USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Historic homes and places and genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 18
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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- 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
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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 fathers's friend, Count Rumford, but neither of these papers are in the above collection. His reports were prepared with the greatest care, and were models for style and remarkable for the exact and proper use of words. In 1835 he was a member of the executive council of the Com- monwealth, 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 : Samuel Williams Baldwin, born 1817; died December 28, 1822, aged five years.
The compiler is indebted for facts for this sketch to such authorities as Vose, Felton, and others.
(XVII) James Fowle Baldwin, son of Loammi (12), 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.
In 1825 the subject of the water supply of Boston attracted the attention of the authori- ties, and an investigation of the sources for a pure supply was made, and in 1837 he was appointed on a commission to inquire still fur- ther into the matter. He dissented from the majority in the recommendation of Spot and Mystic ponds, and recommended Long Pond (Lake Cochituate). Others high in authority differed from his conclusion, but still he was immovable in adherence to his recommenda- tion, in spite of rejection by popular vote, to which it had been submitted, and it was not renewed till 1844, when he was again in a position of influence on the commission. His plan was, however, adopted March 30, 1846; the ground was broken five months after, and on October 25, 1848, he had the pleasure of seeing his plan, so long resisted, finally tri-
*"They were the parents of three promising sons, who died at the respective ages of 14, 7 and 5 years." One (8) in 1829 two remaining, died from typhus fever in 1834 (15 and 6 years).
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umphant, and the public fountain playing for the first time in the presence of a large con- course of people. He was for several years a senator from Suffolk in the Massachusetts general court, and the first president of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers.
The Boston Daily Advertiser, in a notice of him at the time of his death says, "He was of a kindly and benevolent disposition, affable in his manners, warm and unfaltering in his attachment to his friends. His sense of justice and his fair appreciation of the rights of others showed to great advantage in many of his public works."
A memoir of Hon. James Fowle Baldwin, by Dr. Usher Parsons, was published in 1865. From his memoir are gleaned the following tributes :
"He was a gentleman of highly respect- able attainments, and surpassed by none as a scientific and practical engineer. He was em- ployed by the State to superintend the con- struction of its gigantic public works. He was a prominent member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and during many years held the position in that learned society in the section of Technology and Civil Engineering." Upon his decease a brief sketch of his life and public services was pre- sented and read before that society, and soon after published in its Transactions.
Hon. James F. Baldwin had the care of the affairs of Count Rumford's daughter, the Countess Rumford, a great part of her life, and she at her decease left him a generous be- quest. "It may be fairly claimed that the city of Boston is pre-eminently indebted to the forecast, firmness, and professional skill of Mr. Baldwin for the present abundant and constant supply of pure water from Cochitu- ate." Instead of three millions of gallons daily for the first ten years, the amount was actually fifteen millions of gallons during that period.
"Mr. Baldwin was of commanding presence, being considerably above six feet in stature, and remarkably well proportioned." His mind was clear, but not rapid in its operation. He came to his conclusions by successive steps, carefully taken and closely examined; but the results once reached, his confidence in them was rarely shaken. Confidence in his integrity enabled him to settle questions of the transfer of property with a facility that was surprising, especially with those persons who had not the clearest conviction of the invariable upright- ness of corporate bodies in their dealings with individuals. He endeavored to encourage and assist young students who were pursuing the
study of civil engineering, and the number were many who remembered him with affec- tion and veneration.
He was especially the friend and protector of the orphans. His last illness was of short duration. Returning from a walk on the day of his death, he complained of indisposition, and speaking a few words to his wife, he soon expired.
(XVIII) Clarissa Baldwin, daughter of Loammi (12), born at Woburn, December 31, 1791, died there May 27, 1841, aged forty- nine; married January 20, 1812, Thomas Brewster Coolidge, of Hallowell, born Decem- ber 8, 1785, son of Benjamin and Mary Carter (Brewster) Coolidge, of Boston and Woburn. Children : I. Benjamin, born at Hallowell, Maine, November 10, 1812, died at Lawrence, Massachusetts, August 25, 1871 ; married Oc- tober 1, 1844, Mary White, born at Medford, Massachusetts, January 14, 1810, died at Law- rence, April 1I, 1883, daughter of Jonas and Mary (Wright) Manning, of Woburn. Two children : Baldwin, born at Woburn, July 7, 1845 ; see forward. Brewster, born November IO, 1848, died at Lawrence, June 21, 1853. 2. Thomas Brewster, born at Hallowell, May 3, 1815; died at Woburn, unmarried, February 18, 1895.
