The Middlesex Canal

After posting several times about Colonel Loammi Baldwin and Count Rumford AKA Benjamin Thompson of Woburn, Massachusetts, I was incredibly curious to learn more about the Middlesex Canal.  If you remember the post with the photo of Loammi Baldwin, it is located right across the street from the remains of the canal in Woburn.  We went over to look at the canal and to read the signs, and it was not an impressive sight since it looked like a barely visible ditch.  However, the historical markers described a great canal system that ran from the current city of Lowell to downtown Boston.  I wanted to learn more!

After Googling the Middlesex Canal, and reading more about it in the History of Woburn, I learned that there was a Middlesex Canal Museum in North Billerica.  We spent a pleasant afternoon there, and picked the brain of the volunteer on staff.  He told me much information about how Loammi Baldwin was one of the original proprietors of the canal in 1793, and invested in the new transportation system which brought goods and people from the Merrimack River (Northern Middlesex County and New Hampshire) right to Dock Square in downtown Boston. 

The canal was laid out from the Merrimack River in Chelmsford in 1794 and arrived at the Charles River next to Boston in 1803.  It was dug by hand by local workers.  Eventually it went right through downtown Boston to Dock Square near today’s Quincy Market, where goods could be loaded onto seagoing ships, or sold and traded in the city.  Much of the canal is now invisible, especially in the urban areas closer to Boston.  But the canal can still be seen in northern Middlesex County, and is even still navigable in many places.  Stonework bridges, aqueducts and other features such as locks are visible, too.

Loammi Baldwin was also the treasurer of the state of Massachusetts after the
Revolutionary War.  You can see his signature on this $20 bill from 1786
at the Middlesex Canal Museum in North Billerica, Massachusetts

If your ancestors lived in New Hampshire, Middlesex County or Boston during the period between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, their lives would have been greatly changed by the building of the canal.  It brought great prosperity to the region, and it changed the way people traded and moved goods in New England.  The success of the Middlesex canal influenced other canals in the new United States, including the Erie Canal and the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) canal near Washington, DC.

The rise of the age of rail and steam brought an end to the profitability of the Middlesex Canal, but in its short life it made many of the proprietors wealthy men.  Life along the canal was busy, with stations for travelers and goods, taverns, inns and other facilities that are mostly now gone.  The few that are left are often not recognized as part of a great transportation system that once existed in this area.  It takes a map, a keen eye and some research to follow the trail of the canal. 

This mural by Thomas Dahill at the Middlesex Canal Museum
is also an illustration in the book Life on the Middlesex Canal

There are bike tours, walking tours and historical tours offered year round of the old Middlesex Canal.  While we were visiting the Baldwin Apple monument, one of the bike trails tours appeared, and the participants were quite enthusiastic about finding the hidden history of a National Treasure right in their own backyards!

Some people bike the canal trail, we rode nearby with the little red convertible!
This photo is at the Baldwin Apple memorial in Wilmington, Massachusetts, not far from the canal

For more information:

Middlesex Canal Association website    www.middlesexcanal.org

Life on the Middlesex Canal by Alan Seaburg, Cambridge, MA: Miniver Press, 2009

The Old Middlesex Canal by Mary Stetson Clarke, Easton, PA:  Center for Canal History and Technology, 1974

The Incredible Ditch: A Bicentennial History of the Middlesex Canal, by Carl Seaburg, Alan Seaburg and Tom Dahill, Cambridge, MA: Miniver Press, 1997

The History of Woburn, Middlesex County, Mass., by Samuel Sewall, Boston, MA: Wiggin and Lunt Publishers, 1868.  (available to read or download online at Google Book Search)

My blog post from 14 October 2013 on "Colonel Loammi Baldwin"

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/10/colonel-loammi-baldwin.html 

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

To Cite/Link to this post:   Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "The Middlesex Canal", Nutfield Genealogy, posted October 24, 2013, ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-middlesex-canal.html: accessed [access date]). 

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]).  

On the Trail of Johnny Appleseed

This spot, with the historical markers and miniature log cabin,
marks the birthplace of Johnny "Appleseed" Chapman, in Leominister, Massachusetts

Every time I drive to my Mother’s house we drive down Route 13 through Leominster, Massachusetts.  Along the way we pass a “Welcome to Leominster” sign that says “Home of Johnny Appleseed”, a  Johnny Appleseed school , Appleseed plaza, and lots of other references to the mythical hero.  But he was a real man, and his actual name was John Chapman.  He was my 2^nd cousin, five generations removed.   His mother was Elizabeth Simonds, the niece of my 5^th great grandfather, Caleb Simonds (1720 – 1811).

One day last month when we were passing though Leominster I said to my husband, “Let’s find the historical marker for his birthplace”.  Of course, it was located on Johnny Appleseed Lane, next to the Johnny Appleseed State Park.  It was easy to find with an iPhone using Google and a mapping app, or GPS.   The memorial was small and solemn, and easy to drive past if you don’t go slowly and keep your eyes open on Johnny Appleseed Lane.   There is no space to park and pay your respects, so we pulled over on the side of the road and took a few quick photos out the car window.

