Overview
Loammi Baldwin was born in Woburn, Massachusetts, on January 21, 1745, and started his career as a cabinetmaker before becoming a surveyor and civil engineer. During the American Revolutionary War, he served as a Major in the militia at Concord and later joined the Continental Army, where he rose to the rank of Colonel and fought in several important battles, including the Battle of Trenton (1776). After resigning due to poor health, he held political office and later returned to engineering. He became chief engineer and director of the Middlesex Canal Project, one of the first major canals in America. He also received an honorary degree from Harvard, developed the Baldwin apple, and influenced future canal construction.
Essential Facts
- Born: January 21, 1745, in Woburn, Massachusetts.
- Occupations: Cabinetmaker, soldier, surveyor, engineer, politician.
- Spouse(s): Mary Fowle (1722), Margery Fowle (1791).
- Died: October 20, 1807, in Woburn, Massachusetts. He was 63.
- Buried: First Burial Ground in Woburn, Massachusetts.
- Significance: Loammi Baldwin is important to American History for his military service during the American Revolutionary War and his post-war career as a civil engineer.
Biographical Notes
Early Life
- Loammi Baldwin was born in Woburn, Massachusetts, on January 21, 1745.
- Baldwin worked as a cabinetmaker early in his life.
- He walked to Cambridge with his friend Benjamin Thompson to attend lectures on mathematics and physics at Harvard.
- He advanced from surveyor to civil engineer by the time the war started.
American Revolution
- Loammi Baldwin was a member of the Woburn Committee of Correspondence.
Battles of Lexington and Concord
- Loammi Baldwin was a Major in the Woburn Militia when he and his men fought in the Battles of Lexington and Concord (April 19, 1775).
- Baldwin and his men responded to the “Lexington Alarm” but arrived too late to assist Captain John Parker and his men during the Battle of Lexington.
- They helped tend to the wounded and then made their way toward Concord. They marched through the woods, instead of on the main road, to avoid detection.
- Around noon, Baldwin and his men arrived at Brooks Hill, just southeast of Concord. By this time, the Battle of Concord was over, and the British were marching eastward on the Bay Road toward Lexington.
- Baldwin organized his men and pulled them back, east of Brooks Hill, toward Lexington.
- Around 1:30 p.m., Baldwin and the Woburn Militia took positions at Elm Brook Hill and waited to ambush the British.
- Baldwin wrote: “We came to Tanner Brook, at Lincoln Bridge, and concluded to scatter and make use of the trees and walls for to defend us and attack them. We pursued on flanking them…I had several good shots. The enemy left many dead and wounded and a few tired…”
- This location is known as the “Bloody Angle at Elm Brook Hill.”
Continental Army
- Loammi Baldwin enlisted in the Continental Army and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in Samuel Gerrish’s Massachusetts Regiment on May 19, 1775.
- Baldwin became commander of the regiment when Gerrish was cashiered (honorably discharged) on August 19.
- The regiment was redesignated the 26th Continental on January 1, 1776.
- When the regiment expanded from eight to 10 companies, Baldwin was promoted to the rank of Colonel.
Boston, New York, and New Jersey
- Loammi Baldwin served through the Siege of Boston (1775–1776) and then went to New York with Washington’s Army.
- Baldwin saw action at Pell’s Point during the New York Campaign (1775).
- He took part in the Retreat Across New Jersey (1775).
- Baldwin led his regiment during the Battle of Trenton (December 26, 1776).
- He resigned on December 31, 1776, because of ongoing poor health.
Post-War
- After the war, Loammi Baldwin held several political offices.
- Baldwin served on the General Court from 1778 to 1779.
- He later returned to engineering as his full-time work.
Middlesex Canal Project
- Loammi Baldwin served as chief engineer of the Middlesex Canal Project, which connected the Charles and Merrimac Rivers.
- Baldwin was the director of the project from 1794 to 1804.
- The Middlesex Canal was one of the first major canals in America.
- Baldwin’s work on the canal influenced later canal projects.
Later Years
- Loammi Baldwin taught himself throughout his life and received an honorary degree from Harvard in 1785.
- Baldwin’s interest in horticulture led him to develop the Baldwin apple.
- He died on October 20, 1807.
Accomplishments and Milestones
- 1745, January, 21 — Loammi Baldwin was born in Woburn, Massachusetts.
- 1775, April, 19 — Baldwin was a Major in the Woburn Militia and fought in the Battles of Lexington and Concord.
- 1775, May — He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in Samuel Gerrish’s Massachusetts Regiment.
