Samuel Turner Baldridge
Samuel Turner Baldridge was born February 17, 1824, in Wayne Township, Adams County, Ohio, and lived there all his life with the exception of a year and a half in Brown County. His father was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in 1783, and his mother, Mary McGary, was a daughter of William McGary, a Revolutionary soldier, and one of the first settlers of Adams County.
He was married October 23, 1845, first, to Phoebe Patton, a daughter of Thomas Patton, a native of Rockbridge County, Virginia, who settled on the West Fork of Brush Creek. Of this marriage there were three children: Mrs. Mary J. Foutts, of Elsmere, Missouri; Thomas Albert, who died at the age of two years, and an infant. His first wife died August 3, 1850. He married for a second wife, in 1861, Sarah Russel. Her mother was a Puntenney, of Stout's Run. His son, Taylor R., is a well known physician and surgeon in Dayton. His second son, by his second marriage, Talma E., after having completed his studies as a physician and married, died suddenly in the year 1896.
Our subject has been an elder in the U. P. Church at Cherry Fork for thirty years and has been Clerk of Wayne Township for twenty-four years. He was a Free Soiler during the existence of that, party and afterwards a Republican. He died the eighth of June, A. D. 1899.
Mr. Baldridge had taken quite an interest in this work and had anticipated much pleasure in its publication, but he was never to read its pages. Those who knew him best say that his passing was the beautiful completion of a finished work. His hold on this world was greatly loosened by the sorrow on account of the untimely death of his son, Talma. His life was a finished example of purity, fidelity and piety. He was a true friend, a wise counsellor, an unselfish man, and a noble citizen. He left a memory which his family, his church, and his community can reflect upon with pleasure and pride.
From History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900