David Dwight Baldwin

David Dwight Baldwin (November 26, 1831 – June 16, 1912)

From 1860 to 1862 Baldwin served in the Kingdom House of Representatives. Around 1865 he became manager of the sugarcane plantation in Kohala on the northern coast of Hawaiii Island. This plantation had been founded by the missionary Elias Bond.

In 1872 Baldwin and his family lived in New Haven, Connecticut, while he worked in the Yale Law School library and earned his Master of Arts degree. On his return to Hawaii he started an almost 40-year association with the education department of the Hawaiian government. He was vice-principal of Lahainaluna School from 1874 to 1877. While he was inspector-general of the schools from 1877 to 1885, instruction was changed from the Hawaiian language to English. His schoolmate from Punahou, J. T. Gulick, had published early theories of evolution which were based on their mollusc shell collections.

In the Hawaiian language, the word for any kind of snail is pūpū. The same word also referred to small bits of fish, chicken, or banana relish served with kava. Because of the mixture of various cultures and cuisines in the islands, the word pupu became associated with any relish, appetizer, canapé, or hors d'oeuvre, and the modern pu pu platter.

Retirement and last years Upon David Baldwin's retirement from teaching in 1903, the Baldwin brothers (David and Henry) invested in the first commercial cultivation of pineapple on Maui.

Legacy

Taxa named by him Gastropods (land snails): Achatinella apexfulva cookei Baldwin, 1895 Achatinella mustelina lymaniana Baldwin, 1895 Newcombia canaliculata Baldwin, 1905 Partulina dolei Baldwin, 1895 Kauaia knudseni Baldwin, 1895

Taxa named in his honor The following mollusks were named in honor of Baldwin.

Land snails: Nesopupa baldwini Ancey, 1904

Leptachatina baldwini Cooke, 1910 He surveyed Mauna Kea and published one of the first maps of its summit in 1891.

Son Charles Wickliffe Baldwin was born December 20, 1860. In 1909 he married Olive Elvira Steele (1873–1970) at Los Altos, California. His book was revised and republished several times.

Son Lincoln Mansfield Baldwin was born a twin of Winnifred Morris Baldwin on August 19, 1863. He married Ellen Melbourne Dickenson of Lahaina, daughter of Henry Dickenson Sr. and Mary Ann Caroline Rowley, on August 7, 1891, and had seven children. He worked for a while in the sugar business and a store. In 1894 he became deputy sheriff of Maui. In November 1896 he was appointed sheriff of Maui island, where he served for 14 years. In 1910 he became treasurer of Maui County, and died on November 18, 1919.

Son Benjamin Douglas Baldwin was born April 12, 1868, managed sugar plantations on Maui and Kauai.

Son William Atwater Baldwin was born July 20, 1869, became manager of three different sugar plantations and then President of Haiku Fruit & Packing Company. In 1902 he married Mina Prime at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Baldwin holdings would eventually evolve into the Maui Land & Pineapple Company. Baldwin relatives were involved in the company until 2005.

Daughter Mary W. ("May") Baldwin (1871–1961) married Duncan Bell Murdoch (1860–1964). Daughter Winifred Morris Baldwin married Physician John Weddick in October 1896. Son Nathaniel Hewitt Baldwin was born in 1873 but died age six.

His snail collection was a featured display at the Bailey House Museum. Henry Augustus Pilsbry called Baldwin "the Nestor of Hawaiian conchologists".

Family tree

Works