Due to this, John resolved to make no distinction between races or sexes should he ever found a school.

[2] His father enlisted in the Continental Army during the American Revolution as a private and left as a captain.

As a student at a private school, he paid his way by chopping firewood, ringing the bell, and building fires.

[4] After marrying Mary Chappel on January 31, 1828, they moved to Middleburg Township in Cuyahoga County, Ohio in April of that year.

It was there that Baldwin joined forces with James Gilbrith, a disciple of Josiah Holbrook who wanted to found a lyceum village.

After Gilbrith proposed Tabor, John Baldwin suggested Berea, citing Acts 17:10–11.

[9] At age fifty-eight, Baldwin desired to satisfy his nature of being a pioneer again by moving to Kansas, which was at that time a territory.

Upon his arrival, he founded Baldwin City and built the first college building in the territory, which became the foundation for Baker University.

[16] The Philura Gould Baldwin Library was eventually made part of the Malicky Center in the 1900s.

[16][17][18] John Baldwin was a person whose views seemed to run counter to the conventional customs of the time.

[19] Although he was not an abolitionist by definition, he had no problem teaching blacks and whites as equals, as evident by his opening Baldwin Institute without regard to race or gender.

His parents taught him to fear God, and he consequently devoted himself to living humbly and righteously, to being kind to the poor,[20] and to joining the Methodist Church.