Caleb Baldwin: A Liberty Jail Companion of Joseph Smith and Pioneer of 1848

Caleb Baldwin (born September 2, 1791, Nobletown, New York) was an early Latter-day Saint and a faithful friend of the Prophet Joseph Smith. After his baptism he served a mission to Illinois with Levi Jackman (1835), establishing a branch of the Church near Clear Creek. In the dark Missouri winter of 1838–39, Caleb Baldwin was one of the handful of Saints imprisoned with the Prophet in Liberty Jail—sharing that pit of suffering where Joseph Smith received the revelation now recorded as Doctrine and Covenants 121–122. Of his fellow prisoners the Prophet counted Brother Baldwin a 'noble friend.' After the Saints' expulsion from Missouri and from Nauvoo, Caleb crossed the plains as a pioneer of 1848. His life—from Clear Creek missionary, to Liberty Jail prisoner, to 1848 pioneer—is a faithful witness of a Saint who walked beside the Prophet in his darkest hour and still gathered to Zion.