Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of Boston and eastern Massachusetts, Part 13

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 768

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At the beginning of the war he enlisted in the regiment of foot commanded by Colonel Samuel Gerrish. Here he was rapidly advanced to be lieutenant-colonel, and upon Colonel Gerrish's retirement in August, 1775, he was placed at the head of the regiment, and was soon commissioned its colonel. His regiment was first numbered the thirty-eighth and was afterwards numbered the twenty-sixth. Its original eight companies were increased to ten. Till the end of 1775, Colonel Baldwin and his men remained near Boston ; but in April, 1776, he was ordered with his command to New York City. On April 19 of that year he was at New York; on June 13, 1776, at the Grand Battery there; on June 22, the same; and on December 26, 1776, his regiment, commanded by himself, "went on the expedition to Tren- town" (Trenton). In this regiment was one company from Woburn commanded by Cap- tain John Wood. On the memorable night of December 25, 1776, in the face of a violent and extremely cold storm of snow and hail, Gen- eral Washington and his army crossed the Delaware to the New Jersey side, and took by surprise the next morning at Trenton about one thousand Hessian troops commanded by

BOSTON AND EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS.

Colonel Rahl, and Colonel Baldwin and his men took part in this daring and successful enterprise.

Colonel Baldwin's experience in the cam- paigns in New York and New Jersey is told in his letters to his family at home and many of these letters have been sacredly preserved by his descendants. During 1775-76 he was stationed with about two hundred or more of his men at Chelsea, while other companies of his regiment were stationed about Boston at Brookline and Medford. The "History of Chelsea," about to be published by the Massa- chusetts Historical Society, contains a great mass of material relating to the stay of a por- tion of the regiment at Chelsea, where their duties were those mostly of guards.

Colonel Baldwin resigned from the army in 1777 on account of ill health. His subsequent life was spent in his native place, and was marked by an enterprising spirit and the active habits of his youth. He had a talent and capacity for business. He was, in his public career, appointed on many committees on im- portant town business ; the records of the town and many autographic town papers are ample evidence of this. He was appointed high sheriff of Middlesex county in 1780, and was the first to hold office after the adoption of the state constitution. In 1778, 1779 and 1780, and the four following years, he represented Woburn in the general court. In 1794 he was a candi- date for election to congress, and had all the votes cast in Woburn but one. In 1796, on three trials for the choice of the same officer, he had all the votes for the first two in Woburn, and on the third seventy-four votes out of the seventy-six cast in Woburn. At other elec- tions he was a prominent candidate among those held up in Woburn for the offices of state senator, lieutenant-governor and presi- dential elector.

From his acquaintance with mathematics and the arts and sciences of his time, he was chosen a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and to the publications of that body he contributed two papers, entitled, "An account of a Curious Appearance of the Elec- trical Fluid," (Memoirs Am. Acad. vol. I. 1785, pp. 257-259) ; and "Observations on Electricity and an Improved Mode of Con- structing Lightning Rods," (Memoirs, vol 2, pt. 2, 1804, pp. 96-104). The first paper was written in 1783, and the "curious appearance" described was produced by raising an electrical kite at the time of a thunder shower. The experiments, however, were tried in July,

1771. At that time the author mentions that there stood some lofty trees near his house, and also a shop near by it. His parents, family, and neighbors witnessed the "electrical effect" he succeeded in pro- ducing. The date of preparing the second article was January 25, 1797. Colonel Bald- win wrote a sketch of Count Rumford which was printed in a local publication in 1805. He was also the author of a report on the survey of the Boston and Narragansett Bay Canal, 1806. Of the Academy he was elected a Fel- low in 1782, and was a member of the council 1785 to 1796, and from 1798 to 1807. Further, see Cutter, "Local History of Woburn," p. 203. He received from Harvard College the degree of Master of Arts in 1785. He was not one, however, who for the sake of popularity would sacrifice his principles of duty to the public, though, as the above votes show, he was deservedly a favorite with his townsmen and fellow citizens generally. Thus he protested with others against the action of the town in 1787 in the time of the Shays Rebellion, when the majority of the citizens of Woburn voted not to give any encouragement to the men called out to go on the present expedition, nor to aid or assist it. But against this proceeding of the town Colonel Baldwin and thirty-six others at once entered their protest, and two days after, the town itself reconsidered the votes it had passed on this subject.

He took a prominent part in the construction of the Middlesex Canal, completed in 1803. one of the earliest enterprises of the sort in the United States.

