Melville N. Baldwin was the son of Major Noyes and Josephine Wright Baldwin and succeeded his father running the Baldwin Company general merchandise business in Lander, Wyoming.

Major Noyes Baldwin was born on September 8, 1826, in Woodbridge, Connecticut, and educated in an eastern college. In 1849, he traveled around the horn of South America to San Francisco where he worked as a contractor and builder. In 1854, he returned to the United States, by way of the Panama Isthmus, for a short visit. When he returned to San Francisco, he partnered with Captain Randall of the Pacific Steamship Company to purchase a brig and made an unsuccessful attempt to recover gold bullion from a sunken ship near Callao. He then accompanied General Winfield Scott and General William S. Harney in Oregon during the Northwest Boundary Dispute in 1859.

Later that year, Baldwin followed the mining excitement to Nevada, settling in Silver City and building a hotel. His son Melville N. was the first white child born in the city on July 3, 1860. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Baldwin raised 100 volunteers and became Captain of Co. B 1st Nevada Cavalry, eventually rising to major. He was stationed at Ft. Churchill, and later at Fort Douglas during the Mormon uprising under Colonel Patrick Connor. Around 1863, he was transferred to Fort Bridger then Provo, Utah, and back to Fort Bridger where he took command of the post. In 1863, Major Baldwin and Captain Skelton organized a band of prospectors who started several claims in South Pass City. These were soon abandoned because of Indian hostilities. He was also a major stationed at Camp Dodge from 1865 to 1866.

Baldwin mustered out of the US Army in July 1866 and traveled to the Lander Valley over roads he built himself. There he traded with the Indians for furs which he took to Salt Lake City, leaving his family behind in Lander Valley. The following Spring, he was forced to leave due to continued Indian hostilities and returned to Fort Bridger. In 1868, he returned to South Pass to establish the first store there and resumed his trade with the Indians, though he was again chased out in 1869.

In 1872, he was appointed post trader and post master at newly constructed Fort Stambaugh. He again returned to Lander Valley in 1879 and in 1884 built opened his store in Lander in 1884, shortly after the town’s establishment. Baldwin died on January 12, 1892, and is buried in Lander.