Individual Details

"The Baldwin family became established in Dorset [Bennington County, Vermont] by the immigration to the town of four brothers: Benjamin, Asa, Eleaser, and Elisha, and two other relatives, Silas and Thomas Baldwin. Benjamin came first into the town in 1768, and established himself about a mile east of the village. Being a man of almost herculean strength and of great business talent and enterprise, he soon surrounded himself with the principal necessaries and many of the comforts of life. On his farm were grown the first apples raised in town. He was a warm hearted and generous man. His home became the resort, not only of the social, who loved Uncle Ben's spicy stories and good cheer, but also of the poor and needy, who were never sent away empty. In all his purposes and desires, looking in a benevolent direction, he was earnestly seconded by his wife, the kindly tempered, patient, and loving Aunt Ruth, the mother not only of a dozen children of her own, but the foster mother of every poor child in the neighborhood. He at one time was a man of the most substance of any in town; but his generosity getting the better of his prudence, his property gradually melted away until he became very much reduced in his circumstances. His children mostly emigrated to the West. He died in 1830, aged eighty-eight. Meantime such was the esteem in which he was held, the young men of the town claimed the privilege of erecting a tombstone to his memory, on which is inscribed their testimony of filial respect. His wife, the Aunt Ruth of precious memory, died at age sixty-five."
(from "Dorset In the Shadow of the Marble Mountain")
Benjamin with his brothers were among the first settlers in 1768 to the newly chartered territory of Vermont, having bought rights from the original grantees. Dorset prospered with the discovery of marble and was the site of the first commercial marble quarry in the US in 1785.

In the 1800 census for Dorset, Bennington Co., Vermont, Ben. Baldwin has 2 free white males under 10 [William and ?], 3 males 16-25 [Thomas K., Benjamin?, Asa?], 1 male 45+ [Benjamin]; 3 free white females 10-15 [Lorena, Mary, Ruth?], 1 female 16-25 [Deborah?], 1 25-45 [Rachel?], and 1 female 45+ [Ruth]; no slaves. He is next door to Consider Hanks.

"Some of Benjamin's many children--Guy, Edward, Benjamin Jr., Asa, Benjamin II, William, Deborah, Rachel, Sarah, Ruth, Thomas K., Lorena, and Mary--migrated westward, though Benjamin, Jr., an infant, was the first person to be buried in the Maple Hill Cemetery when he died, in 1772, twelve years before a church was established there. Benjamin the elder lived until 1830, to the age of eighty-six. The house of "Uncle Ben and Aunt Ruth" was one of warmth and kindness, with Baldwin known for his spicy stories and good cheer, and his benevolent wife taking in many poor children."
Their tombstones read "Benj Baldwin born October 16, 1744 and immigrated from SE Dutchess County NY to Dorset Vermont 1766 where he resided until his last sickness which terminated in his death on the 17th March 1830 in the 87th year of his life." "Mrs. Ruth Baldwin, wife of Mr. Benj Baldwin, died February 16, 1810 in the 65th year of her age leaving a husband and 12 children to lament her loss."
According to various sources, Benjamin and Ruth had 10 to 13 children: Guy Carleton, Sarah, Edmund, Benjamin (one died as an infant, a second survived to adulthood), William, Asa, Thomas, Deborah, Ruth, Rachel, Lorena, and Mary. If Ruth's tombstone inscription was accurate, there were 12 surviving children at the time of her death in 1810.
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Sources (2)
1. Heywood Genealogy Dale Grimm
2. Ancestors of Winslow Farr Sr. and Olive Hovey Freeman Tim M Farr Box 449 Ferron, UT 84523

Birth	9 Oct 1743	Mansfield, Tolland County, Connecticut
Marriage	1767	Tolland, Tolland County, Connecticut - Ruth Paddock
Death	17 Mar 1830	Dorset, Bennigton County, Vermont
Burial		Maple Hill Cemetery, Dorset, Bennington County, Vermont

Spouse	Ruth Paddock (1745 - 1810)
Child	Thomas Kidder Baldwin (1783 - 1873)

Spouse

Deborah Paddock (1727 - )

Father	Thomas Baldwin (1697 - 1749)
Mother	Dorothy Kidder (1696 - 1796)
Sibling	Dorothy Baldwin (1719 - 1815)
Sibling	Rachel Baldwin (1721 - 1739)
Sibling	Thomas Baldwin (1723 - 1794)
Sibling	Eleazar Baldwin (1725 - 1798)
Sibling	Joseph Baldwin (1728 - 1808)
Sibling	Ephraim Baldwin (1733 - )
Sibling	Asa Baldwin (1734 - 1806)

Notes