The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-03-14
LUCKY BALDWIN
 WAS NJ |DLER  Even On His Way West He Had
 To Fight INDIANS ATTACKED HIM
His Rise to Wealth the Result of Speculation In Mines-His Great Ranch Near
 Los Angeles.
From the New York Post.

With the death this week, on his ranch in Southern California, of Lucky Bald win the last of the spectacular figures of the early mining days of the Pacific coast passed away. Although he was not one of the Forty -niners,' having reached the gold fields some four years later, he was one of the associates of Mackay, Flood. O'Brien, Sharon, Ralston and Fria, and accumulated quite as large fortune as did these men, but did not have the same capacity for holding it. From the moment he arrived on the coast he began to make money, almost everything he touched seeming to turn into gold" so that he died worth about s25.OOo.0OO.
 In his later years Baldwin was about as well known in the east as in the west, chiefly because of his racing Interests. He was tall, lean and thin faced, with long white hair, and nothing "1ashy" about him, although he had no refinement and his associates were largely of the same type. He has been painted as. a happy -go-lucky sort of man who rarely succeeded in any venture until he struck the Pacific coast. and then became mill llonaire purely through streaks of for
 
 work gat his money for him, while others avered that he was man with genius for money making. trader who would shame a gypsy, whose first steps to wealth were through usury, who was close listed and ungenerous, but who never hesitated to spend money in adver- Using himself and his schemes, and who was apparently callous to an unenviable notoriety.
 Born near Cincinnati, O., April g. 1928, his boyhood days were passed there and fin Great Bend Ind, to which place he was taken when five years old. When he was r he cut loose for himself and went to Chicago to make his fortune. He work ed for a couple of years on grain boats on the Illinois canal, and at the end of that time he had succeeded in buying three canal boats, in which he carried grain and alternately made and lost mon- ey for a few years In 1858 he had drifted to Racine, Wis, and was keeping a small store there, trying to eke out living for himself and a young wife but the venture was not at all profitable, and he soon sought out for better way to make money. 4.
 Fight on the Plains.
 
 agog over the tales of sudden wealth which had been obtained in California, and finally young Baldwin became sniit- ten with the California fever. Hearing that a party was about to start for Cali forna, he sold out his store, and, with his wife, left for Chicago to join the band of fortune seekers who were going to make their perilous way by wagon train across the plains to the new Fl Dorado. The party started February 1 of that year. and the journey was made without incident, until after about 30 of the party, including Baldwin and his wife. had left the main body at tbc Humboldt river in Colorado to take the northern route.
 The travellers bad be5n on their way only few days when they were attack ed by Indians. They formed barricade of their wagons and fought from the mid dle of the improvised fort, but with little success, the Indians, Apaches, were well armed. while the pioneers were not. So the train started on again, pursued by Indians through a narrow canyon with little hope of escaping with their lives. Fortunately, however, they stumbled into a larger body of emigrants, which had been attacked by another band of h. dians, and the two got together and pre- pared for siege. The Indians attacked the camp many times In the next two weeks, but got the worst of it. and finally drew off and gave up the fight. The trav- elers then took up their journey and arrived safely at the coast without fur ther trouble.
 Venture in Brick.
 On reaching San Francisco Baldwin obtained possession of small hotel which he ran for only about two weeks, for he met an eastern friend with a gov ernment contract for brick making, but had not the means to carry out the con- tract Baldwin knew nothing about brick making, but bought book on the sub ject sat up nights studying the details of the business, disposed of his hotel and prospered and Baldwin began to make money clearing about $15,000 month on the contract. He next began speculatinS in mining shares and real estate, and after his deals in two mines, the Crown Point and the Ophir, he was dubbed Lucky Baldwin by the San Francisco Chronicle He often resented this cog nomen, declaring that he made his money by hard work and good judgment
 q never had any great streak of luck like other men, he said at one time. "I examined all the mines l was interested in: crawled through tunnels and went down shafts, and worked like a slave for years"
 His first great deal would seem to bear out the luck part, however, for nothing that he did then could have been called