Elisha Baldwin was the son of William Baldwin (1772-1827) and Jane Jennie (Landreth) Baldwin (1772-1850), both of whom were born in North Carolina and died in Lawrence County, Indiana.
Elisha was said to have had the following siblings:
Theophilus Baldwin 1792-1851
William Baldwin 1794-
Joseph D. Baldwin 1796-
Virginia Jane Baldwin 1797-1886
Phoebe Baldwin 1798-1860
Enoch W. Baldwin 1799-
Stephen Baldwin 1801-
Isaac Baldwin 1803-
Elizabeth Baldwin 1804-
Mary Polly Baldwin 1805-1868
Jacob Baldwin 1806-
In the 1820 census of Ashe County, North Carolina, an Elisha Baldwin is listed with one adult in the household. This is assumed to be his first wife whose name is unknown. They had two known children, but only one name is known to this writer:
William Wilburn Baldwin 1820-1872
Unknown Daughter Baldwin 1825-
It is believed Elisha's first wife died in about 1825. On May 6, 1826, Elisha married Faithey Connelly (1796-1845) in Marion, Lawrence County, Indiana. Reportedly, they had two sons and a daughter born between 1830 and 1835, but none of these names are known to this writer. It is believed that this family resided in Indiana. Family trees on Ancestry.com show that Faithey died in 1845.
Marriage records in Missouri show that on February 7, 1847, Elisha married Charity Bennett in Schuyler County, Missouri. She was 22 years younger than him. She had been born in Kentucky and her family had moved to Missouri in about 1836, first settling in Macon County, then moved north to Schuyler County.
Elisha and Charity only had 9 years together before Elisha died. During that time, they had 4 known children, all sons:
William Baldwin 1848-1900
James Wesley "Wes" Baldwin 1849-1921
Jackson Douglas "Dug" Baldwin 1851-1932
Elisha Henry "Lan" Baldwin 1852-
Elisha and his family were listed in the 1850 census of District 91, Schuyler County, Missouri when they had only 2 children:
Elisha Baldwin, 50, Farmer, born in North Carolina
Charity Baldwin, 28, born in Kentucky
William L. Baldwin, 2, born in Missouri
James W. Baldwin, 1, born in Missouri
Mary Bennett, 21 (Charity's sister)
Elisha was reportedly a wealthy man by this time, and a prominent member of his community. Besides being a farmer, he was a Justice of the Peace and is listed in Schuyler County records as "a principal member of the county court."
The Baldwins lived in a large home west of Lancaster, Missouri, near Glenwood. Family stories were told of Elisha and his gold which he kept in a metal box. For sport, he used to bring out the box and challenge his young sons to try and lift it, knowing they could not.
In 1852 or earlier, Elisha became ill, and his wife began to have a visitor, a man named James Lucas who lived in the community. Elisha would come home from work and find this widower paying his wife a call. Elisha suspected this was more that a friendly neighborly visitor. He told Charity he felt she and James were making plans to marry after he died (even though in 1852, James Lucas still had a wife because his youngest child was born in 1854). Elisha told his wife that before he would let her spend his money with another man, he was going to hide it where no one could find it. And, one day, he did just that. Charity told her family that one day Elisha came in the house exhausted and fell across a bed. He wouldn't tell anyone what he had been doing. Charity said she knew that was the day he hid his gold because she never saw the metal box again. She felt he had been digging a hole to bury it, and that was why he was so out of breath. Although for many years after this family members, and even strangers who heard about it, searched for the gold, it was never found to the family's knowledge.
A granddaughter of Elisha and Charity named Alta Baldwin, said her father Wesley Baldwin told her his father tossed a few gold pieces at him and his brothers before he died and they fell and rolled on the floor. This was all Elisha left them of his money. Elisha's sons were all under the age of 6 when their father died. The youngest was 2.
