Alice Baldwin (maiden name: Reeve) was born around 1844, possibly in Massachusetts, and moved to San Francisco, California, sometime during her childhood. Her father, George Reeve, may have been a stock broker and local Republican politician there. By 1860, however, Alice was probably living in Sacramento with the family of Allen and Caroline Cadwallader. She married Alexander W. Baldwin in Sacramento on August 21, 1862, and they had at least three children together: Alexander, born around 1863; Edith, born around 1865, and Alice, born around 1867. Edith died in San Francisco on October 18, 1865, when she was only ten months old. The couple lived in Virginia City, Nevada, but they made frequent trips back to California.

Alexander died in a train crash on November 14, 1869. Alice remained in Virginia City after his death, and according to the 1870 census, she employed an Irish housekeeper and owned $15,000 in personal property. She married John B. Winters in Virginia City on April 5, 1871, and died in San Francisco in November 1877. A Nevada editor eulogized her as a “most estimable lady” whose “many good qualities of both head and heart endeared her” to everyone who was “fortunate as to be reckoned among her friends.”