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Simeon Eben Baldwin
Governor of Connecticut, 1911-1915
Born: February 5, 1840, New Haven, Connecticut
In 1910, the Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors,
Simeon E. Baldwin, reached the age of seventy, the mandatory retirement age.
A talented lawyer and judge, he had had an active and interesting life. But
any plans he had for retirement never came to pass, as friends urged him to
run for the governorship of Connecticut. He won and was re-elected for a
second term two years later. His two terms between 1911 and 1915 marked the
only break in a Republican hold on this office during the thirty-six years
from 1895 to 1931. A former Republican, Baldwin was also the first
Connecticut governor since 1876 to win consecutive elections. Simeon
Eben Baldwin was born February 5, 1840, one of nine children of Roger
Sherman Baldwin and his wife Emily (Perkins) Baldwin. He came from a family
of governors. His ancestors included the first five governors of the Colony
of Connecticut. His father had been Governor of Connecticut from 1844 to
1846. Roger Sherman, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was
another ancestor. One of nine children, Simeon attended the famous
Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven and went on to graduate from Yale in
1861. He continued to study law at Yale and Harvard and was admitted to the
bar in 1863. In 1865, Simeon Baldwin married Susan Winchester,
daughter of Edmund and Harriet (Mears) Winchester of Boston, who was born
January 29, 1840 and died August 8, 1931. They had three children. Susan
developed a mental illness following the death of a daughter, Florence, in
1872, and in 1873 she was placed in an institution. Her sister Charlotte
helped rear the two remaining children, Roger and Helen, and served as the
manager of the household. In the meantime Baldwin had returned to Yale
in 1869 as a professor of law, one of three New Haven lawyers who revived
the Yale Law School following the Civil War. In 1871, after four years of
research, he published Baldwin's Connecticut Digest, which not only
became a key research tool for Connecticut attorneys but attracted business
to his own law firm. That same year he was named as legal counsel to the New
York and New England Railroad, and by the mid-1880s he was recognized as one
of the nation's prominent railroad and corporate attorneys. From 1871 to
1876 he revised Connecticut's statute book and in 1878 and1879 revised
Connecticut's civil rules of practice and procedure. In 1878, he was
instrumental in founding the American Bar Association, and he edited the
first three volumes of its Journal. During these years of
establishing himself, Baldwin was a conservative and an active Republican.
However, when James Blaine ran for President on the Republican ticket in
1884, Baldwin felt he could not support him as a candidate and switched to
the Democratic Party. The Democrats soon made use of Baldwin's considerable
talents. He was appointed to the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors by
Democrat Governor Luzon Morris in 1893, became Chief Justice in 1907, and
served until he reached the mandatory retirement age in 1910. His retirement
from the court provided the opportunity for the Democrats in Connecticut to
nominate him for governor. The state's Republicans were divided into
two factions at that time, and this helped Baldwin win the governorship,
although the other top offices still went to Republicans. Baldwin, at the
age of 70, became one of the oldest Connecticut governors to enter office.
He was re-elected in 1912, partly because the Republicans were divided over
Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive or Bull Moose Party. In this election the
Democrats were also able to capture three of the other four top state
offices. The creation of the Public Utilities Commission and passage
of the Workmen's Compensation Act during Baldwin's administration reflected
government's growing involvement in the lives of the citizens of the state.
Yet many of Baldwin's programs as governor were seen as conservative, which
upset some Democratic leaders. One example was his stand on women's
suffrage. He favored some measure in support of women, but believed that the
time was not right to allow them to vote. He also vetoed a number of
legislative bills, some of which were upheld by the General Assembly.
When his second term ended, Baldwin chose to run for the US Senate rather
than seek re-election as governor. He lost in his bid for the Senate and in
1915 retired from political office, going back to Yale to teach until his
retirement in 1919. He died on January 23, 1927 in New Haven and left the
Yale Law School $500,000 in his will. Simeon Baldwin was the most
prolific writer of any of Connecticut's governors. Dealing with biography,
history, government, and law, there are over 120 of his publications at the
State Library alone. He also kept personal journals. Before his death, he
locked nine of his journals in a black breadbox and deposited the box with
the New Haven Colony Historical Society (of which he had served as
president), with instructions not to open the box for fifty years. The box
was opened in July 1976 at a gathering of relatives and descendants. Charles
C. Goetsch of Harvard Law School was to edit and publish the papers. Mr.
Goetsch published a biography of Baldwin in 1981 (see the Bibliography,
below). Simeon Baldwin lived on Wall Street in New Haven for fifty
years, but his house no longer stands. He, Susan, their daughter Florence,
and Charlotte Winchester are buried in a family plot in the city's Grove
Street Cemetery. Bibliography Baldwin, C. C. The
Baldwin Genealogy Supplement. Cleveland: Cleveland Leader, 1889 [CSL
call number CS 71 .B19 1881 Suppl]. "Baldwin Diary Uncovered,"
Hartford Times, Sunday July 25, 1976, p. 11. Baldwin, Simeon E.
Life and Letters of Simeon E. Baldwin. New Haven: Tuttle, Morehouse &
Taylor, 1919 [CSL call number E 302.6 .B19 B2]. _______________.
The Young Man and the Law. New York: Macmillan, 1920 [CSL call number KF
297 .B3]. Crofut, Florence S. Marcy. Guide to the History and the
Historic Sites of Connecticut. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1937
[CSL call number HistRef F 94 .C88 1937]. Goesch, Charles C. Essays
on Simeon Baldwin. [S.l.]: University of Connecticut School of Law
Press, 1981 [CSL call number KF 373 .B3 G64 1981]. Highways &
Byways of Connecticut. Hartford: G. Fox & Co., [1947] [CSL call number F
94 .H54 1947]. Jackson, Frederick Herbert. Simeon Eben Baldwin:
Lawyer, Social Scientist, Statesman. New York: King's Crown Press,
Columbia University, 1955 [CSL call number KF 373 .B3 J3].
Perry, F. L. Records and Addresses in Memory of Simeon E. Baldwin,
1840-1928. New Haven: [Yale University Pres], 1928 [CSL call number SpecColl
KF 354 .C6 N49 1928]. _______________. "Simeon Eben Baldwin,"
Connecticut Bar Journal 22 (March 1948), pp. 39-52 [CSL call number K 3
.062]. Sobel, Robert and John Raimo. Biographical Directory of the
Governors of the United States, 1789-1978. Westport, CT: Meckler Books,
1978 [CSL call number GIS Ref E 176 .B573]. Van Dusen, Albert E.
Connecticut. New York: Random House, 1961 [CSL call number HistRef F 94
.V3]. State Archives Record Group 5, Records of the Governors, Gov.
Simeon A. Baldwin, 1911-1915. These materials are subject to the Rules
and Procedures for Researchers Using Archival Records and Secured
Collections Materials. [link to
http://www.cslib.org/arcrules.htm] Portrait Ellen
Day Hale painted this portrait of Simeon Eben Baldwin in 1912. It is 44" by
52" in its frame. Originally researched and written by David O. White,
Museum of Connecticut History, Connecticut State Library. Edited and
revised by CSL Staff, September 2002. Copyright © 2002.
College: Yale, 1861
Political Party: Republican, Democrat
Offices: Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors, 1893-1910
Died: January 30, 1927, New
Haven, Connecticut