To him the discovery and the introduction to public notice and the earliest cultivation of the Baldwin apple, about 1784. has been justly ascribed. He was one day surveying land at a place called Butters' Row, in Wilmington, near the bounds of that town, Woburn and Burling- ton, when he observed one or more birds of the woodpecker variety flying repeatedly to a certain tree on land of a Mr. James Butters, and prompted by curiosity to ascertain the cause of their attraction, he at length went to it, and found on the ground under it apples of an excellent flavor and well worth cultivating; and returning to the tree the next spring he took from it scions to graft into stocks of his own. Other persons induced by his advice or example grafted trees of theirs from the same stock ; and subseqently when Colonel Baldwin attended court or went into other parts of the county as high sheriff, he carried scions of this apple and distributed them among his

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acquaintances, so that this species of fruit soon became extensively known and cultivated. The original tree remained, it is said, till 1815, when it was blown down in the famous "Sep- tember gale." The apple thus became known as the "Baldwin apple.'

His name is also associated with that of the celebrated Count Rumford. In childhood they were opposite neighbors, playmates and schoolmates. They attended lectures at Har- vard College together. Baldwin befriended him when arrested by one of the local military companies as a person inimical to the cause of the colonies, and he was tried and acquitted by a court of which Baldwin appears to be one of the members. To the last, though separated by the ocean and political prefer- ences, they were enthusiastic friends and cor- respondents-the one was an American officer, and the other an officer in the opposing British forces.

The history of his house, which is still stand- ing at North Woburn, may be told in the fol- lowing words taken from the recorded state- ments of different members of his family at different periods. The house was built in 1661, as appeared by the date on a timber which was lying about the house in 1835. It was owned by Henry (1) Baldwin from 1661 to his death in 1697. He was succeeded by Henry (2) Baldwin, who latterly went to New Hampshire. Henry (2) was succeeded in ownership by James (3), who died June 28, 1791, and son of Henry (2) : Loammi, son of James, to 1807, who put on a third story in 1802 or 1803. Benjamin F. Baldwin, son of Loammi, was the owner from 1807 to 1822: Loanmi ( second) and Mary and Clarissa Baldwin were joint owners from 1822 to 1836; and George R. Baldwin, sole owner, from 1836 to his death, October 11, 1888. Mrs. Catharine R. Griffith, daughter of George Rumford Baldwin, is the present owner, 1888 to 1907. Colonel Loammi Baldwin's estate embraced from his inventory, which is very lengthy, a very large amount of land, in 1801, according to a town assessor's list, 212 acres. His son Benjamin F. Baldwin occupied his estate from 1807 to about 1822, as above men- tioned.

The selectmen of Boston, at a meeting on April 15, 1772, paid Loammi Baldwin, of Wo- burn, forty dollars, the premium they adjudged to him for raising the greatest number of mul- berry trees in response to an advertisement published in Edes and Gill's Gasette. 1768. The selectmen took a receipt of Baldwin, and also

an obligation to dispose of one-half the trees under the conditions mentioned in said adver- tisement. The first premium was awarded to Loammi Baldwin. Under this competition Mr. John Hay, of Woburn, received twenty dollars as the premium adjudged him for raising the third greatest number of mulberry trees. The statement in the advertisement was that a gen- tleman of Boston had deposited one hundred dollars with the selectmen to be distributed as premiums to encourage the raising of mul- berry trees in the province. The conditions of the awards were also given. The name of the donor was William Whitwell.

In accordance with the dignified custom of that time the following notice of Colonel Loammi Baldwin's decease was published in the leading Boston newspaper of that date: "Died-In Woburn, yesterday morning, Hon. Loamni Baldwin, Esq., aet. sixty-two. His funeral on Friday next, which the friends and relatives are requested to attend, without a further invitation."-Columbian Centinel, Oc- tober 21, 1807.

(IV) Reuel Baldwin, son of James (3). born June 30, 1747, died April 18, 1775 ; mar- ried October 4, 1769, Keziah, born April 8, 1748, died October 23, 1822, daughter of Zeb- adiah and Abigail ( Pierce ) Wyman. She mar- ried second, August 5, 1777, Reuben Johnson. Children : 1. Reuel, born December 21, 1770. 2. James, born October 7, 1773. 3. Ruth, born June 5, 1774. 4. Josiah, born May 14, 1775. The probate of Reuel Baldwin's estate, April 22, 1776, names Keziah, his widow, and his four minor children-Reuel, Ruth, James and Josiah. According to these papers Josiah was dead before 1794. James, born 1773, a deacon, died November 25, 1827, at Nashua, New Hampshire (monument at Little's Cemetery at that place). Ruth Baldwin married Ichabod Richardson, Jr., both of Woburn, September 21, 1791.

