Monday, October 14, 2013

Colonel Loammi Baldwin





DISSEMINATOR OF THE APPLE
IN HONOR OF HIM CALLED
THE BALDWIN
WHICH PROCEEDED FROM A TREE
ORIGINALLY GROWING WILD
ABOUT TWO MILES NORTH
OF THIS MONUMENT


A PARTICIPANT WITH THE
RANK OF MAJOR
IN THE BATTLES OF
LEXINGTON AND CONCORD
A COLONEL OF 
THE 26TH REGIMENT OF
THE CONTINENTAL ARMY
WITH GENERAL WASHINGTON
DURING THE OCCUPATION
OF NEW YORK
AND IN THE BATTLE
OF TRENTON


LOAMMI BALDWIN
PATRIOT
PUBLIC OFFICIAL
BORN JANUARY 21, 1745, N.S.  [New Style]
IN NORTH WOBURN
MASSACHUSETTS
DIED OCTOBER 20, 1807 


ONE OF THE PROPRIETORS
AND
PRINCIPAL CONSTRUCTOR
OF THE MIDDLESEX CANAL
A MEMBER OF
THE COMMITTEE TO SIGN
THE PAPER MONEY OF
MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY
FIRST SHERIFF OF
MIDDLESEX COUNTY
UNDER THE STATE CONSTITUTION
A LEADER OF AFFAIRS
IN WOBURN 


ERECTED IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE WILL
OF HIS GRANDDAUGHTER
CATHERINE RUMFORD GRIFFITH
BY HIS GREAT-GRANDSONS ROSWELL PARK
LOAMMI FRANKLIN BALDWIN AND BALDWIN COOLIDGE
EXECUTORS AND TRUSTEES
A.D. MCMXVII

Loammi Baldwin is my 2nd cousin 7 generations removed.  I was driving through Woburn, Massachusetts when I saw this monument.  The name Loammi jumped out at me.  How many Loammi's do you know?  It's a very unusual Biblical name, and one I remembered was found in my family tree.  I knew that Loammi Baldwin was an officer in the American Revolutionary War, but I didn't know that he was also a horticulturalist, civil engineer and politician.  

Across the street from this monument, at 2 Alfred Street in Woburn, is the Loammi Baldwin mansion.  It is currently a restaurant, but it is still standing, and the outside of the building has a sign saying it was part of the National Register of Historic Places.  The house was moved from nearby to make room for a supermarket.   Just south of the house, near the lawn, is the remains of a section of the Middlesex Canal.  This was once a major waterway between downtown Boston and the Merrimack River.  Loammi Baldwin was a proprietor (shareholder) in this canal, which lasted until railroads took over transporting goods from Boston to Middlesex County and New Hampshire, and vice versa. 

You will often read that Loammi Baldwin was a great friend of Count Rumford, another politician, military leader and scientist who lived in Woburn at the same time period.  This is true, but more important, Count Rumford, the alias of Benjamin Thompson, was also Loammi's second cousin, one generation removed. I think that relationship is often overlooked by historians.  Click HERE to learn more about Count Rumford. 

                                               Samuel Richardson m. 1632  Joanna Thake
                                                                                  I                                            
                                      Joseph Richardson m. 1666 Hannah Greene
                                            I                                                         I    
           James Fowle m 1688. Mary Richardson             Joseph Richardson m. 1693 Mary Bloggett
                                I                                                                    I
            Mary Fowle m. 1714 James Simonds                Ruth Richardson m. James Baldwin
                                 I
            Ruth Simonds m. Benjamin Thompson               Loammi Baldwin (1745 - 1807)
                                 I                                                       m. 1772 Mary Fowle (first cousin)
       Benjamin Thompson "Count Rumford" (1752-1814)
        

Here is my kinship to Loammi Baldwin:
(you can see I am a first cousin, 6 generations removed from Count Rumford)

                                               Samuel Richardson m. 1632 Joanna Thake
                                                                                I
                                             Joseph Richardson m. 1666 Hannah Greene
                                                 I                                                    I
                  Mary Richardson m. 1688 James Fowle           Ruth Richardson m. James Baldwin
                                                I                                                      I
             Mary Fowle m. 1714 James Simonds                    Loammi Baldwin (1745 - 1807)
                                                I
             Caleb Simonds m. 1746 Susanna Converse
                                                I
              Ruth Simonds m. 1785 Andrew Munroe
                                                I
              Luther Simonds Munroe m. 1826 Olive Flint
                                                I
              Phebe Cross Munroe m. 1853 Robert Wilson Wilkinson
                                                I
              Albert Munroe Wilkinson m. 1894 Isabella Lyons Bill
                                                I
              Donald Munroe Wilkinson m. 1926  Bertha Louise Roberts (my grandparents) 

Here's something fun that I didn't know about the Baldwin Apple.  Genealogy Blogger Janice Brown, the author of the blog Cow Hampshire, told me that there was a monument to the Baldwin Apple.  The monument above states that Baldwin apple originated two miles north of Woburn.  This is in the town of Wilmington, Massachusetts.  The Rumford Historical Society erected this impressive monument to the apple here near the site of the original tree.



THIS MONUMENT
MARKS THE SITE OF THE FIRST
BALDWIN APPLE TREE
FOUND GROWING WILD NEAR HERE.
IT FELL IN THE GALE OF 1815
THE APPLE FIRST KNOWN AS THE 
BUTTERS, WOODPECKER
OR PECKER APPLE
WAS NAMED AFTER
COL. LOAMMI BALDWIN
OF WOBURN
--------------
ERECTED IN 1895
BY THE 
RUMFORD HISTORICAL 
ASSOCIATION


[on the left side of the monument]
EXACT SPOT
340 FEET WEST
-------------->
10 DEGREES NORTH


In an interesting twist, Colonel Loammi Baldwin was also a cousin to Johnny Appleseed.  You can read the story of Johnny Appleseed HERE.   I always wondered if Johnny "Appleseed" Chapman took Baldwin apple seeds with him on his journey to the Midwest.  Does anyone know the answer to that question? 

                                                Joseph Richardson m. 1666 Hannah Greene
                                                         I                                         I
Mary Richardson m. 1688 James Fowle                    Joseph Richardson m. Mary Bloggett
                            I                                                                      I
Mary Fowle m. 1714 James Simonds                        Ruth Richardson m. James Baldwin
                            I                                                                      I
James Simonds m. 1740 Anna Lawrence                  Colonel Loammi Baldwin (1744/45 - 1807)
                            I
Elizabeth Simonds m. 1769 Nathaniel Chapman
                            I
Johnny "Appleseed" Chapman (1744 - 1854) 


Click here for my blog post about Johnny Appleseed

Click here for my blog post about Count Rumford

Click here for my blog post about the Middlesex Canal
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-middlesex-canal.html  

-------------------------

To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Colonel Loammi Baldwin", Nutfield Genealogy, posted October 14, 2013, ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/10/colonel-loammi-baldwin.html , accessed [access date]).  

2 comments:

  1. Heather, very interesting, thank you for all these pictures. Loammi is descended from the Henry line, and my grandfather Miles Baldwin is descended from the John of Billerica line from northern Middlesex County. So no relation, but I always smile about the Baldwin apple because my grandfather's family was related to Burpees and to Luther Burbank and other horticulturalists, and my grandfather had no farmland but had a huge interest in all that. So, wish that my genealogy research would have turned up a connection between my grandfather and the apple. Oh well!!

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    Replies
    1. I found a book with george r. Baldwin . Signature..but.it also doris.lillian....christmas....1920

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