Baldwin Coolidge, son of Benjamin Cool- idge, and grandson of Clarissa Baldwin (18), was born at Woburn, July 7, 1845 ; was mar- ried at Lawrence, February 7, 1866, to Lucy, born at Newburyport, Massachusetts, Novem- ber 24, 1844, died at Woburn, August 13, 1904, daughter of Nathan Thomas and Han- nah (Noyes) Plumer, of Newburyport ; was a soldier in the Sixth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, campaign of 1864, in the Civil War .* He was band boy at the funeral of the first soldier killed in the Civil War, viz. : Sumner Henry Needham, who was killed in the fight at Baltimore, April 19, 1861. Mr. Coolidge was the first city engineer of Law- rence, Massachusetts, and having inherited the Baldwin scientific ingenuity and versatility of mind, he has become distinguished by his me- chanical feats in photography, and for the artistic excellence and number of his produc- tions in that line of work.
(XIX) George Rumford Baldwin, son of Colonel Loammi (12), was born in the Bald- win mansion at North Woburn, January 26, 1798, and died there October II, 1888, "hav- ing devoted his lengthened life, with the full possession of his faculties till its close, to the
*The Sixth Regiment went to the front three times- in 1861, 1862, and 1864, being the call regiment.
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pursuits of practical science, as a surveyor, a civil engineer, and a constructor." The lands of the original Henry Baldwin held by his descendant George R. Baldwin at the time of his death in 1888, included between five and six hundred acres. The mansion is one of the noteworthy survivals of our earliest times in size, arrangement, adorn- ment, and in its well-preserved relics. Within it are to be found implements, household utensils, paintings, ornaments, and sundry furnishings, with luxurious appliances, gath- ered by the generations which have occupied it from birth to death. Piles of trunks and boxes contain their private papers and settle- ments of estates. Most interesting among its contents is a large, select, and valuable library of many thousand volumes, collected principally by the father and brothers of George R. Baldwin and by himself, giving evidence of their scientific and literary tastes. Learned tomes in many languages, costly il- lustrated works, series of scientific publica- tions on construction and engineering, and sumptuous editions of the best writers in va- rious departments of literature, are among its treasures. The house and its contents is a memorial of one of the oldest and most dis- tinguished families of its citizens.
His father was the earliest civil engineer in this state, and on the projection of the first of our public enterprises for more extended internal communication the connection of the waters of the Merrimack with those of the harbor by the Middlesex Canal, chartered in 1793 the father of George R. Baldwin was one of its leading promotors. Its course lay through his own estate, the several hundred acres belonging later to George R. Baldwin, and it was completed in 1803. Of this then signal enterprise the father was surveyor, en- gineer, and constructor under the super- vision of an English engineer, Weston by name, who was then a resident of Philadel- phia. The canal served its uses until super- seded by the Lowell railroad. It is neces- sary to know these facts in order to gain a background for the after career of the son, George Rumford Baldwin. He early found opportunity for the exercise of the family in- genuity by engaging in the profession of work of the older members of the family.
He was the son of his father's second wife. His middle name recalled the friendly and intimate relations which existed between his father and the distinguished Count Rumford. When the friend had attained rank and title at Munich, a correspondence began between
the two which is of great personal and his- torical interest. In a letter following the birth of George Rumford Baldwin, the father writes to the Count, "I have had a son born to me to whom I have given your name." The father wished this boy, as he grew up, to enter Harvard College, but the son was dis- inclined to scholarship in that institution as its standard then was, and from his earliest years his bent was for mathematical and scientific studies, pursued by himself, and for practical out-of-door work in waterways, sur- veying and engineering, in the examination of mills and water-power, dams and race- ways. He, as we have already noticed, had marked facilities for practice of this sort, with preliminary training in a school kept by Dr. Stearns in Medford, and by accompanying his father and brother in field and office work. In his fourteenth year he made some sketches of the fortifications of Boston har- bor in the war of 1812, of which his brother Loammi Baldwin was the chief engineer.
