Melvin Baldwin

Melvin Riley Baldwin (April 12, 1838 – April 15, 1901) was a Representative from Minnesota.

Early life and education
Baldwin was born near Chester, Vermont, on April 12, 1838 and moved with his parents to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in 1847. He attended the common schools there and entered Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin, in 1855. He studied law but adopted civil engineering as a profession.

Career and service in the Civil War
He was engaged on the Chicago & North Western Railway until April 19, 1861, when he enlisted as a private in Company E, Second Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry due to the Civil War. He was commissioned captain of his company and was later captured at Gettysburg and confined in Libby Prison, Richmond, Virginia, at Macon, Georgia, and at Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina, being prisoner for eighteen months.

After the war, he engaged in operative railway work in Kansas, being general superintendent for four years. He moved to Duluth, Minnesota, in 1885.

U.S. Representative
Baldwin was elected as a Democrat to the 53rd congress, (March 4, 1893 – March 3, 1895), but lost his bid for reelection in 1894 to the 54th congress.

Later life
Baldwin was chairman of the Chippewa Indian Commission from 1894 – 1897. He traveled to Alaska in November 1897 and died in Seattle, Washington, April 15, 1901. He is interred in Forest Hill Cemetery, Duluth, Minnesota.