ess Baldwin
The following information was taken from interviews and a newspaper article in the Burnett County Sentinel of February 27, 1980.
Jess Baldwin came to Burnett County as a baby in a covered wagon, about 1898. They homesteaded in Swiss Township, where he attended school at the Swiss Schoolhouse.
His father was a father whose spare time was spent logging in order to keep his family of eight children fed. In later years, Jess's father ran a general merchandise store and sold "everything in the world that people could want".
By the time he was eight years old, Jess was working as a janitor at the Swiss School, building fires in the morning. At age 12, he was working 12 -hour days for a logging camp. He would "get up at 4 a.m. to feed and water the horse teams while the grown men slept".
When he was old enough to leave home to "make it on his own", he did many "stoop-labor jobs". He lived west of Danbury where Jessie Phelps now lives. He raised silver fox there. One of the older Danbury residents remembers him coming to school to inquire if anyone had a mother cat with kittens, as he needed a mother for some fox kittens, whose mother had died. Later, he made a deal for a buick car … in trade of 5 or 6 silver fox pelts.
He moved to Detroit, where he worked at the King Motor Company, then went to the Packard Company. He and a partner made and sold carburators as a sideline, until he entered the World War I Military Service.
After the War, he "conceived and supervised construction of six front-wheel-drive cars", and his idea of a carburator design became "an industry standard". By the 1930's, he had become moderately successful. At the same time, however, he lost everything when a combination of problems befell him. He became ill, his wife passed away and "The Great Depression" devastated Detroit's automobile business.
He moved to Spooner, Wisconsin, then to Eau Claire and opened one-room factories to improve, build, and market filters. By 1944), he had again achieved moderate success. During World War II, he temporarily turned over his business to others to serve on the War Products Board,
He met and married Fern, a fashion designer, and together they began to build the J. A. Baldwin Manufacturing Company. They moved to Kearney, Nebraska in 1953 where the Baldwin plant expanded. "From the first simple invention to over 1,600 different types of lubricant, air, fuel, hydraulic, transmission and coolant filters, Baldwin became a standard for quality in the world market".
In 1966, fire destroyed the factory, vital company records, and the blueprints for the filters and the designed machines that produced them. Jess Baldwin "reconstructed, from memory, the essential blueprints, and were back in full production within six months, with bigger and better facilities".
In 1979, Jess and Fern Baldwin donated a five-story building to the Mayo Medical Complex at Rochester, Minnesota for Community Medicine. It provides facilities for patient education, as well as education for Mayo's Residents and Medical Students studying Community Medicine.
Jess died around 1983, at the approximate age of 86. He built a successful company from "nothing but hard work and faith", and took himself from the small town of Danbury, Wisconsin to the "Industrial Heights".
(from Danbury Diamond Anniversary History 1912 - 1987, compiled by Dick Riis, edited by Vicki Koenen)
The following information was taken from interviews and a newspaper article in the Burnett County Sentinel of February 27, 1980.
Jess Baldwin came to Burnett County as a baby in a covered wagon, about 1898. They homesteaded in Swiss Township, where he attended school at the Swiss Schoolhouse.
His father was a father whose spare time was spent logging in order to keep his family of eight children fed. In later years, Jess's father ran a general merchandise store and sold "everything in the world that people could want".
By the time he was eight years old, Jess was working as a janitor at the Swiss School, building fires in the morning. At age 12, he was working 12 -hour days for a logging camp. He would "get up at 4 a.m. to feed and water the horse teams while the grown men slept".
When he was old enough to leave home to "make it on his own", he did many "stoop-labor jobs". He lived west of Danbury where Jessie Phelps now lives. He raised silver fox there. One of the older Danbury residents remembers him coming to school to inquire if anyone had a mother cat with kittens, as he needed a mother for some fox kittens, whose mother had died. Later, he made a deal for a buick car … in trade of 5 or 6 silver fox pelts.
He moved to Detroit, where he worked at the King Motor Company, then went to the Packard Company. He and a partner made and sold carburators as a sideline, until he entered the World War I Military Service.
After the War, he "conceived and supervised construction of six front-wheel-drive cars", and his idea of a carburator design became "an industry standard". By the 1930's, he had become moderately successful. At the same time, however, he lost everything when a combination of problems befell him. He became ill, his wife passed away and "The Great Depression" devastated Detroit's automobile business.
He moved to Spooner, Wisconsin, then to Eau Claire and opened one-room factories to improve, build, and market filters. By 1944), he had again achieved moderate success. During World War II, he temporarily turned over his business to others to serve on the War Products Board,
He met and married Fern, a fashion designer, and together they began to build the J. A. Baldwin Manufacturing Company. They moved to Kearney, Nebraska in 1953 where the Baldwin plant expanded. "From the first simple invention to over 1,600 different types of lubricant, air, fuel, hydraulic, transmission and coolant filters, Baldwin became a standard for quality in the world market".
In 1966, fire destroyed the factory, vital company records, and the blueprints for the filters and the designed machines that produced them. Jess Baldwin "reconstructed, from memory, the essential blueprints, and were back in full production within six months, with bigger and better facilities".
In 1979, Jess and Fern Baldwin donated a five-story building to the Mayo Medical Complex at Rochester, Minnesota for Community Medicine. It provides facilities for patient education, as well as education for Mayo's Residents and Medical Students studying Community Medicine.
Jess died around 1983, at the approximate age of 86. He built a successful company from "nothing but hard work and faith", and took himself from the small town of Danbury, Wisconsin to the "Industrial Heights".
(from Danbury Diamond Anniversary History 1912 - 1987, compiled by Dick Riis, edited by Vicki Koenen)
ess Baldwin
The following information was taken from interviews and a newspaper article in the Burnett County Sentinel of February 27, 1980.
