses assigned to individual faculty, and raising all salaries to a minimum of $1200.  "I would  much prefer that Pomona be known for the excellence of its work in a limited but select program of studies than for larger lists of courses given by mediocre teachers." (Brackett, 1944) To students he proved a gifted teacher and a kind and wise counselor, urging the student body to establish forums to discuss college affairs and recognizing and nurturing latent talents in individual students.  Oberlin College recognized his accomplishments by granting Professor Baldwin the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1896.  Throughout his career, he was aided and supported by his wife.  In addition to opening their home to students and faculty, she frequently taught (returning any salary to the college) and ably facilitated faculty discussions.

Baldwin’s scientific visions did not endure.  His plans for an electric railroad between Claremont and Pomona, including branches to Ontario and Chino, never materialized.  His project to convert the water power in the San Antonia Canyon to hydroelectric power was successful for several years before it ultimately failed.   Backed—and guaranteed for one year—by the Westinghouse Company, which Baldwin himself had persuaded to manufacture the needed equipment, the San Antonio Light and Power Company brought electricity to Pomona, Claremont, and San Bernardino, and endowment funds to Pomona College.  However, within a few years, scant rain and snow devastated the supply of water power and the company could not fulfill its commitments to supply electric power.  Its failure was a disaster for both President Baldwin and the college.  Trust in his business judgment was undermined and the college was deprived of much needed income.

In 1895, when the trustees adopted a plan to reduce the accumulated college debt, President Baldwin tendered his resignation.  It was not accepted, but two years later (1897), his second resignation, if not actually forced, was readily accepted.

Cyrus Grandison Baldwin left a lasting influence on Pomona College, including a sound academic program in both the Preparatory Department and the College, well-chosen faculty members, and high standards and integrity in campus life.  During his seven-year administration, the college grew from 116 to 250 students; a new college building was completed; and $100,000 was added to the endowment.

After retiring from the college, Cyrus Baldwin entered business in Claremont, California. There he collaborated with George Westinghouse in an electrification project in the southern part of the state.  He later developed an electric water power plant for irrigation purposes, 1897-1901.  Then, moving to Palo Alto, he accepted the post of an assistant State Secretary of the Anti-Saloon League of South California for one year, 1901, before assuming the pastorate of the First Congregational Church of Palo Alto where he served until 1909.  For the next two years,1909-1911, he engaged in business in Dayton, Ohio before suffering a nervous breakdown from which he never fully recovered.  Baldwin’s health forced his retirement and return to his home in Palo Alto where he died on January 10, 1931.  The Baldwins’ only daughter, Florence May, died in 1903.

Cyrus Harcourt Baldwin (1817-1909)

Cyrus Harcourt Baldwin was born on July 24, 1817, in Ithaca, New York, near the family home in Watkins, New York, where he lived until entering Oberlin College in 1835.   He received an A.B. degree from the College in 1841. In 1844, he received a degree from  the Oberlin Theological Seminary and an A.M. from the College. Also in 1844,  he married Mary Plumb Fairchild (d. 1854; enr. 1833-35, 1841-42 prep; 1842-44 lit.), a sister of James Harris Fairchild, third  President of Oberlin College.  The following year, he was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry in Flint, Michigan, and during the next ten years held pastorates successively at Flint and Saginaw, Michigan, and at Orangeville and Napoli, New York.

Cyrus and Mary Baldwin had four children: Willis Edwards (1845-1862; enr.1860-62 prep.); Mary Harris (Mrs. A. J. Cook, 1848-1896; enr. 1863-65 prep., 1866-69 lit.); James Fairchild (1850-1936; A.B. 1870, A.M. 1883); and Cyrus Grandison (1852-1931; A.B. 1873, A.M. 1876, hon. D.D. 1896).  After his wife died at Napoli on April 4, 1854, Cyrus H. Baldwin studied law.  On August 10, 1865, he married his second wife, former Oberlin classmate Lydia Stedman Clemons Cole (1819-90; Lit. 1841).  They had no children.  From 1865 until his death, Cyrus H. Baldwin lived in Dayton, Ohio, where he practiced law and worked in real estate.  He became known as a “picturesque character” and was at one time tried in Magistrate’s Court on the charge of cruelty to animals.

Lydia Clemons Baldwin died in Dayton, Ohio, on February 14, 1890.  Cyrus Harcourt Baldwin died in Dayton on January 19, 1909, the last member of the class of 1841 which originally numbered twenty-two students.  At the time of his death he was probably the oldest alumnus of Oberlin College.