The exact date of Elisha's death is unknown to this writer, but in "Wills and Admin. 1845-60, Schuyler County, Missouri," the following entry was found:
"Administration of Estate of Elisha Baldwin, Intestate Administrators: Charity Baldwin & James Bennett, dated 27 April 1852."
It is therefore assumed that Elisha Baldwin died in early 1852. His place of burial is also unknown to this writer. However, there was a cemetery that developed on what is believed to have been the Elisha Baldwin property. It became known as the Ford Cemetery or The Old Ford Burying Ground. This is where Charity and her second husband are reportedly buried. Elisha may also be buried there, but most all the stones in this farm field cemetery are now destroyed.
Marriage records in Schuyler County show that Charity married James Lucas (1804-1900) on October 6, 1856. James was also much older than Charity, only 4 years younger than Elisha. He was a widower with 8 known children. Charity and James Lucas eventually had two children together, but in the 1860 census, only the first of these was born, Franklin in 1857.
In the 1860 census, 10 children were living with James and Charity Lucas. Five of Jim Lucas' children were still in the home (Samuel, Permelia, Susan, Margaret, and Sarah). Charity's 4 Baldwin children were incorrectly listed in this census with the last name of Lucas rather than Baldwin (William, James, Jackson, and Henry). The youngest child in this census was Franklin, age 3, the child of James and Charity Lucas. This is how the census should have looked:
James Lucas 52
Charity Lucas 36
Samuel Lucas 20
Permelia Frances Lucas 19
Susan Lucas 14
Margaret Lucas 12
Sarah Lucas 6
William Baldwin 12
James Baldwin 11
Jackson Baldwin 9
Henry Baldwin 7
Franklin Lucas 3
After Charity married James Lucas, they lived in the home that Elisha and Charity had shared. Soon, Charity began telling her mother and sisters that she was being haunted by the spirit of Elisha Baldwin. She told them she knew she was never going to live in peace with James Lucas because Elisha was angry with her for marrying James after he died. Even one of her young sons said he saw the ghost of his father by the stairs in their house and he had white whiskers just like their neighbor. The little boy ran and told his grandmother, Lydia Bennett, who was hulling beans in the back yard. Lydia said she jumped up and spilled her lap of beans to go with her grandson to the place he had seen the ghost of his father. Of course the ghost was gone, but the young boy said, "Grandma, he beckoned for me to come to him but I was too afraid."
There were stories of foot steps in the snow outside the house and splitting wood but no one was outside, doors that wouldn't stay shut, the sound of windows breaking in the night, yet none were broken the next day, and bouncing beds. This writer's grandfather, Ira Thurman, who was a cousin to the Baldwin boys, once visited in this home in later years when it belonged to the Ford family and said he experienced a bouncing bed in the night.
Charity and James Lucas had two known children together:
Franklin "Frank" Lucas 1857-1871
Martha Demirus "Mat" (Lucas) Ford 1860-1922
During the Civil War, a renegade militia from a neighboring county who had heard of Elisha Baldwin's hidden gold, one day burst into Charity's home and tore the wallboards off the walls looking for the famed gold of Elisha Baldwin. They found nothing, but devastated her home.
Charity and James Lucas' son Franklin was said to have died at about the age of 14 in an accident, but this writer does not know the nature of the accident. Charity died in 1874 when her daughter Mat was only 14. Mat lived with her maternal grandmother Lydia Bennett, then with two different Lucas half-sisters until she married George W. Ford in 1882. Mat and her family lived in the the Baldwin home after her father James Lucas died. Mat had 6 children but three died young. Her sons also reported the hauntings continuing into their lifetime.
It is believed the Ford Cemetery sits on this property and was given this name because Mat and her husband, the Fords, lived there. A written history of the Lucas family states that James and Charity Lucas are buried there. Mat and her husband and her children are not buried there; they are buried at Pleasant Grove Cemetery in Schuyler County.