- 1775, August — Baldwin became commander of the regiment after Samuel Gerrish was discharged.
- 1776, January, 1 — He was promoted to Colonel when the regiment was redesignated the 26th Continental and expanded from 8 to 10 companies.
- 1776, December, 26 — Baldwin led his regiment at the Battle of Trenton.
- 1776, December, 31 — He resigned because of poor health.
- 1778 — Baldwin served on the Massachusetts General Court.
- 1785 — Harvard awarded him an honorary degree.
- 1794–1804 — He served as director of the Middlesex Canal Project.
- 1807, October, 20 — Baldwin died.
Appendix
AHC Note — The following biography is adapted from the Dictionary of American Biography (1943), which is in the public domain.
Biography
Loammi Baldwin was a civil engineer and soldier, a third-generation Baldwin born in Woburn, Massachusetts. The first representative of his family in America was Deacon Henry Baldwin ( d. 1698), a native of either Devon or Herts, England, and a founder of Woburn, where he became a freeman in 1652, a selectman in 1681, and a deacon of the church in 1686. He is recorded, also, as a subscriber to the “town orders,” drawn at Charlestown, although, on this document, his name is spelled “Bolden” and is not in his handwriting. Deacon Henry’s wife was Phoebe, daughter of Ezekiel Richardson. Their son, also Henry (1664–1739), married Abigail, daughter of David Fiske of Lexington, and became the father of James Baldwin (1710-91), a carpenter who, in turn, married Ruth, daughter of Joseph Richardson of Woburn.
Their son, Loammi Baldwin, was born at New Bridge, or North Woburn, where he was educated, resided, and died. He was early apprenticed to the trade of cabinet making, and worked at it for several years. That he later became a land surveyor and engineer and, as recorded, “man of learning,” was due to his own ambition and his interest in higher education.
With his friend Benjamin Thompson (later known as Count Rumford), he was accustomed to walking several times a week from Woburn to Cambridge to attend lectures on mathematics and physics by Professor John Winthrop of Harvard. On their return home, the young men constructed a rude apparatus to illustrate the principles expounded.
At the beginning of the Revolution, Baldwin was already established in the practice of civil engineering, but responded to the call to arms by enlisting in the 38th Foot, Colonel. Samuel Gerrish. Within a few weeks, he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel and, on Gerrish’s retirement, succeeded him in command.
In the reorganization of the army, the regiment was renamed the 26th, and the number of its companies was increased from eight to ten. Its first year of service was in the vicinity of Boston, but in April 1776, it was transferred to Washington’s army and ordered to New York City.
There, Baldwin commanded the main guard and was in the retreat to the Delaware River, also in the memorable attack on Trenton, Deccember. 26, 1776, when Washington surprised and captured the Hessian commander, Col. Rall, and 1,000 men.
In 1777, because of continued ill health, he was honorably discharged and returned home.
During 1778–1779, Baldwin was representative for Woburn in the General Court, being the first to hold the dignity after the adoption of the state constitution (1779). He was high sheriff of Middlesex County for several years after 1780.
The outbreak of Shays’ Rebellion, in 1786, found him earnest in his support of the state authority, and one of 37 to protest against Woburn’s refusal to help suppress the disorder.
He was again a member of the General Court from 1800 to 1804. In the intervals between official engagements, Baldwin probably continued professional practice, although not conspicuously until 1794, when he appeared as a leading projector and chief engineer of the Middlesex Canal. This work, authorized by the legislature in 1793 to connect the Charles and Merrimac Rivers, was in process for ten years.
During this period, Baldwin attained distinction in an entirely new field. While surveying for the canal, near Wilmington, Massachusetts, he encountered a seedling apple tree, which, according to report, had been vigorously assaulted by woodpeckers. The fruit, however, proved so excellent that in the following season Baldwin cut scions for grafting on his own trees. The result was the noted “Baldwin” apple, also called “Pecker,” “Woodpecker,” and “Steele’s Red Winter.” The hardiness of the trees, the quantity and good average uniformity of their yield, and the firmness of the fruit, enabling it to be readily transported and preserved, render this variety “the standard winter apple of Eastern America.”
One of Baldwin’s other interests was the collection of a large and representative library on civil engineering, increased by his sons, Loammi and George R. Baldwin, to about 4,000 volumes and presented, some years since, to the town of Woburn. Baldwin was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an honorary graduate of Harvard College (1785). He married twice: in 1772, Mary Fowle; and in 1791, Margery Fowle, a cousin of his first wife.