(V) Cyrus Baldwin, son of Loammi (4), born at Woburn, June 22, 1773, died at Chelmsford, June 23, 1854 ; married April 28, 1799, Elizabeth, born September 5, 1782, died December 7, 1853, daughter of Bradley and Rachel ( Butterfield ) Varnum, of Dracut. He was for many years the agent of the Middle- sex Canal Company, and resided at the head of the canal in Chelmsford. He was appointed inspector and sealer of gunpowder at the fac- tory which was first Hale's and afterwards Whipple's, at Lowell. One child, died May 28, 1815.

(\') Colonel Benjamin Franklin Baldwin,

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son of Loammi (4), born at Woburn, De- cember 15. 1777, died suddenly October II, 1821, aged forty-three, while on his return from the cattle show in Brighton; married May 1. 1808, Mary Carter Brewster, born September 11, 1784, died June 18, 1874, daugh- ter of Benjamin and Mary Carter ( Brewster) Coolidge. He carried on the business of a yeoman, and left his widow a handsome estate. She afterwards married Wyman Richardson, Esq., and still later Burrage Yale, and spent the last of her life with her children at Pom- fret, Connecticut. Benjamin Franklin Bald- win held the office of captain in the militia from 1800 to 1805, of major from 1807 to 1811, and of lieutenant-colonel of the local regiment from 1811 to 1816. Rolls of his company of date 1802 are extant. It is said that in addition of his other pursuits he de- voted himself to the business of civil engineer- ing, and assisted his brother in the construc- tion of the milldam across the Back Bay in Boston, and in other works. Children: 1. Mary Brewster, born March 26, 1809. died December 28, 1817. 2. Clarissa, born Novem- ber 29, 1810, died July 15, 1813. 3. Loammi, born April 25, 1813: see forward. 4. Mary Brewster, born January 16, 1815, died Octo- ber 23, 1854: married December 28. 1836, Professor Roswell Park. Professor Roswell Park, of the University of Pennsylvania, later entered the ministry and became Rev. Roswell Park, D. D. ; born October 1, 1807, died July 16, 1869. 5. Clarissa Coolidge, born Decem- ber 1, 1819, died January 22, 1900; married May 16, 1843, Dr. Lewis Williams.

Loammi, born April 25, 1813. died March I. 1855, married March 2, 1847. Helen Eliza Avery. Their children were 1. Mary Emily. born January 31, 1848: married September 25. 1872, Darius Mathewson: son, George Bald- win, born June, 1881, died May, 1882. 2. Loammi Franklin,* born November 6. 1849: married September 11, 1873. Kate Wyman Richardson ; children: Clara Richardson, born September 1, 1874; Mary Brewster, born Sep- tember 17. 1875: James Rumford, born De- cember 19, 1880.

Clarissa Coolidge ( Baldwin) and Dr. Lewis Williams had no children.

Children of Mary Brewster ( Baldwin ) and Roswell Park: 1. Mary, born March 4, 1839. 2. Clara, born January 12, 1845, died Decem- ber 21, 1845. 3. Helen, born April 13, 1848. died October 14, 1855. 4. Roswell, born

March 4. 1852, married June 1, 1880, Martha Prudence Durkee, who died November 14, 1899: children: Roswell, born August 12, 1885: Julian Durkee, born November 6, 1888. 5. Baldwin, born October 14. 1854. died Octo- ber 19, 1855.

(V) Loammi Baldwin, son of Loammi, (4). was born at North Woburn, May 16, 1780, and died June 30. 1838, intombed at Woburn. He was fitted for college at West- ford Academy, and graduated from Harvard College in 1800. His early inclinations were towards mechanical subjects, to which very little attention was paid in the learned educa- tion of that time; and during his college life he made with his own hands a clock which kept good time and was the wonder and ad- miration of his class. He was put down as No. 9 in a list for "an exhibition in mechan- ics." In 1806 he was vice-president of the Phi Beta Kappa. In 1799 his father wrote to his friend. Count Rumford, then residing in Lon- don, that "I have a son at college, whose genius inclines him strongly to cultivate the arts. . I have therefore thought whether it would not be best to endeavor to provide him with a place for a year or two with some gentleman in the mathematical line of busi- ness in Europe, who is actually in the occupa- tion of making and vending mathematical and optical instruments.