- Written by Blytha (Dennis) Ellis, Great Great Niece of Charity (Bennett) (Baldwin) Lucas. Charity's sister Paulina (Bennett) Thurman was my Great Grandmother.
Elisha was said to have had the following siblings:
Theophilus Baldwin 1792-1851
William Baldwin 1794-
Joseph D. Baldwin 1796-
Virginia Jane Baldwin 1797-1886
Phoebe Baldwin 1798-1860
Enoch W. Baldwin 1799-
Stephen Baldwin 1801-
Isaac Baldwin 1803-
Elizabeth Baldwin 1804-
Mary Polly Baldwin 1805-1868
Jacob Baldwin 1806-
In the 1820 census of Ashe County, North Carolina, an Elisha Baldwin is listed with one adult in the household. This is assumed to be his first wife whose name is unknown. They had two known children, but only one name is known to this writer:
William Wilburn Baldwin 1820-1872
Unknown Daughter Baldwin 1825-
It is believed Elisha's first wife died in about 1825. On May 6, 1826, Elisha married Faithey Connelly (1796-1845) in Marion, Lawrence County, Indiana. Reportedly, they had two sons and a daughter born between 1830 and 1835, but none of these names are known to this writer. It is believed that this family resided in Indiana. Family trees on Ancestry.com show that Faithey died in 1845.
Marriage records in Missouri show that on February 7, 1847, Elisha married Charity Bennett in Schuyler County, Missouri. She was 22 years younger than him. She had been born in Kentucky and her family had moved to Missouri in about 1836, first settling in Macon County, then moved north to Schuyler County.
Elisha and Charity only had 9 years together before Elisha died. During that time, they had 4 known children, all sons:
William Baldwin 1848-1900
James Wesley "Wes" Baldwin 1849-1921
Jackson Douglas "Dug" Baldwin 1851-1932
Elisha Henry "Lan" Baldwin 1852-
Elisha and his family were listed in the 1850 census of District 91, Schuyler County, Missouri when they had only 2 children:
Elisha Baldwin, 50, Farmer, born in North Carolina
Charity Baldwin, 28, born in Kentucky
William L. Baldwin, 2, born in Missouri
James W. Baldwin, 1, born in Missouri
Mary Bennett, 21 (Charity's sister)
Elisha was reportedly a wealthy man by this time, and a prominent member of his community. Besides being a farmer, he was a Justice of the Peace and is listed in Schuyler County records as "a principal member of the county court."
The Baldwins lived in a large home west of Lancaster, Missouri, near Glenwood. Family stories were told of Elisha and his gold which he kept in a metal box. For sport, he used to bring out the box and challenge his young sons to try and lift it, knowing they could not.
In 1852 or earlier, Elisha became ill, and his wife began to have a visitor, a man named James Lucas who lived in the community. Elisha would come home from work and find this widower paying his wife a call. Elisha suspected this was more that a friendly neighborly visitor. He told Charity he felt she and James were making plans to marry after he died (even though in 1852, James Lucas still had a wife because his youngest child was born in 1854). Elisha told his wife that before he would let her spend his money with another man, he was going to hide it where no one could find it. And, one day, he did just that. Charity told her family that one day Elisha came in the house exhausted and fell across a bed. He wouldn't tell anyone what he had been doing. Charity said she knew that was the day he hid his gold because she never saw the metal box again. She felt he had been digging a hole to bury it, and that was why he was so out of breath. Although for many years after this family members, and even strangers who heard about it, searched for the gold, it was never found to the family's knowledge.
A granddaughter of Elisha and Charity named Alta Baldwin, said her father Wesley Baldwin told her his father tossed a few gold pieces at him and his brothers before he died and they fell and rolled on the floor. This was all Elisha left them of his money. Elisha's sons were all under the age of 6 when their father died. The youngest was 2.
The exact date of Elisha's death is unknown to this writer, but in "Wills and Admin. 1845-60, Schuyler County, Missouri," the following entry was found:
"Administration of Estate of Elisha Baldwin, Intestate Administrators: Charity Baldwin & James Bennett, dated 27 April 1852."
