Biographical Note

Denison Butler Baldwin, the son of Denison and Jane Kyle Gibboney Baldwin, was born in Wytheville, Virginia in on August 26, 1832. At age 25, he moved to Jeffersonville (Tazewell County), Virginia, where he joined his uncle William Gibonney in a mercantile business. He married Sallie W. Barnes (1836-1919) on February 16, 1858. The couple would have ten children: William G., Denison O., Robert M., John M., Albert R., Sallie C., Amanda K., Levicia V., Albert H., Betsy L., and an unnamed son who died in infancy. Their oldest son, William Gibbony Baldwin (1860-1936) was co-founder of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency.

Baldwin entered Confederate service on August 22, 1861 as a first lieutenant, serving in Company L, 51st Virginia Infantry. Upon creation of the 23rd Battalion of Virginia Infantry in the spring of 1862, Baldwin was elected captain, commanding Company D of the new battalion. In December 1862, Baldwin was detached from the battalion for duty as chief enrolling officer for Virginia's Ninth Congressional District, headquartered at Abingdon. He returned to his regiment in the summer of 1864 and served with it through the remainder of the war. (Five of Baldwin's brothers had also served in the Confederate Army.)

Returning to Tazewell County after the war, Baldwin tried farming for a year, then returned to operating a mercantile business. In 1885, he moved to Charleston, West Virginia, then in 1888, to Bluefield (Mercer County), West Virginia, where he engaged in real estate and insurance. Denison B. Baldwin died in Bluefield on August 8, 1916.

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