It may be that you know of some good place. He is very lively, ready and enter- prising." Count Rumford wrote a reply ex- plaining the situation very fully, but he said that "no instrument maker or dealer in such would, without a very large premium, under- take to instruct a young gentleman in the course of two or three years, and make him perfect in both branches of the trade."

This scheme, however, was not followed any further. Upon graduating from college he entered the law office of Timothy Bigelow, at Groton. Here he constructed a fire-engine, of which the town stood in great need ; and the small machine was still in active service a short time ago. He completed his studies at Groton, and opened an office in Cambridge in 1804, and in 1807, having abandoned the prac- tice of the law for engineering, he went to England for the purpose of examining the various public works of that country. He in- tended at that time to visit the continent. but was prevented by the difficulty of reaching France. On his return he opened an office in Charlestown and began the life for which he was so admirably fitted. One of the earliest

*Loammi Franklin now resides with his family In the old Baldwin mansion at North Woburn.

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works upon which he was engaged was the construction of Fort Strong, in 1814, during the war, one of the strong forts erected for defense against the British in Boston Harbor. He was chief engineer with the rank of col- onel, at this time a title which has sometimes confounded him with his father, who bore that rank in the army of the Revolution. In 1819 he was appointed engineer to complete the undertaking of building the Milldam, or Western avenue, now the extension of Beacon street, Boston, beyond the Common. From 1817 to 1820 he was engaged upon various works of internal improvement in Virginia. In 1821 he was appointed engineer of the Union Canal in Pennsylvania. An elaborate descrip- tion of this work was prepared in 1830 by W. Milnor Roberts.

In 1824 Mr. Baldwin went to Europe and remained there a year, mostly in France, de- voted to a careful examination of the import- ant public works in that country. He went also to Antwerp to inspect the docks there, and at this time he laid the foundation of the larg- est and best professional library of engineering works that was to be found in America .- to which he added, until at his death it had cost nearly eight thousand dollars.

In 1825 he was associate with the pro- jectors of the Bunker Hill monument. He recommended the obelisk now seen there, two hundred and twenty feet high, etc. His or- iginal report is preserved among the papers of the monument association.

Among the early projects in the neighbor- hood of Boston with which he was connected were the Salem Milldam corporation, 1826, and the project of connecting Boston with the Hudson river by a canal, but the day for can- als was passing away, and in 1827 he was ap- pointed by the governor of Massachusetts to procure surveys and estimates for a railroad from Boston to the Hudson river. This work, however, was put into the hands of his brother James, as Loammi had at that time accepted an appointment from the United States gov- ernment which led to the two great works of his life, -- the naval dry docks at Charlestown and at Norfolk. These two structures were in process of building from 1827 to 1834, and were carried on both at the same time and with the crude appliances of that day. The first when finished was in all 306 feet long, thirty feet deep and thirty feet wide. The depth of water at high tide was twenty-five feet, and the rise and fall of tide eleven feet. The sur-

face of the site was about nine feet below or- dinary high tide. The cost was $677,090.

The Norfolk dock was a similar structure, but of greater cost, owing to the extra price of stone and labor, both of which were sent from the North. Mr. Baldwin's salary on this work was fixed by himself at $4,000 a year, with additional allowance for travel and ex- pense of living when away from home. His time was spent between the two docks, the summers at Charlestown and the winters in Norfolk, his leading assistant alternating with him at those two places.

In addition to this work he was consulting engineer on other important works connected with the general government-the Dismal Swamp Canal, the survey for which was made through an almost impenetrable swamp, but Congress was unwilling to carry it out in his day. In 1834 he made an elaborate report upon introducing pure water into the city of Boston, which was published. He also had considerable to do with water power in Maine, and also with a canal in Georgia, but the latter was never completed.

Mr. Baldwin was independent and positive in his professional opinions, and dared even to differ to his face with the aggressive General Andrew Jackson, then president of the United States. The general at their last interview at first received him with politeness; but the bridge (the General's pet scheme, as was nat- ural), came up as the great thing in the mind of the President, and he said: "By the bye, Mr. Baldwin, I have read your report on the bridge ; and, by the Eternal, you are all wrong. I have built and have seen built many bridges ; and I know that the plan is a good one, and that the bridge will stand." "General Jack- son," quietly replied Mr. Baldwin, "in all pon- toon or temporary bridge-work for military purposes, I should always yield to your good judgment, and should not venture to call it in question ; you must remember that this bridge should be built as a permanent structure, and should stand for all coming time. And I yield in such matters to no one, when I have applied scientific principles to my investigations and am sure of my conclusions. Good morning, General Jackson." It is hardly necessary to say that the appropriation was not made, and that the pet bridge was never built, much to the chagrin of the President, but to the quiet satisfaction of Mr. Baldwin.