It is therefore assumed that Elisha Baldwin died in early 1852. His place of burial is also unknown to this writer. However, there was a cemetery that developed on what is believed to have been the Elisha Baldwin property. It became known as the Ford Cemetery or The Old Ford Burying Ground. This is where Charity and her second husband are reportedly buried. Elisha may also be buried there, but most all the stones in this farm field cemetery are now destroyed.
Marriage records in Schuyler County show that Charity married James Lucas (1804-1900) on October 6, 1856. James was also much older than Charity, only 4 years younger than Elisha. He was a widower with 8 known children. Charity and James Lucas eventually had two children together, but in the 1860 census, only the first of these was born, Franklin in 1857.
In the 1860 census, 10 children were living with James and Charity Lucas. Five of Jim Lucas' children were still in the home (Samuel, Permelia, Susan, Margaret, and Sarah). Charity's 4 Baldwin children were incorrectly listed in this census with the last name of Lucas rather than Baldwin (William, James, Jackson, and Henry). The youngest child in this census was Franklin, age 3, the child of James and Charity Lucas. This is how the census should have looked:
James Lucas 52
Charity Lucas 36
Samuel Lucas 20
Permelia Frances Lucas 19
Susan Lucas 14
Margaret Lucas 12
Sarah Lucas 6
William Baldwin 12
James Baldwin 11
Jackson Baldwin 9
Henry Baldwin 7
Franklin Lucas 3
After Charity married James Lucas, they lived in the home that Elisha and Charity had shared. Soon, Charity began telling her mother and sisters that she was being haunted by the spirit of Elisha Baldwin. She told them she knew she was never going to live in peace with James Lucas because Elisha was angry with her for marrying James after he died. Even one of her young sons said he saw the ghost of his father by the stairs in their house and he had white whiskers just like their neighbor. The little boy ran and told his grandmother, Lydia Bennett, who was hulling beans in the back yard. Lydia said she jumped up and spilled her lap of beans to go with her grandson to the place he had seen the ghost of his father. Of course the ghost was gone, but the young boy said, "Grandma, he beckoned for me to come to him but I was too afraid."
There were stories of foot steps in the snow outside the house and splitting wood but no one was outside, doors that wouldn't stay shut, the sound of windows breaking in the night, yet none were broken the next day, and bouncing beds. This writer's grandfather, Ira Thurman, who was a cousin to the Baldwin boys, once visited in this home in later years when it belonged to the Ford family and said he experienced a bouncing bed in the night.
Charity and James Lucas had two known children together:
Franklin "Frank" Lucas 1857-1871
Martha Demirus "Mat" (Lucas) Ford 1860-1922
During the Civil War, a renegade militia from a neighboring county who had heard of Elisha Baldwin's hidden gold, one day burst into Charity's home and tore the wallboards off the walls looking for the famed gold of Elisha Baldwin. They found nothing, but devastated her home.
Charity and James Lucas' son Franklin was said to have died at about the age of 14 in an accident, but this writer does not know the nature of the accident. Charity died in 1874 when her daughter Mat was only 14. Mat lived with her maternal grandmother Lydia Bennett, then with two different Lucas half-sisters until she married George W. Ford in 1882. Mat and her family lived in the the Baldwin home after her father James Lucas died. Mat had 6 children but three died young. Her sons also reported the hauntings continuing into their lifetime.
It is believed the Ford Cemetery sits on this property and was given this name because Mat and her husband, the Fords, lived there. A written history of the Lucas family states that James and Charity Lucas are buried there. Mat and her husband and her children are not buried there; they are buried at Pleasant Grove Cemetery in Schuyler County.
- Written by Blytha (Dennis) Ellis, Great Great Niece of Charity (Bennett) (Baldwin) Lucas. Charity's sister Paulina (Bennett) Thurman was my Great Grandmother.
