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CABELL COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Valerie & Tommy Crook
vfcrook@earthlink.net
July 9, 2000
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 423
CHARLES BUFFINGTON BALDWIN. An energetic operator
in the coal and oil industries of West Virginia, Charles
Buffington Baldwin, of Huntington, is also an accredited
member of the legal profession, and is the repository of
numerous interests of a business nature. He has achieved
a number of accomplishments during his short but active
career, and has attained a recognized position in the con-
fidence of his associates.
Mr. Baldwin was born at Athens, Clarke County, Georgia,
January 7, 1894, and is a son of Charles Warren and
Juliette (Buffington) Baldwin. Charles Warren Baldwin was
horn in 1852, in South Carolina, and as a young man came
to Huntington, West Virginia, where he was married, subse-
quently going to Athens, Georgia. He owned and operated
a chain of rolling mills, one of which was located at Baton
Rouge, Louisiana, to which city he removed in 1899, and
where he died in November, 1914. Mr. Baldwin was a demo-
crat, a member of the Episcopal Church and a thirty-second
degree Mason. He married Juliette Buffington, who was
born at Huntington in 1874, and was educated in the Hunt-
ington public schools, Marshall College of Huntington, and
the Mary Baldwin Seminary at Staunton, Virginia. She
survives her husband as a resident of Huntington. Peter
Cline Buffington, the father of Mrs. Baldwin, was born in
Virginia and died at Huntington in 1876. He was a pioneer
of the city and became its first mayor, and followed farming
as a vocation, being a large landholder. At one time he
took a prominent part in politics and was a member of the
cabinet of Jefferson Davis. He was always a stanch demo-
crat. Mr. Buffington married Miss Louise Garland, who
was horn in Westmoreland County, Virginia, and died at
Hnntington. After the death of her first husband Mrs.
Charles W. Baldwin married the late Frank Bliss Enslow, of
Huntington, who was a lawyer of distinction and a man
with numerous important business interests. They became
the parents of one daughter, Dorothy Louise, who attended
the National Cathedral School at Washington, D. C., and
now makes her home with her mother.
The only child of his parents, Charles Buffington Baldwin
attended the public schools of Huntington, and after his
graduation from the high school entered Marshall College,
from which he was graduated as a member of the class of
1913. He then enrolled in the law department of Washing-
ton and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia, and was given
his degree of Bachelor of Laws as a member of the gradu-
ating class of 1916. During his college career he was ad-
mitted to membership in the Pi Kappa Sigma and Theta Nu
Episilon Greek letter college fraternities. Admitted to the
bar in 1916, in the same year Mr. Baldwin became local
counsel at Huntington for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, a
position which he retained until April, 1917, when he en-
listed in the United States Army and was sent to the
Officers' Training Camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison. He
was shortly assigned to the air service, where he was com-
missioned a first lieutenant, and eventually was made an
instructor at the Wilbur Wright Aviation Field, near Day-
ton, Ohio, where during the remainder of his service he was
engaged in teaching the art of flying to student army
aviators. He was mustered out and honorably discharged
in April, 1919, at which time he returned to Huntington and
engaged in coal and oil operations, in which he has since
been engaged. He is now president of the Transylvania
Petroleum Company of Huntington and New York City, and
a director in the J. M. McCoach Company of Huntington.
Mr. Baldwin maintains an independent stand in regard to
political affairs. His religions faith is that of the Episcopal
Church. As a fraternalist he holds membership in Hunting-
ton Lodge No. 53, A. F. and A. M., and other connections
are with the Guyandotte Club, the Guyan Country Club and
the Chamber of Commerce, all of Huntington. He owns a
modern residence at No. 1310 Third Avenue, a very com-
fortable and attractive brick structure, and other real estate
at Huntington, as well as a summer home in Summers
County, West Virginia. In civic affairs he has always been
a willing and energetic supporter of constructive movements
and a friend of all enterprises tending to advance the
general welfare.
On June 30, 1920, Mr. Baldwin was united in marriage
with Miss Hazel B. Hatfield, of Huntington, daughter of
Dr. Henry D. and Caroline (Bronson) Hatfield, residents of
this city. Doctor Hatfield is an ex-governor of West Vir-
ginia, and a distinguished physician and surgeon. Mrs.
Baldwin is a graduate of Miss Baldwin's School for Girls
at Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
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