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

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/08/on-trail-of-johnny-appleseed.html 

Click here for my blog post about Count Rumford

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/05/count-rumford-house.html

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]).