Person:Lavisa Smith (1)

Lavisa wrote the following letter in Aroma, Indiana, July 9th, 1922:

    "As I am the only one left of a family of 11, Father, Mother & 9 children. My Father John Ransom Smith was borned in 1803 in Vermont, my mother Rebeca Stall Smith in 1804, in Ohio. I was borned in Janeville, Ohio, 1838. My father moved from Ohio to Indiana in 1841, in 4 wagons, took 4 weeks to make the trip. My father bought the farm where Clint Lower now lives, and he & the Cory Brothers built the Hopewell Church, and my father was the Preacher. I joined church there, when I was 15 years old. I taught school at Ironwood Simnary and boared at Jehial Williams, in 1861 I was married to Eli Baldwin, in 1869 Mr. Baldwin enlisted in the army. Lavisa Baldwin, age 85 yrs."

MRS. LOUISE BALDWIN, 1837-1927- Mrs. Louise Baldwin, 89, widow of Eli Baldwin, dies at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Issac Schell, residing south of Frankton, Monday afternoon at 3:30 o'clock of pneumonia. She was taken ill a week ago with tonsilitis, which developed into pneumonia. She was a resident of Elwood for several years and was held in the highest esteem by all who knew her. Her husband died nine years ago. Lately she has been making her home with her children. She was a member of the Elwood W.R.C. since 1897 and was always active in in its affairs when her health permitted. She was also an active member of the Aroma M.E. church of which she was a member. Surviving are two daughters, Mrs. Issac Schell at whose home she died, and Mrs. William Richwine of Aroma. There are eight grandchildren and nineteen great grandchildren. The body will be removed this afternoon by Funeral Home Director Clark from the home of Mrs. Schell to the home of Mrs. Richwine, where it will remain until the hour of the funeral. Funeral services will be conducted at the Aroma M.E. church Wednesday afternoon at 2 o'clock by the pastor, Rev. Byrkett, and burial will be made in the Aroma cemetery beside her husband. The W.R.C. will have charge.

Her tombstone reads: "Lauvisa." "Mr. & Mrs. Eli Baldwin" are memorialized on a stained glass window in the Aroma Methodist (Methodist Episcopal) church per Carolyn Johnson's interview with Wilbert Cox. One "window is in memory of Mr. & Mrs. Eli Baldwin. They were the parents of Jane Richwine, wife of Billy Richwine, and they lived for years in what is now the little Brown House in Aroma. Matt and Brenda Kramer fixed it up so nice then moved to Oregon or Washington."

Mrs. Baldwin rented rooms and cooked for the renters who were employed at the Tin Plate. Her granddaughters carried lunches to the "mill" for the boarders. One of her boarders was a young man from Wales, James J. Davis.

LAUDS KEEPER OF BOARDING HOUSE- Washington, April 16- James J. Davis, secretary of labor, experienced a feeling of sadness the other day when word came to him of the death of a woman he thought of as a second Florence Nightingale. She was Mrs. Eli Baldwin, 89 years old, who died at her home near Elwood, Ind. Thirty years ago he lived in her boarding house at Elwood when he was a tinplate worker. She treated Jimm Davis and other mill workers as her "boys." She not only fed and housed them, but she acted as nurse whenever any of them were ill and also found time to mend their socks or sew on a button. Her motherly acts were never forgotten by Jimmy Davis. "Mrs. Baldwin was kindness and gentleness personified," said the Cabinet member today. "Her boarding house was more than just a place to eat and sleep. It was a home for many of us. It was a rooming house where we slept two in a bed and four in a room, but we liked it because Mrs. Baldwin was always doing some thoughtful thing for our comfort and pleasure. She stayed up many a night to nurse one of the boys who was ill or fix a lunch for a boarder who had worked late." When Davis lived at Mrs. Baldwin's house, complaint was made because he kept the oil lamp burning until the midnight hour. The three mill workers with whom he shared a room protested the light kept them from sleeping. But Davis was compelled to burn the midnight oil in looking after the affairs of the tinplate workers' union of which he was an official. Soon after Mr. Davis' appointment to the Cabinet (he was named by President Harding and has been continued by President Coolidge), he received a congratulatory letter from Mrs. Baldwin. Among other things she wrote in her letter: "When your roommates complained because you kept them awake, I knew what you were doing. I knew that you were studying their problems for them, getting yourself an education so you would know how to get better wages and working conditions." Flowers from the mill worker who became a Cabinet member, were conveyed to her last resting place. The flowers were Secretary Davis' tribute to the memory of his friend of the boarding house days- a women he thought of as an unsung Florence Nightingale. Indianapolis Star Bureau, 421 Colorado Building.

1. ↑ Original Luisa (Smith) Baldwin Letter. (hand written letter).

   Aroma, IN- July 9th, 1922

2. ↑ A. Donovan Faust (Foust). A Family History: The Ancestors of Thomas Wilson Faust. (1997).
3. ↑ 1880 Census for White River, HamiltonCo., IN. (NA Film #T9-0281)
   page 260B.
4. ↑ Indiana Marriage Index 1845-1920
   Bk. 2, page 249.
5. ↑ 1850 White River Twp., Hamilton Co., IN. (Enumeration Date: Sept. 6, 1850)
   page 89, line 26.
6. ↑ Wills & Letters of Administration, Clinton County, MO. (Will of Ransom Smith)
   pages 73-76.

   "I Ransom Smith, of the County of Clinton and State of Missouri, of the age of sixty-eight being of sound mind and memory do make, publish and declare this is my last will and testament in manner following, that is to say: I give, devise and bequeath all my property personal and real situated in the Town of Turney and the State of Missouri to my wife Nancy Smith and my two children Eddy Smith and Harriet Electa Smith to be used for the special purpose of educating my two children above named and do hereby appoint my wife Nancy Smith, executrix of said property. Second, I give and bequeath Twenty-five Dollars yet due on my subscriptions to the M.E. Society of Turney, Missouri. Third, I give, devise and bequeath one third of all the remainder of my property to my said wife to be received and accepted by her in lieu of her dower and the remaining two thirds to be divided as follows to wit: One Dollar to my son John L. Smith, one Dollar to my son Ransom J. Smith and one Dollar to my son Jesse Smith. All the remaining property to be equally divided between my three daughters now living, Martha A., Lavisa and Mary and the children of my daughter Rosana, deceased. I hereby appoint my wife Nancy Smith sole executrix of this, my last will and testament."