He returned to work for his father and uncle on the Haiku sugarcane plantation. From 1897 to 1904 he became manager. Sugarcane production became very profitable with increasing trade with the United States and annexation of Hawaii in 1898. Haiku merged with the Pāʻia plantation, and he became president of the combined operation called the Maui Agricultural Company.[3]
He served as president of Maui Telephone Company, and Maui Publishing Company. He was a director of Baldwin Bank, which later became part of First Hawaiian Bank.[4] In 1916, during World War I, he served as colonel of the 3rd Regiment of the Hawaii National Guard. On July 19, 1897, he married Ethel Frances Smith (1879–1967), daughter of lawyer William Owen Smith in Honolulu — his younger brother Samuel would later marry sister Katherine Smith. They had one daughter, Frances Hobron (1904–1996) who married J. Walter Cameron (1895–1976), manager of the Pineapple plantation in Honolua.[3]
Cameron's company Maui Pineapple Company merged with Baldwin's pineapple business to become the Maui Land & Pineapple Company.[5] The Camerons' son Colin Cameron founded the Kapalua Bay Hotel & Villas resort.[6]
The pineapple business continued until 2009.[7]
Politics
Baldwin became county chairman for the Hawaii Republican Party in 1912.
He entered local politics in 1913 when he was elected to the Hawaii Territorial Senate.[8] He was territorial senator until 1921 when he was called to higher office to fulfill the unexpired term of Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole in Washington, D.C., who had died. Baldwin was elected to fill the vacancy for Congressional Delegate from March 25, 1922, to March 3, 1923. Despite pleas to continue service, he retired from politics and returned to his private business ventures. Baldwin emerged from retirement to serve in the Hawaii Territorial House of Representatives in 1933. Following a single term, Baldwin returned to the upper chamber where he became territory senate president in 1937.[9] He died at Pāʻia, Maui on October 8, 1946, and was buried in Makawao Cemetery.[10]
^Lloyd J. Soehren (2004). "lookup of Baldwin". on Hawaiian place names. Ulukau, the Hawaiian Electronic Library. Archived from the original on 2012-07-28. Retrieved 2010-01-08.