Elisha Baldwin was the son of William Baldwin (1772-1827) and Jane Jennie (Landreth) Baldwin (1772-1850), both of whom were born in North Carolina and died in Lawrence County, Indiana.
Elisha was said to have had the following siblings:
Theophilus Baldwin 1792-1851
William Baldwin 1794-
Joseph D. Baldwin 1796-
Virginia Jane Baldwin 1797-1886
Phoebe Baldwin 1798-1860
Enoch W. Baldwin 1799-
Stephen Baldwin 1801-
Isaac Baldwin 1803-
Elizabeth Baldwin 1804-
Mary Polly Baldwin 1805-1868
Jacob Baldwin 1806-
In the 1820 census of Ashe County, North Carolina, an Elisha Baldwin is listed with one adult in the household. This is assumed to be his first wife whose name is unknown. They had two known children, but only one name is known to this writer:
William Wilburn Baldwin 1820-1872
Unknown Daughter Baldwin 1825-
It is believed Elisha's first wife died in about 1825. On May 6, 1826, Elisha married Faithey Connelly (1796-1845) in Marion, Lawrence County, Indiana. Reportedly, they had two sons and a daughter born between 1830 and 1835, but none of these names are known to this writer. It is believed that this family resided in Indiana. Family trees on Ancestry.com show that Faithey died in 1845.
Marriage records in Missouri show that on February 7, 1847, Elisha married Charity Bennett in Schuyler County, Missouri. She was 22 years younger than him. She had been born in Kentucky and her family had moved to Missouri in about 1836, first settling in Macon County, then moved north to Schuyler County.
Elisha and Charity only had 9 years together before Elisha died. During that time, they had 4 known children, all sons:
William Baldwin 1848-1900
James Wesley "Wes" Baldwin 1849-1921
Jackson Douglas "Dug" Baldwin 1851-1932
Elisha Henry "Lan" Baldwin 1852-
Elisha and his family were listed in the 1850 census of District 91, Schuyler County, Missouri when they had only 2 children:
Elisha Baldwin, 50, Farmer, born in North Carolina
Charity Baldwin, 28, born in Kentucky
William L. Baldwin, 2, born in Missouri
James W. Baldwin, 1, born in Missouri
Mary Bennett, 21 (Charity's sister)
Elisha was reportedly a wealthy man by this time, and a prominent member of his community. Besides being a farmer, he was a Justice of the Peace and is listed in Schuyler County records as "a principal member of the county court."
The Baldwins lived in a large home west of Lancaster, Missouri, near Glenwood. Family stories were told of Elisha and his gold which he kept in a metal box. For sport, he used to bring out the box and challenge his young sons to try and lift it, knowing they could not.
In 1852 or earlier, Elisha became ill, and his wife began to have a visitor, a man named James Lucas who lived in the community. Elisha would come home from work and find this widower paying his wife a call. Elisha suspected this was more that a friendly neighborly visitor. He told Charity he felt she and James were making plans to marry after he died (even though in 1852, James Lucas still had a wife because his youngest child was born in 1854). Elisha told his wife that before he would let her spend his money with another man, he was going to hide it where no one could find it. And, one day, he did just that. Charity told her family that one day Elisha came in the house exhausted and fell across a bed. He wouldn't tell anyone what he had been doing. Charity said she knew that was the day he hid his gold because she never saw the metal box again. She felt he had been digging a hole to bury it, and that was why he was so out of breath. Although for many years after this family members, and even strangers who heard about it, searched for the gold, it was never found to the family's knowledge.
A granddaughter of Elisha and Charity named Alta Baldwin, said her father Wesley Baldwin told her his father tossed a few gold pieces at him and his brothers before he died and they fell and rolled on the floor. This was all Elisha left them of his money. Elisha's sons were all under the age of 6 when their father died. The youngest was 2.
