Loammi Baldwin

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Colonel Loammi Baldwin (January 10, 1744-October 20, 1807) was a noted American engineer, politician, and a soldier in the American Revolutionary War. His son, Loammi Baldwin, Jr., was also a well-known engineer.

Baldwin is known as the Father of American Civil Engineering. He surveyed and was responsible for the construction of the Middlesex Canal; but today he is perhaps best remembered for the Baldwin apple which he developed at his farm, or rather he recognized its potential and propagated it throughout the northeast. At the time it was known as the Woodpecker, having been discovered on the farm of John Ball in Wilmington, Mass, around 1750, and named Woodpecker by a later owner of the farm. Colonel Baldwin's promotion of the apple occurred after 1784. He was also a surveyor and plantation co-owner in Hartford, Maine, which at that time was known as East Butterfield, Mass. (Source: The Apples of NY (1905), and Lorraine Parsons in Hartford, Maine)

Baldwin attended grammar school in Woburn, Massachusetts. Later he would walk from North Woburn to Cambridge with his younger friend and childhood neighbor, Benjamin Thompson, later Count Rumford, to attend the lectures of Professor John Winthrop at Harvard College. He and Thompson would then perform their own experiments when back at home. Baldwin received a Master of Arts degree from Harvard in 1785.

In 1774 Baldwin enlisted in a regiment, and commanded the Woburn militia at the Battle of Lexington and Concord as a major. At the beginning of the war he enlisted in the 26th Continental Regiment commanded by Colonel Samuel Gerrish. Here he rapidly advanced to be lieutenant-colonel, and upon Colonel Gerrish's retirement in August 1775, he was placed at the head of the regiment, and was soon commissioned its colonel.

Till the end of 1775, Colonel Baldwin and his men remained near Boston, but in April 1776, he was ordered with his command to New York City. On that memorable night of December 25, 1776, in the face of a violent and extremely cold storm of snow and hail, General Washington and his army crossed the Delaware to the New Jersey side, and fought the Battle of Trenton. Baldwin and his regiment participated in both the crossing and the fight.

In 1777, Baldwin resigned from the army because of ill health. He was subsequently elected to various public offices between 1780 and 1796. He was appointed high sheriff of Middlesex County in 1780, and was the first to hold office after the adoption of the state constitution. In 1778, 1779, and 1780, and the four following years, he represented Woburn in the Massachusetts General Court. In 1794, he was a candidate for election to the United States House of Representatives, and obtained all the votes cast in Woburn but one.

Baldwin was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, contributing two papers. He opposed Shays' Rebellion. His fine mansion, Baldwin House, still exists in Woburn.