BALDWIN, Stanley
Source: Kingman Star Thursday, July 13, 1944
Stanley Baldwin, aged 12, of Danville, Ill., was fatally injured Tuesday when he fell from a cliff at the Plankeshaw Council Boy Scout Camp at Portland Arch, south of Attica. He had been at the camp only since Sunday.
In company with five other young campers, he started on a hike Tuesday morning after obtaining permission of the camp leaders to visit the Devil’s Staircase. Adventure led the boys, instead to the top of a cliff, which camp officials say is out of bounds for campers. Baldwin ventured too near the edge of a high cliff along the Wabash River and tumbled about 75 feet to the gravel river bank below, being fatally injured.
A barbed wire fence, running at right angles to the edge of the cliff, separates the camp property from an old graveyard and is anchored to a large tree at the edge of the precipice. Two of the boys swung around the tree to the other side of the fence safely, but when Baldwin attempted to follow them, his hands slipped from the tree and he plunged over the cliff to death.
Camp leaders were summoned and took the boy to Covington, but he was dead when the party reached Covington. Coroner Wisher Myers of Veedersburg said the boy died of a fractured skull and internal injuries.
This is said to be the first serious accident to happen at the camp since Portland Arch was opened as a Boy Scout camp eight years ago.
Stanley Baldwin was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Harry I. Baldwin of Danville, and was a member of Boy Scout Troop at Central Christian Church.
The youth was born Nov. 21, 1931 in Danville. In addition to his parents, he is survived by two sisters, Lucille of Chicago and Eunice at home; and five brothers, Don of Chicago, Virgil E. of Danville, Melvin Lee at home, Pfc. Willis E. Baldwin, stationed with an anti-craft division in India, and Cpl. Harry I Baldwin Jr. in the Signal Corps at Drew Field, Tampa, Fla. A brother, Wesley Earl, preceded him in death. – thanks so much to “S” for typing this sad piece