The exact date of Elisha's death is unknown to this writer, but in "Wills and Admin. 1845-60, Schuyler County, Missouri," the following entry was found:
"Administration of Estate of Elisha Baldwin, Intestate Administrators: Charity Baldwin & James Bennett, dated 27 April 1852."
It is therefore assumed that Elisha Baldwin died in early 1852. His place of burial is also unknown to this writer. However, there was a cemetery that developed on what is believed to have been the Elisha Baldwin property. It became known as the Ford Cemetery or The Old Ford Burying Ground. This is where Charity and her second husband are reportedly buried. Elisha may also be buried there, but most all the stones in this farm field cemetery are now destroyed.
Marriage records in Schuyler County show that Charity married James Lucas (1804-1900) on October 6, 1856. James was also much older than Charity, only 4 years younger than Elisha. He was a widower with 8 known children. Charity and James Lucas eventually had two children together, but in the 1860 census, only the first of these was born, Franklin in 1857.
In the 1860 census, 10 children were living with James and Charity Lucas. Five of Jim Lucas' children were still in the home (Samuel, Permelia, Susan, Margaret, and Sarah). Charity's 4 Baldwin children were incorrectly listed in this census with the last name of Lucas rather than Baldwin (William, James, Jackson, and Henry). The youngest child in this census was Franklin, age 3, the child of James and Charity Lucas. This is how the census should have looked:
James Lucas 52
Charity Lucas 36
Samuel Lucas 20
Permelia Frances Lucas 19
Susan Lucas 14
Margaret Lucas 12
Sarah Lucas 6
William Baldwin 12
James Baldwin 11
Jackson Baldwin 9
Henry Baldwin 7
Franklin Lucas 3
After Charity married James Lucas, they lived in the home that Elisha and Charity had shared. Soon, Charity began telling her mother and sisters that she was being haunted by the spirit of Elisha Baldwin. She told them she knew she was never going to live in peace with James Lucas because Elisha was angry with her for marrying James after he died. Even one of her young sons said he saw the ghost of his father by the stairs in their house and he had white whiskers just like their neighbor. The little boy ran and told his grandmother, Lydia Bennett, who was hulling beans in the back yard. Lydia said she jumped up and spilled her lap of beans to go with her grandson to the place he had seen the ghost of his father. Of course the ghost was gone, but the young boy said, "Grandma, he beckoned for me to come to him but I was too afraid."
There were stories of foot steps in the snow outside the house and splitting wood but no one was outside, doors that wouldn't stay shut, the sound of windows breaking in the night, yet none were broken the next day, and bouncing beds. This writer's grandfather, Ira Thurman, who was a cousin to the Baldwin boys, once visited in this home in later years when it belonged to the Ford family and said he experienced a bouncing bed in the night.
Charity and James Lucas had two known children together:
Franklin "Frank" Lucas 1857-1871
Martha Demirus "Mat" (Lucas) Ford 1860-1922
During the Civil War, a renegade militia from a neighboring county who had heard of Elisha Baldwin's hidden gold, one day burst into Charity's home and tore the wallboards off the walls looking for the famed gold of Elisha Baldwin. They found nothing, but devastated her home.
Charity and James Lucas' son Franklin was said to have died at about the age of 14 in an accident, but this writer does not know the nature of the accident. Charity died in 1874 when her daughter Mat was only 14. Mat lived with her maternal grandmother Lydia Bennett, then with two different Lucas half-sisters until she married George W. Ford in 1882. Mat and her family lived in the the Baldwin home after her father James Lucas died. Mat had 6 children but three died young. Her sons also reported the hauntings continuing into their lifetime.
It is believed the Ford Cemetery sits on this property and was given this name because Mat and her husband, the Fords, lived there. A written history of the Lucas family states that James and Charity Lucas are buried there. Mat and her husband and her children are not buried there; they are buried at Pleasant Grove Cemetery in Schuyler County.
