Baldwin, William
Section 28.8
ID # 281093

William Baldwin
Overton Co.

Nineteen Penitentiary inmates died of Cholera during the June 1833 Epidemic in Nashville. They were buried at Nashville City Cemetery. In 2016 wooden markers were placed at the cemetery for these Cholera victims.

Fred Zahn of the Metropolitan Historical Commission was responsible for the carving of the inscriptions on the 19 wooden markers and locating where to place them at the Nashville City Cemetery. To read about his work on the project, click here.

To read the account of John Hill, a contemporary of these men and survivor of his time in the penitentiary, click here.

For more information, and to see a listing of the inmates’ names & counties of residence prior to incarceration, please see the following newspaper article in the Nashville Republican and State Gazette, Friday, July 5, 1833.

Charles A. Sherill has given permission to quote from Tennessee Convicts: Records of the State Penitentiary, Vol. I. 1831-1850, by Charles & Tomye M. Sherrill, published 1997:

Page 2
“William Baldwin was received into the Penitentiary 30 September, 1831. He is 24 years old, weighs 166 lbs. He is 6′ 6” high, blue eyes and fair skin, has a small scar on the left hand between the thumb and four finger, the left leg has a large scar on the shin, also as remarkable scar in the left groin. He was born and brought up in Barren Co., Kentucky, where his mother now lives. She was married to a man by the name of Miller who has since deceased and left her again a widow. He has one sister married to a Mr. Quinn near Pikeville, Kentucky, and he has a brother near Bowling Green, Kentucky. He has served two years in the Kentucky Penitentiary, and has worked at hemp hackling and spinning. He was found guilty of horse stealing at the Circuit Court of Overton County and sentenced to four years confinement in the Jail and Penitentiary House of the State of Tennessee.William Baldwin died of Cholera on the 10th day of June 1833. [Ledger 45, p. 3.]”

Research Report August 2017