Joseph Baldwin

At the age of 18 he began keeping a diary which bears witness to a religiosity which would remain deeply interwoven with his educational philosophy throughout his career.

He lamented: "I have spent a considerable portion of my time in reading History and Biography and thus have neglected the most important of books to wit the Bible.

Practicing what he preached, when he was invited to a party, he chose to spend his time studying rather "than in hurtful folly" (February 6).

His stated ambitions evince an ambivalence between the desires for prominence and service: "I long to become an orator; that I may do good to my fellow men."

There he studied, recited, debated, and helped to form an "economical society" whose members pledged to assist one another in case of sickness; he became its president.

His censure of other youths, including his fellow students, continued: "Alas follish [sic] young men!

In his later career as an educator, he would show no mercy to students found guilty of his three horrors: dancing, card-playing and drinking.

Back in school in September 1849, Baldwin spent his days writing to this same Emaline (who would not, in fact, become his life-partner), studying hard, and finding "Pope Homers Iliad" truly admirable, if filled with much of which he disapproved.

Reading Cicero, writing compositions and orations, Baldwin demonstrated an iron discipline, which he would later expect of his students.

Partly contradicting his dedication to a higher spirit is his self-puffery: "Declaimed in society a piece called 'The Whiskers.'

After graduation Joseph Baldwin went west to pursue the newly emerging professional career of a college professor.

The following autumn, he returned to Pennsylvania and enrolled at Lancaster County Normal School to receive training specific to his newfound vocation.

Baldwin and the 30-40 men of his command served from July 1863 to March 1864, and saw action at Blue Springs (October 10, 1863), Walker's Ford (December 2) and Tazewell (January 24, 1864).

Another factor that helped Baldwin decide on Kirksville was the availability of a ready-made structure -the Cumberland Academy Building - that fulfilled all the needs for the school.

Built in 1860, the building, located on the corner of Mulanix and Hickory Streets (now Memorial Park), resembled a church, complete with a tall steeple.

The entire cost of the Normal Building was $101,400 - all a testimony to Baldwin's powers of organization and persuasion, and the regard with which this newcomer was held in the community.

Under his presidency, in 1890, Old Main was built and occupied, allowing space for an additional year of study for students wishing to remain beyond the traditional two-year program – part of Baldwin's lifelong efforts to enforce rigor and depth in the training of public school teachers.

He created seven departments of study for the Institute: professional work; natural and physical science; English and literature; vocal music and calisthenics; rhetoric, etymology, and physiology; and elocution, drawing, and penmanship.

The Education Building at Sam Houston State University, built in 1918, was meant to be renamed for Baldwin in 1981, but was demolished the next year.