As most Baldwin County residents know, the county celebrated its 200^th birthday in 2009. Most residents acknowledged the milestone through events that took place throughout the county, and each municipality found its own special way to honor the event. 

The founding of Baldwin County helped establish a destination point for Americans seeking their future in the Old American Southwest. That same year was a special one not only for Baldwin County, but also for the other events that changed the course of history for America and the world.

The influential individuals born that year represent some of the most famous characters in the annals of American and world history. First and foremost, on Feb. 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born to Thomas Lincoln and his wife Nancy Hanks Lincoln in a one-room log cabin on the family farm in Hardin County, Ky., which made him the first U.S. president born west of the Appalachian Mountains.

No one who has spent time in an American literature class can deny having read his or her share of Edgar Allen Poe. The New England writer was born on Jan. 19, 1809, in Boston, Mass. Poe’s early life affected his writing style, as he was orphaned at an early age and spent his youth with foster parents. Poe was part of the American Romantic Movement in literature and is best known for his stories of mystery and terror.

In December of that same year, American frontiersman Kit Carson was born. Working for John C. Fremont, prominent Californian and future candidate for President, Carson served as a scout and was involved in the Bear Flag rebellion in California. He went on to serve in the Civil War and as an Indian agent in the American far west.

Politically in the United States, changes were being made that replaced the old guard of founding fathers with the younger members of that group who had led the United States to independence from Great Britain.

Also in 1809, James Madison was sworn in as the fourth President of the United States.  Madison had been instrumental in the drafting of the Constitution and was one of the foremost political thinkers of his day. He would later fight one of the most arduous wars in America’s history, the War of 1812. While mostly overlooked today, the War of 1812 proved the resiliency of the United States against the British in maintaining its independence.

1809 was a turning point in history that gave us many of the people who have, in one way or another, affected our lives even to this day. That same year saw the beginning of territorial expansion for the United States with the creation of Baldwin County. While the county’s borders were not the ones that we are familiar with today, its creation initiated the process that, in the long run, gave us the home that we cherish today.