San Joaquin County Biographies
Ref: Page 1292-1295
Transcribed by: Linda Diane Jackson 10/2/2009
JOHN KIRK BALDWIN
A native son of California, whose father and mother were '49ers, is John Kirk Baldwin, a retired stockman and grain farmer residing on his fine ranch located on Baldwin's Lane four and a half miles east of Stockton, where he has lived and labored for a quarter of a century. He was born at Knights Landing on the Sacramento River. July 3, 1859, his parents being John and Louisa (Kirk) Baldwin, both natives of Missouri, and pioneers of '49, represented on another page in this work. John Kirk was the second eldest of their eight children, five of whom grew to maturity. He was about one year old when his parents located in San Joaquin County. He received a good education in the Douglas district school of the county and as soon as his school days were over, he assumed his share of the ranch work, and the practical experience of those first years of training has since been invaluable to him. Besides assisting his parents, when he was sixteen years old, Mr. Baldwin started out and farmed for himself. He rented a section of railroad land near Bellota, in 1875, where he raised grain and later also engaged in stockraising. Meeting with success he leased 160 acres of land adjoining so he operated 800 acres, continuing here from 1875 until 1905, when he gave up his lease, though the railroad company begged him to remain. Meanwhile he had purchased 160 acres in Calaveras County, which he kept for twenty years and then sold it at a profit. He had also purchased ten acres of the old Cochrane place seven miles west of Stockton, which he owned for fourteen years and sold at a profit. In 1903 he had purchased twenty acres of raw land and in 1905 he quit grain raising on a large scale to locate on this ranch in order to improve it to alfalfa and engage in dairying. In 1922 Mr. Baldwin sold the stock to give all of his time to raising hay and poultry.
In San Jose on November 28, 1911, Mr. Baldwin was married to Miss Myrtie L. Berry, a native of Strafford, N.H., of English descent, a daughter of Hiram D. and Letitia (Smith) Berry, born in New Hampshire. Her father was an operator in a shoe manufacturing establishment. Mrs. Baldwin before her marriage was a school teacher and Grandfather Jacob Smith was an old time school master and teacher of penmanship. Mrs. Baldwin's mother passed on when she was but eleven months old. Her brother, Adelbert C. Berry, who lives on a ranch on the Durham Ferry Road near Lathrop, came to California, on his way to the Klondike, in 1898. His sister Myrtie joined him in Stockton on May 13, 1906, where she met Mr. Baldwin. She has been a member of the Concord, N.H., Lodge of Rebekahs since 1897. Mr. Baldwin's business career has been marked with sterling success and in a county where he has so long made his home he has gained for himself an honorable name.
History of
SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY
CALIFORNIA
With A
Biographical Review
of
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been
Identified with Its Growth and Development
from the Early Days to the Present
HISTORY BY
George H. Tinkham
HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
1923
San Joaquin County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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