In addition to the numerous works already referred to, Mr. Baldwin was connected in re-

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Loammi Baldwin, (2nd) eminent for his services as a civil engineer.

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gard to many others, from a dam at Augusta, Maine, to a marine railway at Pensacola, from the construction of buildings at Harvard Col- lege, to a canal around the falls of the Ohio river. from a stone bridge called the Warren Bridge at Charlestown to the Harrisburg Can- al in Pennsylvania. His skill was in demand, and that, too, in a very active manner in a great majority of the internal improvements undertaken at that formative period in the United States.

He was also noted as an author. His manu- script reports were always drawn up in his own neat, uniform and compact handwriting. He published in 1809 a pamphlet of seventy pages entitled, "Thoughts on the Study of Political Economy as connected with the Pop- ulation, Industry, and Paper Currency of the United States." A large number of printed reports on engineering enterprises are listed in the catalogue of his special library on that and co-ordinate subjects, given by his niece. Mrs. Griffith, to the Public Library in Wo- burn, several years ago. He is said to have written an account of the Middlesex Canal, and also a memoir of his father's friend, Count Rumford, but neither of these papers are in the above collection. His reports were pre- pared with the greatest care, and were models for style and remarkable for the exact and proper use of words. In 1835 he was a mem- ber of the executive council of the Common- wealth, and in 1836 a presidential elector.

But there is little more to say. In person he was over six feet in height, and superbly built. His face presented a rare combination of intelligence, manliness and dignity. He was a thorough gentleman in his manner and his intercourse with others. He detested sham and pretense in everything and everybody ; was liberal in his mode of life, and hospitable in his home. To his work he gave his whole strength. Fine portraits and a bust of him remain to give posterity an idea of his noble personal appearance. About a year before he died he had a stroke of paralysis; a second attack proved fatal. He died, as before stated, at Charlestown, Massachusetts, June 30, 1838, at the age of fifty-eight.

Mr. Baldwin was twice married; first to Ann, daughter of George Williams, of Salem. She was sister of Samuel Williams, an emin- ent American banker in London ; second, June 22, 1828, to Catherine, widow of Captain Thomas Beckford, of Charlestown. She died May 3, 1864. Child by first marriage: Sam-

uel Williams Baldwin, born 1817; died De- cember 28, 1822, aged five years.

The compiler is indebted for facts for this sketch to such authorities as Vose, Felton, and others.

(V) James Fowle Baldwin, son of Lo- ammi (4), born at Woburn, April 29, 1782, died at Boston, May 20, 1862, aged eighty ; married July 28. 1818, Sarah Parsons, daughter of Samuel (Yale College, 1779) and Sarah (Parsons) Pitkin, of East Hartford. Connecticut. James was the fourth son of his father, and received his early education in the schools of his native town and in the aca- demies at Billerica and Westford. About 1800 he was in Boston acquiring a mercantile edu- cation, in which city he was afterwards estab- lished as a merchant : but the influence of his early association with the engineering facul- ties of the older members of his own family turned his attention in that direction. He joined his brother Loammi in the construction of the dry dock at Charlestown Navy Yard. In 1828, he, with two others, were appointed commissioners to make the survey for a rail- road to the western part of the state, this being then a new and untried enterprise, and the survey was made from Boston to Albany. Upon this work he was engaged for more than two years. It was not prosecuted at the time. but subsequently the Western railroad, so called, was built upon the location selected by him and his plans were generally adopted. He always looked upon this, next to the introduc- tion of pure water into Boston, as the most important of his professional works. In 1832 he began the location of the Boston & Lowell railroad, which was constructed under his superintendence. He was also employed on en- gineering lines by the Ware Manufacturing company, the Thames company of Norwich, Connecticut, and the proprietors of the locks and canals at Lowell. He also determined the relative amount of water power used by the mills of the different companies at Lowell.

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Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of Boston and eastern Massachusetts, Part 13

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918 Publication date: 1908 Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company Number of Pages: 768

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 768