James Fairchild Baldwin (1850-1936)

James Fairchild Baldwin was born in Orangeville, New York, on February 12, 1850, the second son of Cyrus Harcourt and Mary Fairchild Baldwin.  When he was four years old, his mother died, and he went to live with family friends, Mr. and Mrs. C.B. Allen, of Otto, New York.  In 1864, he entered the Preparatory Department at Oberlin College and joined the College’s freshman class in 1866.  He graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1870, having devoted a year to outside employment in order to meet college expenses.  In 1873, Oberlin College granted him an A.M. degree, and in 1874 he earned his medical degree at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia where he won first prize for his thesis.  When the Oberlin Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa was established, he was elected to membership for his scholarly attainments as an undergraduate.  After completing his medical studies, Dr. Baldwin settled in Columbus, Ohio, and remained in the city throughout his life-long career as a physician, during which he gained international acclaim as a surgeon, author, inventor, and innovator.

Dr. Baldwin served the Columbus community for sixty years.  He was the first physician in Columbus to treat diphtheria by inserting a tube in the larynx; the first to use plaster casts; to urge the use of chloroform in childbirth; to perform a successful Caesarian section; to recommend removing the appendix in all abdominal operations; to operate under local anesthesia; to remove a foreign body from the lungs by surgery; to hire an anesthetist; and to employ a surgical assistant.  In l904, he devised a new procedure that became known throughout the surgical world as the “Baldwin Method" for performing a major operation.  He invented surgical instruments and perfected an operating table that was soon adopted worldwide.  He was especially gifted in the field of plastic surgery and devised a technique for reconstructing the lower lip.  He is credited with removing a gall bladder containing 25,412 stones.

In 1900, he founded Grant Hospital (now Grant Medical Center) to serve lower-middle class citizens who needed, but could barely afford, good medical treatment.  It had become one of the largest private hospitals in the world when he gave it to the city of Columbus as a Christmas gift in 1922.  The grateful city erected a monument in his honor.

Dr. Baldwin served as chief of surgery at Grant while maintaining a large private practice.  He also consulted at Children’s and White Cross Hospitals and for many years held faculty positions at Columbus Medical College, Ohio Medical College, and The Ohio State University.  Together with Dr. Andre Crotti, he established a free cancer clinic, among the earliest in the nation.  He was an active member of  both the American Medical Association and the Ohio State Medical Association of which he was president in 1919.  He also served as president of the American Association of Obstetricians, Gynecologists, and Abdominal Surgeons.  In addition, he was a prolific author, contributing numerous articles to medical journals.  In 1876, he founded the Columbus Medical Journal and served as editor for eighteen years.  In 1898 he published a textbook, Operative Gynecology.

Throughout his career, Dr. Baldwin fought vigorously against the practice of “fee splitting” and for the cause of state medicine.  He was capable of ignoring the stiff opposition and acrimonious criticism to his stands on both issues.  He was dismissed from the faculty of the Ohio Medical College following his protesting the graduation of incompetent medical students.  He also advocated combining the Columbus medical colleges with The Ohio State University.  His advice was ignored for many years but was later recognized as correct.

Dr. Baldwin’s steady self-discipline, constant focus on his professional work, and openness to new ideas and techniques made him a gifted physician. He once commented: “I have never heard of it before.  It is not in the books.  It has always been done this way.  I have just heard of a new way of doing this thing.  It is worth trying.  It may save a life.”  He never saw a movie or a golf or tennis match, and he attended the theater only for Shakespeare productions.  He traveled only to attend medical conventions and to visit doctors and clinics in Europe.  His two non-professional activities were his church and occasional meetings at Oberlin College; his only social life was the Six-handed Euchre Club.

Dr. Baldwin married twice.  His first marriage on November 24, 1874, was to F. Delia Finch (d.1888; Lit. 1870).  They had four children: Austin C. Baldwin, Dr. Hugh A Baldwin, Frederika Hull Baldwin Hoover (enr. 1893-94 acad., 1895-97 coll.), and Helen Baldwin Pease.  On May 9, 1889, he married his second wife, Ida Strickler.  They had two children: Alice Baldwin Hall, and Josephine Baldwin Yoxall.  Two granddaughters attended Oberlin College: Alice E. Hoover (A.B. 1925) and Ruth W. Hall (Mrs. J. A.) McCuaig (enr. 1932-33 coll.).

