Published August 27, 2024
By Hal Oakley
THOMAS S. BALDWIN
“It’s Not Luck, It’s Results!” was the motto of Thomas S. Baldwin, showman, aviator, inventor of the first collapsible parachute. His success inspired the naming of Quincy’s airport – Baldwin Field, and Baldwin School.
While accounts of Baldwin’s birth and youth vary greatly, he was probably born in Decatur, Illinois, on June 30, 1857, the son of Dr. and Mrs. Samuel Baldwin. His father was killed in northeast Missouri during the Civil War. The family moved to Quincy where his mother died shortly thereafter. Tom and his older brother Samuel Baldwin, Jr. raised themselves.
While young, the natural showman in Baldwin began to appear. He demonstrated gymnastic ability and developed a series of tumbles and acrobatic stunts for his own enjoyment. He landed a job as an acrobat in a traveling circus.
At the time balloon ascensions were popular. Baldwin decided to combine his acrobatics with balloon ascensions. As the balloon rose, Baldwin would perform somersaults, flips and other stunts on a trapeze bar hanging below the balloon. The crowds loved the act; Baldwin loved the crowds.
Baldwin took his act to California. His first break came around 1881 when he successfully developed a high wire act at San Francisco’s Seal Rock Amusement Park. He walked across a five-inch cable, 700 feet above the Pacific Ocean. His act garnered Baldwin early fame.
In 1885, Baldwin explored combining parachute jumps with balloon ascensions. He experimented with models that would permit a safe descent from a balloon tethered to the ground. After successfully dropping a dog strapped to his parachute, Baldwin tested the parachute himself. It worked.
Baldwin’s public debut of the parachute jump occurred on January 30, 1887. He had struck a deal with a street car operator who served Seal Rock Park to pay Baldwin $1 for each foot of his parachute jump. Baldwin jumped from 1,000 feet to the amazement of 30,000 spectators and enjoyed fame and financial success.
On July 4, 1887, in Quincy’s Singleton Park at 30th and Maine Streets (later renamed Baldwin Park), Baldwin performed his second parachute jump; this time from a balloon he manufactured in Quincy named the “City of Quincy.”
Baldwin intended to jump from a tethered balloon, but the winds became severe, and the tethers started to whip around. Baldwin took the risk of releasing the tethers, and the balloon floated east. At about 33rd Street, he jumped from a distance of more than 4,000 feet. The descent lasted three minutes and twenty seconds. He landed safely but with such velocity that he slid and rolled for 35 feet before stopping.
Requests for performances came from all over the country. For the balance of 1887 and into 1888, Baldwin took his show on the road. In the midst of this success, on December 7, 1887, in Quincy, he married Caroline “Carrie” Pool. Then, at the encouragement of “Buffalo Bill” Cody, Baldwin took his show to England and continental Europe in 1888.
The crowds were enthralled by his jumps. Awards and gifts, including a diamond ring from the Prince of Wales, were showered upon Baldwin. In 1889 he took his show to the western United States and then in 1890 to Hawaii and the Far East. In many of these places, no one had seen anyone fly an aircraft let alone jump out of one and land safely.
Baldwin then turned his attention back to Quincy. In September 1891, he purchased and redeveloped the former Singleton Park. His “Baldwin Park” had bowling alleys, an amphitheater, a hotel, a race track shaped in a figure eight, and other recreational facilities on 32 acres. His and Carrie’s son, Thomas A. Baldwin, was born in December 1891. Baldwin and Sam started the Baldwin Brothers Company to manufacture balloons and other aeronautical equipment. With the exception of occasional performances, Baldwin was now a father and businessman and more settled than at any time in his life.
By 1897, Baldwin yearned for a new challenge. He returned to California while Carrie stayed in Quincy to operate Baldwin Park and raise young Tom. Baldwin wanted to achieve controllable flight, so his balloons would not float helplessly with the winds. He began to develop “dirigibles,” balloons with motors and rudders that would direct flight but he could not find a satisfactory motor.
In 1903 Baldwin befriended Glenn H. Curtiss, founder of what became the aviation manufacturing giant Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company, known today as the Curtiss-Wright Corporation. At the time, Curtiss was building motorcycles. Baldwin realized that the motorcycle engine was perfect for his dirigible. Curtiss was introduced to his future – aviation.
On August 3, 1904, in Los Angeles, Baldwin made aviation history in his dirigible “California Arrow” by ascending in a lighter-than-air craft and sailing in a controlled flight along a predetermined course back to the beginning point. The Wright Brothers had performed a similar feat (though not back to the point of origin) with their heavier-than-air airplane in December 1903.
From 1904 through 1907, Baldwin constructed and flew several dirigibles throughout the United States at exhibitions such as St. Louis’ Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Later, he promoted military and civilian uses of dirigibles, including dirigible passenger lines.
Baldwin then redirected his energy to the newly popular airplanes. His friendship with Curtiss, now a manufacturer of airplanes, helped. In 1910, Baldwin built the biplane “Red Devil.” He spent the next five years flying his airplanes in exhibitions in cities and countries where he had performed his earlier acts.
With the United States’ entry into World War I, Baldwin volunteered for duty and was commissioned as a Captain in the Signal Officers’ Reserve Corps. He directed the training of many of the Army Air Corps’ aviators. He was later promoted to the rank of Major and served in the Army Air Corps until his discharge in October 1919. He worked until his death in 1923 as a district manager of balloon inspection and production for Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.
Baldwin’s life overflowed with “results.” He was a successful performer He was an inventor of balloons, parachutes, dirigibles and airplanes. His inventiveness appears to have been driven by the unceasing desire to conquer challenges and enthrall crowds. Baldwin patented few of his inventions. Instead, he shared them with the rest of the aviation industry. His focus was the show. As a result, he helped usher in aviation as not simply entertainment but a major mode of transportation and industry.
Hal Oakley is a lawyer with Schmiedeskamp, Robertson, Neu & Mitchell LLP and a civic volunteer. He has authored several legal articles and edited, compiled and/or contributed to books and articles on local history.
Sources
Airship Facts and Meteorological Possibilities as Verified by Captain Thomas S.
Baldwin. New York: Captain Thomas S. Baldwin, 1906.
Crouch, Tom D. The Eagle Aloft: Two Centuries of the Balloon in America. Washington
D C: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1983.
Keller, Mrs. G. A. Archival files. Quincy IL: Historical Society of Quincy and Adams
County.
Matt, Paul R. Historical Aviation Album Volume V (All American Series). 1967.
Scamehorn, Howard Lee. Baldwin, Thomas Scott: The Columbus of the Air. Journal of
the Illinois State Historical Society, Summer 1956.
Seckman, Joanne S. It’s Not Luck, It’s Results: Thomas Scott Baldwin, 1860-1923.
Quincy IL: Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County, 2005