A series of his diaries for more than fifty years contain daily entries of his employ- ments and occupations. He lived a life of marvellous industry, of wide travel, and of useful service. He was called upon as ex- pert, witness, referee or examiner in many ways, at a period when the development of our railroad and manufacturing enterprises made a demand for talent and skill. He helped form the first associated company of engineers. He was naturally shy, modest, diffident, and reticent, of most retiring and undemonstrative ways, therefore when called upon for any utterance in public before many persons it was for him a serious strain1. His social intercourse was limited, and un- der no circumstances could he have made a speech in public of advocacy or argument. The following were some of his early en- gagements: 1821, built P. C. Brook's stone bridge; 1822-1823, in Pennsylvania with his brother; 1823-25, at factories in Lowell; 1826, surveyed Charlestown Navy Yard; executed Marine Railway; 1831-33, in England; 1833- 34, on Lowell railroad; 1834-36, in Nova Scotia; 1837, in Georgia, on Brunswick Canal. In 1845 he was chief engineer on the route of the Buffalo and Mississippi railroad. In 1846 he was employed on the examination of the water power of Augusta, Georgia, and by the national government on the Dry Docks in Washington and Brooklyn. In 1847 he was summoned to Quebec to engage on a professional task which ocupied him till he completed it in 1856. This was the in-
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troduction of water into the city. He was in full superintendence, under the mayor and a water board. In the course of the work he sailed with his family to Europe to superin- tend the casting of the pipes, gates, etc., and to arrange for their shipment.
In 1857-58 he was in Europe with his family, principally in Paris and London, with many excursions. With accomplished skill in draughting and etching, his pencil was ever busy in sketching all the objects of spe- cial interest, and his descriptions are illus- trated by a mass of drawings, more or less perfected.
He was connected as consulting engineer with many more modern works, the most important, perhaps, being the Boston, Hart- ford, and Erie railroad. His journals show how fully every interval between these pub- lic works was improved. He was skilled in all family, horticultural, and agricultural labors, and his pen was ever busy in his own affairs, or for the service of friends.
He married December 6, 1837, the step- daughter of his brother Loammi, namely, Catherine Richardson Beckford, daughter of Captain Thomas and Catherine (Williams) Beckford, of Charlestown. Her father was at one time the partner of Joshua Bates, the London banker. Mrs. Beckford had two daughters by her first marriage, but no child by her second. He had but one child, a daughter, who married, and resides mainly in Quebec.
(BY ARTHUR G. LORING.)
Benjamin Thompson, better RUMFORD known as Count Rumford, was a great-great-great- grandson of James Thompson, one of the
original settlers of Woburn, and prominent among those who early fixed their residence in that part of that town, which is now known as North Woburn. The same diffi- culty which meets not a few who search in vain for the details of the old English history of their ancestors, meets us, at the outset, says the family historian, in regard to him: -but little is known of his English antece- dents, except that he was born in 1593; mar- ried a wife whose only name known to us was Elizabeth; had three sons and one daughter, all born in England, and early in 1630, when he was thirty-seven years of age, joined the company, who, under the lead of Governor John Winthrop landed in New England during that year. The tradition is
that James Thompson landed at Salem in the early part of June.
The numerous individuals bearing this al- most universal name may be considered as befogging the subject, and therefore, in spite of vigilant research, it seems to be impossi- ble to ascertain the place of his birth. Abso- lute proof is lacking up to the present date on the subject. It may be that he belonged to the numerous related families of Thomp- sons in London and several of the nearest counties around that metropolis. These. families embraced a number that were emi- nent in the intellectual, social, and religious world, including a number who received the order of knighthood. The coats-of-arms of some of them, though differing slightly, are essentially the same. James Thompson first located himself at Charlestown, where he and wife were admitted to membership in the church at that place, August 31, 1633. He was admitted a freeman later in the same year. In December, 1640, he was one of thirty-two who subscribed the town orders. or by-laws for Woburn. This town was in- corporated in 1642, and he was chosen a member of the board of selectmen and served the town in that office with occasional brief intervals for about twenty years. He held also various minor offices. He was twice married. His first wife, Elizabeth, dy- ing November 13, 1643, he married, Febru- ary 15, 1644, Susannah Blodgett, widow of Thomas Blodgett, of Cambridge. She died February 10, 1661. Children: I. James, died January 24, 1647, an unmarried young man. 2. Simon, married Mary Converse (Edward, I). 3. Olive, married September 3, 1650, John Cutler, and died before her father's death. 4. Jonathan, see forward.