NEAR THIS SITE WAS BORN
JOHN CHAPMAN
KNOWN AS
JOHNNY APPLESEED
SEPTEMBER 26, 1774          MARCH 18, 1845
LEOMINSTER HISTORICAL SOCIETY
1963

My fellow genealogists are gathering in Fort Wayne, Indiana this week for the Federation of Genealogical Societies conference.  This is near where Johnny Appleseed lies buried at the Johnny Appleseed Memorial Park.  You can see photos of this at FindAGrave.com at this link: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=1848 Or here are a few from my fellow blogger Carol A. Bowen Stevens.  Thanks, Carol!

"JOHNNY

APPLESEED"

HE LIVED FOR OTHERS

HOLY BIBLE

1774 - 1845

IN FOND MEMORY OF

JOHN CHAPMAN, ENDEARLY KNOWN AS "JOHNNY APPLESEED"

THESE GRAVESITE IMPROVEMENTS WERE PROVIDED BY

THE MEN'S GARDEN CLUBS OF AMERICA

AND

THE JOHNNY APPLESEED NATIONAL MEMORIAL FOUNDATION, INC.

SEPTEMBER 25, 1965

Johnny Appleseed Memorial Park
Fort Wayne, Indiana
photo courtesy of Carol A. Bowen Stevens

In a funny coincidence, my ancestor Caleb Simonds, mentioned above,  had a first cousin married to Colonel Loammi Baldwin (1744 – 1807), who was a renaissance man - an engineer, inventor, politician and an officer in the American Revolution.  Loammi Baldwin has a statue in his hometown of Woburn, Massachusetts, and is widely remembered as the cultivator of the Baldwin apple among all his other acomplishments. He is the husband of my 2^nd cousin six generations removed.   I wonder if Johnny “Appleseed” Chapman took Baldwin apple seeds with him on his journey to the midwest?   

This Johnny Appleseed statue is in the
Londonderry Leach Library, next to the Children's Room.
It was sculpted by Pat Verani of Londonderry.

Johnny Appleseed’s genealogy:

Generation 1:  John Chapman, born 26 September 1774 in Leominster, Massachusetts, died on 18 March 1845 in Fort Wayne, Indiana; unmarried.

Generation 2:  Johnny “Appleseed”’s parents were Nathaniel Chapman, born 13 September 1746 in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, died 18 February 1807 in Salem, Ohio; married as his first wife  on 9 August 1769 in Leominster to Elizabeth Simonds.  She was born 2 July 1748 in Ware, Massachusetts, died 18 July 1776 in Leominster.  

Generation 3: James Simonds, born 10 March 1717 in Woburn, Massachusetts, died in Leominster; married as his first wife on 12 May 1740 in Woburn to Anna Lawrence, daughter of John Lawrence and Elizabeth Stone.  They are my 5^th great uncle and aunt.

Generation 4: James Simonds, born 1 November 1686 in Woburn, died 30 June 1775 in Woburn; married on 17 June 1714 in Woburn to Mary Fowle, daughter of James Fowle and Mary Richardson.  She was born 18 June 1689 in Woburn, died 9 March 1762 in Woburn.  They are my 6^th great grandparents.

Generation 5: James Simonds, born 1 November 1658 in Woburn, died 15 September 1717 in Woburn; married 29 December 1685 in Woburn to Susannah Blodgett, daughter of Samuel Bloggett and Ruth Eggleton.  She was born 17 February 1663 in Woburn, and died 9 February 1715 in Woburn.  My 7^th great grandparents

Generation 6: William Simonds, born about 1612 in Winchester, Hampshire, England, died 7 June 1672 in Woburn; married on 18 January 1644 in Woburn to Judith Phippen.  She was born about 1619 and died 3 January 1690 in Woburn.  My 8^th great grandparents.

For more information:

The Chapman Family Association, www.chapmanfamilies.org

From the Chapman Family Association website, the Johnny Appleseed page at this link: http://www.chapmanfamilies.org/BIO/j_appleseed.html

"This Day in History- September 26" video from YouTube by the Freedom Trail Foundation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei_mKYvGU-c

New England’s Insomniac Theater visits the Johnny Appleseed Birthplace, on YouTube at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ofihZVnBG8

A story from the Worcester Telegram, 3 July 2011 “Johnny Appleseed Tale Grew Tall in Leominster” by Karen Nugent at this link:  http://www.telegram.com/article/20110703/NEWS/107039793

Johnny Appleseed Country website, sponsored by Massachusetts Visitor Center on Route 2 westbound, located between exits 35 and 36 in Leominster, Massachusetts.      http://www.appleseed.org/

Carol A. Bowen Stevens blog "Reflections from the Fence" http://www.reflectionsfromthefence.com/

-----------------------
The URL for this post is
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/08/on-trail-of-johnny-appleseed.html

If you are reading this at any other URL you are reading stolen content

Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

jgiNqPyreWsmdjAbThpy