Loammi Baldwin
Loammi Baldwin (born January 10, 1744 or January 21, 1745 in Woburn , Massachusetts , † October 20, 1807 ) was an important American engineer, politician and colonel in the American Revolutionary War .
Baldwin is known as the father of American civil engineering . He was responsible for building the Middlesex Canal , a shipping canal built in Massachusetts from 1795 to 1803 . He is also known for promoting the spread of the Baldwin apple in the northeastern United States from 1784.
Life
youth
Baldwin attended middle school in Woburn , Massachusetts when he was young . He later went to Cambridge with his friend and neighbor Benjamin Thompson to attend Professor John Winthrop's lectures at Harvard College . In 1785 he graduated from Harvard with a Master of Arts degree .
Military career
Baldwin joined the army in 1774 . In the battles of Lexington and Concord , he commanded the militias from Woburn as a major, a total of 180 men. At the beginning of the American Revolutionary War , he fought in the 26th Continental Regiment under the command of Colonel Samuel Gerrish . Here he quickly rose to lieutenant colonel . After Colonel Gerrish's resignation in August 1775, Baldwin was promoted to command of the regiment and soon after to become colonel. He and his men stayed near Boston until the end of 1775 before his regiment was ordered to New York City in April 1776 . Here he fought with his regiment in the battle of Pell's Point, among others . They also supported George Washington and his army in the crossing of the Delaware River to New Jersey on the night of December 25th and 26th, 1776, and at the Battle of Trenton the following day. In 1777, Baldwin resigned from the army for health reasons.
Political career
Baldwin was elected to various public offices between 1780 and 1796. Among other things, he represented Woburn from 1778 to 1784 in the Massachusetts General Court . In 1780 he was named High Sheriff of Middlesex County , becoming the first sheriff to serve after the new constitution was passed. In 1794 he was a candidate for election to the US House of Representatives .
engineer
In 1782 Baldwin was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . His works as a member of the Academy deal with, among other things, early experiments with electricity.
Baldwin and his eldest sons began building the Middlesex Canal in 1794 , which opened in 1803 after nine years of construction. He later worked on Boston's fortifications.
family
Loammi Baldwin was the son of James Baldwin, a carpenter and shopkeeper, and Ruth Richardson.
On July 9, 1772 he married Mary Fowle († 1786), with whom he had five sons. After the death of his first wife, Baldwin married Margaret Carter (1747–1799) on May 26, 1791, with whom he had a son and a daughter.
Baldwin's five sons, Cyrus Baldwin (1773-1854), Benjamin Franklin Baldwin (1777-1821), Loammi Baldwin, Jr. (1780-1834), James Fowle Baldwin (1782-1862), and George Rumford Baldwin (1798-1888) were also well-known engineers. Cyrus continued his father's work on the Middlesex Canal as an agent for the Canal Company. Benjamin worked on the Boston Mill Dam until his untimely death at the age of 43.
Baldwin's home in Woburn, Baldwin House , which was built in 1660 and expanded from 1800, now houses a Chinese restaurant.
Web links
- Colonel Loammi Baldwin on ntgen.tripod.com
- Review of Loammi Baldwin's writings , Houghton Library, Harvard University
- Loammi Baldwin's biography on middlesexcanal.org
Individual evidence
- ↑ Members of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences: 1780-2012 , Chapter B , American Academy of Arts and Sciences (PDF). Retrieved March 25, 2017.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Baldwin, Loammi |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American engineer, politician and colonel in the American Revolutionary War |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 10, 1744 or January 21, 1745 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Woburn , Massachusetts |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 20, 1807 |