ROYAL BALDWIN.
Near the old village of Kennekuk, in the northeast corner of Grasshopper township, Atchison county, Kansas, stands the old home of Maj. Royal Baldwin, Indian agent. This home was built sixty years ago by Major Baldwin and is at present the home of Mrs. Jennie L. Dollinds, the last of the race of Baldwins in Atchison county. This narrative, therefore, will deal principally with the life career of Royal Baldwin, United States Indian agent, who was widely known in all of northeast Kansas as Major Baldwin.
Royal Baldwin was born in Litchfield, Conn., June 22, 1817, and was a descendant of ancestors who came over from England in the Mayflower. Three brothers, Ira, Julius, and Thomas, landed at Plymouth Rock with the party of Pilgrims who sought homes in the forbidding wilderness of New England in 1620. Julius Baldwin was the founder of the family of which Royal Baldwin descended, and he finally settled in Connecticut, where Royal was born and reared to young manhood. Royal Baldwin received a good education in the public schools and academy of his neighborhood in Connecticut, and when fifteen years of age he began teaching school. Later, the spirit of adventure moved him and he went to Ohio, where he became a boatman on the Muskingum river. While living in Ohio he married Miss Ann Campbell, who was born February 15, 1820, in Belmont county, Ohio, and died July 16, 1894. She was a daughter of Joseph Campbell, of Scotch parents, and who married a lady of Welsh parentage. After his marriage Royal Baldwin settled in Meigs county, Ohio, where their three children were born. In 1856 Mr. Baldwin was appointed Indian agent by the United States Government and sent to northeast Kansas to take charge of the moving of the four tribes, the Kickapoos, Sacs, Foxes and Pottawatomies to their Kansas reservations. When he received his appointment he removed with his family overland to St. Joseph, Mo., and immediately began his duties of settling the Indians on their reservations. He remained as Indian agent for twelve years and then resigned his position on account of poor health, but was again appointed and held the office for three years, after which he resigned, but was re-appointed by the Government, and died October 3, 1878, soon after the acceptance papers were sent back to Washington. Major Baldwin also conducted the Indian trading post at old Kennekuk in Grasshopper township. During the border ruffian days a party of Jayhawkers called at the home of the Baldwins one night when the major was absent, and, knocking loudly upon the door, gave the information that Government authorities had sent them to get arms and ammunition from the stores with which to fight against General Price’s army, which was about to invade Kansas. Jennie L. Baldwin was then a young girl of sixteen years. Mrs. Baldwin met the men at the door, and by the exercise of tact and diplomacy induced them to move on and let them alone. During his career as Indian agent Major Baldwin accumulated several hundred acres of land. He was a shrewd trader, and during the early days before the building of the trans-continental railroads he became interested in the freighting of goods across the plains to Denver and western points. He was a brilliant success as an Indian agent and never had trouble with his proteges. His first interpreter was Peter Kadgue, and his second interpreter was John Chawkickey. The old Indian mission was also built by Major Baldwin, and the old Baldwin home which he erected in 1856 is still standing. His duties as Indian agent were arduous and exacting, but he was equal to the emergencies which arose. He was a small, wiry man of slight build, blue-eyed and had light hair. Three children were born to Royal Baldwin and wife, of whom two died in infancy. Jennie L., widow of John S. Dollinds, was born January 9, 1851, in Meigs county, Ohio, and was married in 1883 to Mr. Dollinds.
John S. Dollinds was born in New Orleans January 1, 1832, of French-Spanish parents. When he was a small boy his parents removed to Pittsburgh, Pa., where he was reared to young manhood. At the outbreak of the Civil war he enlisted in Company A of the Sixty-second regiment, Pennsylvania infantry, serving in the Fifth army corps and participated in many hard-fought battles, among them being the battles of the Wilderness and Gettysburg. He was wounded at the battle of Antietam, but remained in the service until the close of the war, after recovering from his wound. After the war closed Mr. Dollinds became a river boatman on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers for sixteen years, plying between Pittsburgh and New Orleans. He then came to Kansas and settled in Pottawatomie county. He invested in land, but never actively farmed to any extent. He was a gifted individual of great versatility of mind and was a photographer of more than ordinary ability. He died June 1, 1914. Mr. Dollinds was a member of the Odd Fellows, and of the Grand Army of the Republic, Black Eagle Post, Horton, Kan.
Mrs. Dollinds was formerly a member of the ladies’ aid auxiliary of the grand army post at Horton, and was invited by the Grand Army of the Republic to attend the National grand encampment at Washington. She is an honorary member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and had served as a delegate to the grand encampment held at Pittsburgh, Pa.