In that period when New Haven was taking on added commercial activity which has carried it far along the path of progressive business, the manufacturing plant was established that is now conducted under the name of D. W. Baldwin & Company, Inc. This business was originally that of manufacturing carriages and dealing in harness, whips, blankets, etc., but later was changed with the progress of the times to the present lines.

Dwight W. Baldwin, the head of the business for many years and until his death, was born March 21, 1850, in Washington, Litchfield county, Connecticut, and received his education in the Waterbury high school and the National Business College in New Haven. Mr. Baldwin came to New Haven in 1868 and for a time was a bookkeeper for the firm of H. N. Whittlesey & Company, dealers in crockery ware. In 1870 he became connected with the manufacturing firm of C. Pierpont & Company, manufacturers of carriages and wagons, with which concern he was connected for more than a quarter of a century, in time becoming superintendent and manager. In January, 1896, he purchased the business and continued in the old lines until the development of the automobile caused him to extend the scope of the factory to include the building of motor cars for commercial use. Mr. Baldwin continued in active connection therewith up to the time of his demise, which occurred February 20, 1912. He was a clean cut, energetic, farsighted business man and one of New Haven's substantial citizens. He served at one time in the common council of the city for a term of two years but was never a politician in the sense of office seeking. In 1872 he was married to Mary Ada Dickerman, a native of New Haven and a daughter of Elisha Dickerman. To Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin were born four children, of whom two have passed away, the surviving ones being Caroline Trowbridge Baldwin and Howard Dwight Baldwin.

Howard D. Baldwin was born in New Haven, June 16, 1886, and received his early education in the Webster school and afterward attended the Boardman high school. When his textbooks were put aside he became assistant to his father in the vehicle manufacturing business. He thoroughly mastered each phase of the business, so that he was well qualified to assume its direction and management at the time of his father's death. In March. 1913, the business was incorporated under the name of D. W. Baldwin & Company, Inc., with Howard D. Baldwin as the president and treasurer, and the manufacture of auto truck bodies was established. The plant is equipped with modern machinery of the very latest pattern for carrying on the work, and employment is given to from forty to fifty people, making this an important productive industry.

In November, 1908, Howard D. Baldwin was united in marriage to Miss Jessie Norton, of New Haven, a daughter of George S. and Amy Norton, formerly of Guilford, Connecticut, but now of New Haven. Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin have one child, Janet, who was born in Orange, Connecticut, October 8, 1916. 

Mr. Baldwin has had some military training as a member of the Second Company of the Governor's Foot Guard. He belongs to the Automobile Club, the Gun Club, the Union League and the New Haven Yacht Clubs and is popular in club and social circles. In fact he has a very wide and favorable acquaintance in this city, where his entire life has been passed and where he has also won a notable and well deserved reputation as a business man.