Jess Baldwin came to Burnett County as a baby in a covered wagon, about 1898. They homesteaded in Swiss Township, where he attended school at the Swiss Schoolhouse.
His father was a father whose spare time was spent logging in order to keep his family of eight children fed. In later years, Jess's father ran a general merchandise store and sold "everything in the world that people could want".
By the time he was eight years old, Jess was working as a janitor at the Swiss School, building fires in the morning. At age 12, he was working 12 -hour days for a logging camp. He would "get up at 4 a.m. to feed and water the horse teams while the grown men slept".
When he was old enough to leave home to "make it on his own", he did many "stoop-labor jobs". He lived west of Danbury where Jessie Phelps now lives. He raised silver fox there. One of the older Danbury residents remembers him coming to school to inquire if anyone had a mother cat with kittens, as he needed a mother for some fox kittens, whose mother had died. Later, he made a deal for a buick car … in trade of 5 or 6 silver fox pelts.
He moved to Detroit, where he worked at the King Motor Company, then went to the Packard Company. He and a partner made and sold carburators as a sideline, until he entered the World War I Military Service.
After the War, he "conceived and supervised construction of six front-wheel-drive cars", and his idea of a carburator design became "an industry standard". By the 1930's, he had become moderately successful. At the same time, however, he lost everything when a combination of problems befell him. He became ill, his wife passed away and "The Great Depression" devastated Detroit's automobile business.
He moved to Spooner, Wisconsin, then to Eau Claire and opened one-room factories to improve, build, and market filters. By 1944), he had again achieved moderate success. During World War II, he temporarily turned over his business to others to serve on the War Products Board,
He met and married Fern, a fashion designer, and together they began to build the J. A. Baldwin Manufacturing Company. They moved to Kearney, Nebraska in 1953 where the Baldwin plant expanded. "From the first simple invention to over 1,600 different types of lubricant, air, fuel, hydraulic, transmission and coolant filters, Baldwin became a standard for quality in the world market".
In 1966, fire destroyed the factory, vital company records, and the blueprints for the filters and the designed machines that produced them. Jess Baldwin "reconstructed, from memory, the essential blueprints, and were back in full production within six months, with bigger and better facilities".
In 1979, Jess and Fern Baldwin donated a five-story building to the Mayo Medical Complex at Rochester, Minnesota for Community Medicine. It provides facilities for patient education, as well as education for Mayo's Residents and Medical Students studying Community Medicine.
Jess died around 1983, at the approximate age of 86. He built a successful company from "nothing but hard work and faith", and took himself from the small town of Danbury, Wisconsin to the "Industrial Heights".
(from Danbury Diamond Anniversary History 1912 - 1987, compiled by Dick Riis, edited by Vicki Koenen)
The following information was taken from interviews and a newspaper article in the Burnett County Sentinel of February 27, 1980.
Jess Baldwin came to Burnett County as a baby in a covered wagon, about 1898. They homesteaded in Swiss Township, where he attended school at the Swiss Schoolhouse.
His father was a father whose spare time was spent logging in order to keep his family of eight children fed. In later years, Jess's father ran a general merchandise store and sold "everything in the world that people could want".
By the time he was eight years old, Jess was working as a janitor at the Swiss School, building fires in the morning. At age 12, he was working 12 -hour days for a logging camp. He would "get up at 4 a.m. to feed and water the horse teams while the grown men slept".
When he was old enough to leave home to "make it on his own", he did many "stoop-labor jobs". He lived west of Danbury where Jessie Phelps now lives. He raised silver fox there. One of the older Danbury residents remembers him coming to school to inquire if anyone had a mother cat with kittens, as he needed a mother for some fox kittens, whose mother had died. Later, he made a deal for a buick car … in trade of 5 or 6 silver fox pelts.
He moved to Detroit, where he worked at the King Motor Company, then went to the Packard Company. He and a partner made and sold carburators as a sideline, until he entered the World War I Military Service.
After the War, he "conceived and supervised construction of six front-wheel-drive cars", and his idea of a carburator design became "an industry standard". By the 1930's, he had become moderately successful. At the same time, however, he lost everything when a combination of problems befell him. He became ill, his wife passed away and "The Great Depression" devastated Detroit's automobile business.
He moved to Spooner, Wisconsin, then to Eau Claire and opened one-room factories to improve, build, and market filters. By 1944), he had again achieved moderate success. During World War II, he temporarily turned over his business to others to serve on the War Products Board,
He met and married Fern, a fashion designer, and together they began to build the J. A. Baldwin Manufacturing Company. They moved to Kearney, Nebraska in 1953 where the Baldwin plant expanded. "From the first simple invention to over 1,600 different types of lubricant, air, fuel, hydraulic, transmission and coolant filters, Baldwin became a standard for quality in the world market".
In 1966, fire destroyed the factory, vital company records, and the blueprints for the filters and the designed machines that produced them. Jess Baldwin "reconstructed, from memory, the essential blueprints, and were back in full production within six months, with bigger and better facilities".
In 1979, Jess and Fern Baldwin donated a five-story building to the Mayo Medical Complex at Rochester, Minnesota for Community Medicine. It provides facilities for patient education, as well as education for Mayo's Residents and Medical Students studying Community Medicine.
Jess died around 1983, at the approximate age of 86. He built a successful company from "nothing but hard work and faith", and took himself from the small town of Danbury, Wisconsin to the "Industrial Heights".
(from Danbury Diamond Anniversary History 1912 - 1987, compiled by Dick Riis, edited by Vicki Koenen)
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