Edward Henry Fairchild (1815-1889) 

Edward Henry Fairchild was born in Stockbridge, Massachusetts on November 29, 1815, the son of Grandison Fairchild (1792-1890) and Nancy Harris Fairchild (1795-1875).  He was one of ten children, six daughters and four sons, three of whom became college presidents: James Harris of Oberlin, George Thompson of Kansas Agricultural College (Manhattan, Kansas) and Edward Henry of Berea (Kentucky).  Joining the westward migration into the “Great Valley” and Western Reserve, the family moved to Brownhelm, Ohio, nine miles from Oberlin, when Edward Henry was an infant.

He entered Oberlin College as a member of the first freshman class, graduating from the college with an A.B. degree in 1838.  In 1836, as a 21 year-old undergraduate, he was commissioned as an anti-slavery lecturer and spent three months in Northern Pennsylvania.  The following year he taught for three months in a black school near Cincinnati, Ohio and then served the Anti-Slavery Society by lecturing throughout Ohio, often garnering the hostility of both clergy and lay persons.  He then entered the Oberlin Theological Seminary and graduated in 1841.  On August 24 of that year he was ordained at Oberlin and the following week, on August 31, married Maria Ball Babbitt (d. 1888; Lit. 1840).

Following ordination, Edward Henry Fairchild served the church for twelve years (1841-1853): in Cleveland (1841-42); in Birmingham, Michigan (1842-49); in Elmira, New York (1849-50); and in Hartford, Ohio (1850-53).  He then returned to Oberlin to serve his alma mater.  From 1853 to 1869 he held the post of Principal of the Preparatory Department where he had been an assistant teacher during his undergraduate days.  While Principal, he wrote a pamphlet, Historical Sketch of Oberlin College (Springfield, 1868).  In 1868 and 1869 he also served as the Financial Agent of the College, raising $80,000 dollars, a success that lead to his being offered the presidency of four colleges.  He chose Berea College in Kentucky, becoming its first president; previous heads of the college had been called principals.  Fairchild was uniquely prepared for this position of  leadership by his experience as an anti-slavery lecturer as well as his financial acumen.

He assumed the Presidency of Berea College five years after the end of the Civil War.  Kentucky had been a slave state, but President Fairchild insisted that white and black, as long as they were “persons of good moral character”, must be received into Berea College.”  At his death, the author of a memorial tribute wrote: “It is needless to say that his work in Berea College has been well done.  In the midst of every danger he stood at his post.”  The Bulletin of Berea College (1934-35) adds: “An educator and administrator of great ability, President Fairchild guided the institution through reconstruction times and added materially to the equipment of the College in buildings, endowment, and faculty... . [He was] a promoter of the democratic ideals in education, religion and government.”

Edward Henry and Maria Babbitt Fairchild had six children, four of whom studied at Oberlin.  They included Charles Grandison (1843-1933; A.B. 1866, Sem. 1869, A.M. 1869), Edward Henry, Jr. (d. 1876; enr. 1860-64 prep., 1864-66 coll.), Julia Maria (Mrs. C. F. Hall, 1847-1936; Lit. 1868), and Arthur Babbitt (1852-1927; Sem. 1887).  The names of the other two children remain unknown.

Edward Henry Fairchild died on October 2, 1889, while awaiting the appointment of his successor.

Sources Consulted

Baldwin, J.F.  Letter to Oberlin Alumni Magazine.  February 11, 1909.

Brackett, Frank P.  Granite and Sagebrush: Reminiscences of the First Fifty Years of Pomona College.  The Ward Ritchie Press, Los Angeles. 1944.

“Brilliant Medical Career Ended.”  Oberlin Alumni Magazine.  January/February 1936.

“Cyrus Grandison Baldwin.” Alumni Necrology for 1930-1931.  Additional information in unsigned typescript attached.

"Cyrus G. Baldwin, First President of Pomona College, Dies; Early History of the Institution Recalled."  Unidentified newspaper obituary.  January 12, 1931.“Cyrus Harcourt Baldwin.”  Necrological Record of Alumni of Oberlin College for 1908-1909. n.p.

“Edward Henry Fairchild.”  Oberlin Review.  October 15, 1889. N.p.  Additional information in unsigned typescript attached.

“James F. Baldwin.”  Unsigned two-page typescript.

Lyon, E. Wilson.  "Dedicatory Ceremonies: Mabel Hall Bridges Hall of Music."  Pomona College: Claremont, California.  May 7, 1955.Lyon, E. Wilson.  The History of Pomona College: 1887-1969.  Pomona College: Claremont, California. 1997.

McCuaig, Ruth W. Hall.  Letter to Roland Baumann, Archivist at Oberlin College.  January 19, 1994.  2 pp.

Sumner, Charles Burt.  The Story of Pomona College.  The Pilgrim Press: New York. 1914.