- Written by Blytha (Dennis) Ellis, Great Great Niece of Charity (Bennett) (Baldwin) Lucas. Charity's sister Paulina (Bennett) Thurman was my Great Grandmother.
Elisha was said to have had the following siblings:
Theophilus Baldwin 1792-1851
William Baldwin 1794-
Joseph D. Baldwin 1796-
Virginia Jane Baldwin 1797-1886
Phoebe Baldwin 1798-1860
Enoch W. Baldwin 1799-
Stephen Baldwin 1801-
Isaac Baldwin 1803-
Elizabeth Baldwin 1804-
Mary Polly Baldwin 1805-1868
Jacob Baldwin 1806-
In the 1820 census of Ashe County, North Carolina, an Elisha Baldwin is listed with one adult in the household. This is assumed to be his first wife whose name is unknown. They had two known children, but only one name is known to this writer:
William Wilburn Baldwin 1820-1872
Unknown Daughter Baldwin 1825-
It is believed Elisha's first wife died in about 1825. On May 6, 1826, Elisha married Faithey Connelly (1796-1845) in Marion, Lawrence County, Indiana. Reportedly, they had two sons and a daughter born between 1830 and 1835, but none of these names are known to this writer. It is believed that this family resided in Indiana. Family trees on Ancestry.com show that Faithey died in 1845.
Marriage records in Missouri show that on February 7, 1847, Elisha married Charity Bennett in Schuyler County, Missouri. She was 22 years younger than him. She had been born in Kentucky and her family had moved to Missouri in about 1836, first settling in Macon County, then moved north to Schuyler County.
Elisha and Charity only had 9 years together before Elisha died. During that time, they had 4 known children, all sons:
William Baldwin 1848-1900
James Wesley "Wes" Baldwin 1849-1921
Jackson Douglas "Dug" Baldwin 1851-1932
Elisha Henry "Lan" Baldwin 1852-
Elisha and his family were listed in the 1850 census of District 91, Schuyler County, Missouri when they had only 2 children:
Elisha Baldwin, 50, Farmer, born in North Carolina
Charity Baldwin, 28, born in Kentucky
William L. Baldwin, 2, born in Missouri
James W. Baldwin, 1, born in Missouri
Mary Bennett, 21 (Charity's sister)
Elisha was reportedly a wealthy man by this time, and a prominent member of his community. Besides being a farmer, he was a Justice of the Peace and is listed in Schuyler County records as "a principal member of the county court."
The Baldwins lived in a large home west of Lancaster, Missouri, near Glenwood. Family stories were told of Elisha and his gold which he kept in a metal box. For sport, he used to bring out the box and challenge his young sons to try and lift it, knowing they could not.
In 1852 or earlier, Elisha became ill, and his wife began to have a visitor, a man named James Lucas who lived in the community. Elisha would come home from work and find this widower paying his wife a call. Elisha suspected this was more that a friendly neighborly visitor. He told Charity he felt she and James were making plans to marry after he died (even though in 1852, James Lucas still had a wife because his youngest child was born in 1854). Elisha told his wife that before he would let her spend his money with another man, he was going to hide it where no one could find it. And, one day, he did just that. Charity told her family that one day Elisha came in the house exhausted and fell across a bed. He wouldn't tell anyone what he had been doing. Charity said she knew that was the day he hid his gold because she never saw the metal box again. She felt he had been digging a hole to bury it, and that was why he was so out of breath. Although for many years after this family members, and even strangers who heard about it, searched for the gold, it was never found to the family's knowledge.
A granddaughter of Elisha and Charity named Alta Baldwin, said her father Wesley Baldwin told her his father tossed a few gold pieces at him and his brothers before he died and they fell and rolled on the floor. This was all Elisha left them of his money. Elisha's sons were all under the age of 6 when their father died. The youngest was 2.
The exact date of Elisha's death is unknown to this writer, but in "Wills and Admin. 1845-60, Schuyler County, Missouri," the following entry was found:
"Administration of Estate of Elisha Baldwin, Intestate Administrators: Charity Baldwin & James Bennett, dated 27 April 1852."
