WHAT IF?

                                                WHAT IF ?

    Have you ever just sit and played the “What If” game in your mind. I think older people are more inclined to do so than younger people.

   I do it quite often and even though it is not planned ahead, it is hard to believe that almost always, no matter where you start, what memory or word, it is almost always the same thing that sneaks out of my mind, into my pencil hand (yes I still use a pencil), and onto a piece of paper.

   I suppose that may be because I am an amateur genealogist and I love history,--The older the better.

   And of course being as old as I am, I can remember things that happened long before my extended family, of children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren and all the “outlaws” that come along with them, were even born.

   Hopefully when they get as old as I am they may enjoy just sitting around, reading my blogs, journals and other writings and even scribbled notes. And if they are like me they will be either laughing or wiping away tears while they do it.

                                                         SO

WHAT IF: Nathaniel Baldwin and Joanna Sanford had not left England in the mid 1600’s and sailed to “The New World of America?” They must have known they would be on the Atlantic Ocean for close to two months, more or less, depending on the weather. They were a well-off family in England, and I have always wondered what would cause them to leave.

   

   WHAT IF: There son Samuel Baldwin and his wife Abigail Baldwin had not survived the harshness of life in the new world? Even as it was, Samuel died young in 1696, at age 41, in Connecticut. They did have a son named Samuel before he died.

WHAT IF: Samuel and Lydia Sperry had not had a son named Caleb Baldwin who married Martha Brown in Connecticut

WHAT IF: Caleb Baldwin and Martha Brown had never met and married in Danbury, Connecticut? What if they had not met and married before one of them moved to New York, State?     

WHAT IF: They had not had a son named Philemon Baldwin, who married Esther Charles after they moved to Ohio.

WHAT IF: Philemon and Esther, had not had a family of ten children in the area if Warrensville & Cleveland, Ohio. And two of their boys met two daughters of “Judge” James Kingsbury, who was a well known Judge in the area and also a very prosperous man in Cleveland, Ohio. “Judge Kingsbury was the father of 13 children. Two of his daughters married two of Philemon’s sons.  Caleb Baldwin married Nancy Kingsbury and Rune Baldwin married Calista Kingsbury.

  The wedding was a double wedding with both couples being married the same day at the home of Judge Kingsbury. As was traditional at that time all of the furniture was moved out of the living room of the house and a big party and dancing was enjoyed by all.

   Caleb & Nancy, and several others in the area of Cleveland, Ohio listened to the preaching of a man named Parley P. Pratt. Caleb and Nancy were Baptized into the LDS Church by Parley in 1830.

   WHAT IF: Caleb & Nancy had not met and been married and traveled to Utah with the Mormon Pioneers?  Undoubtedly they would have stayed in Ohio. As it was they had ten children one of who was Caleb Clark Baldwin who married Ann Eliza Robinson. They went to Utah and eventually settled in Beaver, Utah.

WHAT IF: Caleb Clark had not stayed in Utah? What if he had stayed in Illinois? Would that have changed this, WHAT IF story? Caleb Clark and Ann Eliza Robinson were married in 1837 in Missouri and had 9 children. Their 4^th child was Caleb Hyrum Baldwin. He found Elizabeth Jane Cartwright very attractive and they were married in Beaver, Utah where they spent their entire life.

WHAT IF: Caleb Hyrum Baldwin had not found Elizabeth Jane Cartwright attractive and married her? Unlike some of their forbearers they lived their whole lives in Beaver, where they married and had 12 children.

   Their fourth son was William Ancel Baldwin. He was my Grandfather and the oldest person on my family line that I can remember going to visit and took me to show me the animals and interesting sights at the old Baldwin property in Beaver.

   William Ancel met Estella Paxton, from Kanosh, Utah and they were married in Beaver, Utah in 1905.

WHAT IF; because they only had two children, instead of a lot like Williams ancestors, what if one of them had not been my Father, William Wallace Baldwin?

   William Wallace Baldwin went to Mohrland, Utah to teach school after he graduated from the U of U. Was it a coincidence that my Mother Bertrude  Amelia Day was living there at that time with her parents? From 1907 until 1925 the Day’s had lived in at least four different places.

   And was it a coincidence that the Principal of the school asked Bill and Bertrude to take parts in a school play and Bertrude was asked to play the part of Bill’s Mother? “Birdie”, which is the name she went by all of her life, said that when the play was over, that Bill practically lived at the Day house. They were finally married in Beaver, Utah in 1930.

   Then come along the modern WHAT IFS: ---What if I had not come home on furlough, from the USAF, while Neldona Wickman was living in Castle Dale? She had been living in Tooele with an Uncle prior to going to Price.  What if she had not had a job as a telephone operator, so she could call me several times a week after I went back to Kansas?

   What if the two car wrecks we were in (In both of them the cars were totally destroyed) would have had a different ending?

   There are no what if’s that marrying Donnie was the best thing I ever did.

   What started me thinking about this Blog was what if just one of the above WHAT IFS had not happened what would my life be like?

Would I ever have met Donnie?

Would I have been born?

Would I have been an Englishman?

Would I have died on the plains, coming to Utah with the Pioneers.          

Well there are so many WHAT IFS and so FEW answers.

   Of course I knew that before I started this Blog—but I forged ahead anyway and now here I sit wondering what it all means?

W.R. Baldwin November 2017