Chidester-Baldwin Papers (Bowling Green, Ohio)

Collection – Multiple Containers

Identifier: MS-1031

Staff Only

Collection Overview

Abstract

The papers of Frank A. Baldwin and related Chidester material consist of 8 cubic ft. of financial and business records.

Dates

Creation: 1876-1920

Extent

8.01 Cubic Feet (9 legal archival boxes and 2 oversize boxes)

Scope and Contents

The strength of the Chidester-Baldwin Papers rests primarily with the view it gives of the economic life of Bowling Green, Ohio and vicinity during the boom of the oil and gas era and the early decades of the 20th century.

Within the section of material associated with Frank A. Baldwin there is a letterpress book related to his law practice and long run of receipts and vouchers dating from 1878 through 1911 covering both personal/household expenses and those that were business-related. The receipts record everything from daily grocery lists, livery services, telephone costs, materials and labor used in building or renovating property, to fees paid on account for legal services of Baldwin & Harrington.

Although he was a practicing attorney and later a judge, Frank A. Baldwin was also involved in oil-related businesses, so sprinkled through the collection are dealings with the Bowling Green Glycerine Company, the Buckeye Pipeline Company and West Side Oil Company.

Papers in the collection that reflect aspects of his real estate holdings involve property in Bowling Green that included a house at 315 E. Court Street that he shared with his widowed sister Nellie Pennington before his marriage to Agnetta Chidester and was later home to another sister, Lulu Baldwin, a house at the corner of Main Street and Clay (expenses for construction found largely in the receipts/vouchers of 1900), property of the Canistota Glass Company that later became the site of the Heinz Plant in Bowling Green, as well as an apartment building, Vendome Apartments at 2100 Madison Ave., in Toledo, Ohio, where Nellie Pennington lived for a number of years. Material related to the Vendome can be found in separate folders but also integrated into the general receipts/vouchers by date. Also of incidental interest are the letterheads from many Northwest Ohio businesses included in the receipts and other communications.

The Chidester & Company holdings in the collection also range for a number of years and provide a minute look at the material available in the store through the series of daily receipt slips running from 1901 though 1906, giving the names and buying habits of individual customers, prices typical for the period, and how a small-town dry-goods business operated through the seasons.

Biographical / Historical

The central figure of this collection is Frank A. Baldwin, Bowling Green, Ohio attorney and judge. Born in July 30, 1854 in Geneva, New York, he was one of the 12 children of Sanford and Juliette Smith Baldwin. The family came to Wood County around 1846, settling first in Perrysburg, but then moving to Weston, Ohio where they opened the Exchange Hotel.

Attending schools in Weston and Toledo, Ohio, and a business college in Poughkeepsie, New York, Frank was admitted to the bar in 1877 after studying law in Perrysburg, Ohio with James R. Tyler and with McCauley & Pennington in Tiffin, Ohio. He moved to Bowling Green later that year after being elected as Prosecuting Attorney for Wood County. Baldwin maintained a law practice both as an individual and then later as a partner in the firm of Baldwin & Harrington, with offices over the Exchange Bank in Bowling Green. In 1907 he was elected Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, a position he served in until 1915. During his career he was also Chairman of the Wood County Democratic Party, and on one occasion he argued a civil case at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Frank Baldwin was married twice, but in neither case did he have children. In 1879 Frank Baldwin married Clara Foote, who died in 1904, and in 1916 he married Agnetta Dell Brown Chidester, widow of M.B. Chidester, who died in 1906. She did have a son, Murray Banks Chidester, but he died in 1936. Frank Baldwin died April 27, 1930, and Agnetta lived to the age of 96, passing away on July 22, 1959.

Material related to Chidester & Company, are part of the collection through association with Agnetta Chidester Baldwin. The dry-goods firm operated at 19 S. Main Street, Bowling Green, Ohio, in the Royce Block. It was established around 1900, taking over the business of Joseph & Pope a firm dealing in dry goods, notions and furnishings, established in Bowling Green in 1899.

Conditions Governing Access

No known access restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Researchers using this collection assume full responsibility for conforming to the laws of libel, privacy, and copyright, and are responsible for securing permissions necessary for publication or reproduction.

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The donation and transfer of these records to the Center for Archival Collections was arranged on September 22, 2006 through the cooperation of Alta Codding, who lives in the home once occupied by Frank A. Baldwin at 707 W. Wooster St., known as the Chidester-Baldwin House.