James Thompson died 1682, at the age of eighty-nine years. His will, dated the last day of February, 1681 (meaning, of course, 1681-2), speaks of him as being greatly stricken in years; names his son, Jonathan Thompson, the only child of his then living; Sarah Rednap and Hannah Horn (sisters), his grandchildren; John Cutler and Susan- nah Logee (or Logan), his grandchildren, and his son Jonathan's six children (not given by name), James Thompson, "my grandchild," and John Sheldon, Senior (who married his son Simon's widow) ; his son Jonathan he appoints his executor; Samuel Blodgett, Senior, and John Mousall, over -. seers, and he gave Mr. Blodgett "Mr. Rogers his book," and Mr. Mousall, "a pair of new gloves."
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MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
(II) Jonathan Thompson, son of James Thompson (1), born in England, died at Woburn, October 20, 1691, married Novem- ber 28, 1685, Susanna Blodgett (Thomas), died February 6, 1697-8, a daughter of his father's second wife who bore her mother's name. He inherited his father's homestead. He was the first male teacher ever employed under the authority of the town of Woburn. He was also in subsequent years a constable and town sexton. Children: I. Susannah, born July 4, 1661, married March 7, 1700, Abra- ham Roberts of Reading. 2. Jonathan,
born September 28, 1663, see forward. 3. James, born 1666, died young. 4. James, born June 27, 1667, married October 22, 1695, Sarah Trask. 5. Sarah, born June I, 1670, married April 11, 1692, John Swan. 6. Simon, born June 15, 1673, married Decem- ber 12, 1700, Anna Butterfield. 7. Ebenezer, born August 18, 1676, died February 19, 1697-8, unmarried.
(III) Jonathan Thompson, son of Jona- than Thompson (2), born September 28, 1663, died 1748, married Frances Whitmore, daughter of Francis Whitmore, of Cam- bridge. He was a resident of Woburn, in the part now North Woburn. Children: I. Jonathan, born February 9, 1689-90, married first, September 3, 1713, Phebe Carter, of Woburn; married second, Abigail Fowle, of Woburn. 2. Hannah, born January 28, 1691-92, married Josiah Pierce. 3. Joseph, born October 20, 1694, married December 30, 1718, Sarah Bradshaw, of Medford. 4. James, born November 14, 1696, married Mary Hancock, of Lexington. 5. Susannah, born July 6, 1699, married March 21, 1722, Benjamin Mead .. 6. Ebenezer, born March 30, 170I, see forward. 7. Mary, born Aug- ust 18, 1703, married first, William Cowdry, of Reading; married second, January 20, 1736-7, Captain Isaac Hartwell, of Oxford. 8. Samuel, born September 8, 1705, married Ruth Wright, of Woburn. 9. Patience, born October 25, 1713, married Timothy Lamson, of Concord. IO. Esther, married J740, Amos Lamson. II. Jabez, married November 13, 1735, Lydia Snow. I2. Daniel, died young.
(IV) Ebenezer Thompson, son of Jona- than Thompson (3), born March 30, 1701, died 1755, married September 27, 1728, Han- nah Converse, born May 10, 1706, daughter of Captain Robert and Mary (Sawyer) Con- verse of Woburn. He was captain of the local militia company designated as the sec- ond foot company of the second regiment of
Middlesex County, of which regiment Eleazer Tyng, Esq., was colonel. Thomp- son's commission was dated July 3, 1753. He occupied the house now standing, known as the Rumford birthplace. Children: I. Ben- jamin, born November 27, 1729, see forward. 2. Ebenezer, born September 15, 1731, graduated Harvard College, 1752, and be- came the pastor of the church at York, Maine, where he died unmarried in 1755. 3. Hannah, born September 21, 1734, married March 8, 1753, Benjamin Flagg of Woburn. 4. Hiram, born May 17, 1743, married Feb- ruary 3, 1767, Bridget Snow of Woburn.
(V) Benjamin Thompson, son of Captain Ebenezer Thompson (4), born November 27, 1729, died November 7, 1755, married May 30, 1752, Ruth Simonds, born October 10, 1730, died at Baldwin, Maine, June 18, 1811, daughter of Lieutenant James and Mary (Fowle) Simonds; she married second, Jan- uary 1, 1756, Josiah Pierce, of Woburn. Benjamin Thompson died before completing his twenty-sixth year, and resided in the house of his father, now known as the Rum- ford birthplace. His gravestone is standing in the first burial ground of Woburn. Child: I. Benjamin, born March 26, 1753, see for- ward.
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