It is therefore assumed that Elisha Baldwin died in early 1852. His place of burial is also unknown to this writer. However, there was a cemetery that developed on what is believed to have been the Elisha Baldwin property. It became known as the Ford Cemetery or The Old Ford Burying Ground. This is where Charity and her second husband are reportedly buried. Elisha may also be buried there, but most all the stones in this farm field cemetery are now destroyed.
Marriage records in Schuyler County show that Charity married James Lucas (1804-1900) on October 6, 1856. James was also much older than Charity, only 4 years younger than Elisha. He was a widower with 8 known children. Charity and James Lucas eventually had two children together, but in the 1860 census, only the first of these was born, Franklin in 1857.
In the 1860 census, 10 children were living with James and Charity Lucas. Five of Jim Lucas' children were still in the home (Samuel, Permelia, Susan, Margaret, and Sarah). Charity's 4 Baldwin children were incorrectly listed in this census with the last name of Lucas rather than Baldwin (William, James, Jackson, and Henry). The youngest child in this census was Franklin, age 3, the child of James and Charity Lucas. This is how the census should have looked:
James Lucas 52
Charity Lucas 36
Samuel Lucas 20
Permelia Frances Lucas 19
Susan Lucas 14
Margaret Lucas 12
Sarah Lucas 6
William Baldwin 12
James Baldwin 11
Jackson Baldwin 9
Henry Baldwin 7
Franklin Lucas 3
After Charity married James Lucas, they lived in the home that Elisha and Charity had shared. Soon, Charity began telling her mother and sisters that she was being haunted by the spirit of Elisha Baldwin. She told them she knew she was never going to live in peace with James Lucas because Elisha was angry with her for marrying James after he died. Even one of her young sons said he saw the ghost of his father by the stairs in their house and he had white whiskers just like their neighbor. The little boy ran and told his grandmother, Lydia Bennett, who was hulling beans in the back yard. Lydia said she jumped up and spilled her lap of beans to go with her grandson to the place he had seen the ghost of his father. Of course the ghost was gone, but the young boy said, "Grandma, he beckoned for me to come to him but I was too afraid."
There were stories of foot steps in the snow outside the house and splitting wood but no one was outside, doors that wouldn't stay shut, the sound of windows breaking in the night, yet none were broken the next day, and bouncing beds. This writer's grandfather, Ira Thurman, who was a cousin to the Baldwin boys, once visited in this home in later years when it belonged to the Ford family and said he experienced a bouncing bed in the night.
Charity and James Lucas had two known children together:
Franklin "Frank" Lucas 1857-1871
Martha Demirus "Mat" (Lucas) Ford 1860-1922
During the Civil War, a renegade militia from a neighboring county who had heard of Elisha Baldwin's hidden gold, one day burst into Charity's home and tore the wallboards off the walls looking for the famed gold of Elisha Baldwin. They found nothing, but devastated her home.
Charity and James Lucas' son Franklin was said to have died at about the age of 14 in an accident, but this writer does not know the nature of the accident. Charity died in 1874 when her daughter Mat was only 14. Mat lived with her maternal grandmother Lydia Bennett, then with two different Lucas half-sisters until she married George W. Ford in 1882. Mat and her family lived in the the Baldwin home after her father James Lucas died. Mat had 6 children but three died young. Her sons also reported the hauntings continuing into their lifetime.
It is believed the Ford Cemetery sits on this property and was given this name because Mat and her husband, the Fords, lived there. A written history of the Lucas family states that James and Charity Lucas are buried there. Mat and her husband and her children are not buried there; they are buried at Pleasant Grove Cemetery in Schuyler County.
- Written by Blytha (Dennis) Ellis, Great Great Niece of Charity (Bennett) (Baldwin) Lucas. Charity's sister Paulina (Bennett) Thurman was my Great Grandmother.
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