Patriot & Doctor. The Story of Dr. Samuel Baldwin

Samuel Baldwin was born in Egremont, Massachusetts, in November 1756. At 17, he got drafted into the militia of his home state and served in the Continental Army for about thirteen months at different times. In 1775, he was a minuteman and got called into active duty shortly after the Battle of Lexington on April 19 of that year. He joined the Continental troops in Boston, where he stayed for three months. In January 1776, he was one of the volunteers who marched into Canada for one of the toughest and riskiest missions during the Revolutionary War. Besides dealing with a smallpox outbreak in Montreal, he managed to march sixty miles on ice on Lake Champlain in just one day. By spring 1777, after General Gates’ army had to retreat from the combined British forces in the North, Baldwin returned to Egremont, feeling pretty worn down from all the hardships he faced. He got drafted again the following September and rejoined Gates’ army. He was there for the Battle of Saratoga and saw Burgoyne surrender on October 18, 1777. After that, Baldwin focused on his studies and got a solid education in the usual English subjects, plus enough language skills to start studying medicine, which he began practicing in West Stockbridge at the age of 28. In 1800, after serving twice as a Representative in the Massachusetts Legislature, he moved to Wyoming, Pennsylvania. He lived there, except for two years in Ohio, until 1819, when he moved to Oxford to live with his daughter, who was married to Epaphras Miller. He practiced medicine for a few years there, but not much in the years leading up to his death on September 2, 1842, except among close friends. He was a tall, strong guy at six feet and loved to walk. He had a big practice in the Wyoming Valley, and in urgent situations, people knew he was so physically capable that they often urged him to go without waiting for his horse. He had a knack for navigating through the dense forests. His mind was curious and sharp, packed with a wide range of knowledge that his quick and strong memory always made easy to access.