Edward Augustus Holyoke Hemenway

Edward Augustus Holyoke Hemenway
Born (1805-04-25)April 25, 1805
Salem, Massachusetts
Died June 16, 1876(1876-06-16) (aged 71)
Cuba
Spouse(s) Mary Tileston Hemenway
Children Three daughters and one son
Parent(s) Father - Dr. Samuel Hemenway and Mother Sarah Upton

Edward Augustus Holyoke Hemenway (April 25, 1805 – June 16, 1876) was an American self-made merchant from Boston, Massachusetts.

Early years

He was born in Salem, Massachusetts, the eldest son of Dr. Samuel Hemenway and Sarah Upton of New England descent.[1] His siblings included George Washington (1807-1830), Samuel Charles (b. 1809), William (b. 1811), and Charles (b. 1818).[2] At the age of 13, he started working in Boston as a clerk in Robinson & Parkers’ dry goods store. Though his baptismal name was Edward Augustus Holyoke Hemenway, in honor of Edward Augustus Holyoke, the eminent physician with whom his father studied, as a young man, Hemenway shortened his name to Augustus Hemenway. He graduated from Harvard University.[3]

Career

He went to work for Benjamin Bangs, a wealthy shipowner and merchant in Boston, and for a few years was his agent and partner in South American trade. Hemenway became owner of extensive silver mines in Valparaíso, and lived there for eight years.[4] He owned a township in Washington County, Maine, where pine was cut on his own land, sawed into lumber at his own sawmill in Machias, and carried to Cuba, where he owned a sugar plantation, or to Valparaíso on his own ships, which returned to Boston with copper and nitrate of soda.[3][5] He spearheaded the commercial enterprise of the US with the west coast of South America. When he went to Chile, he established his own business by 1838. He established many large silver mines, reaping huge profits. He was extremely hard working and ensured that all details of his business were personally attended to by him, including the loading of ships. This overwork resulted in a nervous breakdown in 1860;[6] he spent 14 years in a Connecticut sanatorium recuperating.[4]

Personal life

On 2 June 1840, he wed Mary Tileston Hemenway (1820-1894), daughter of Thomas Tileston, one of the wealthiest merchant/mariners of New York City. Their daughters were Charlotte Augusta (b. 1841, d. 1865), Alice (d. in infancy), Edith Hemenway Eustis (1851-1904), and Amy Hemenway (1848-1911) who was married to Louis Cabot. Their son, Augustus Jr. (1853-1931) was married to Harriet Lawrence. Edward Clarke Cabot, Louis' brother, designed a summer home for Hemenway at Manchester-by-the-Sea.[7] Hemenway died in 1876, while on a trip to Cuba.[2][3][8] He was a philanthropist and his wife continued this tradition after his death with large contributions to American archeology.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Frederic A. Eustis (1 January 1955). Augustus Hemenway, 1805-1876: builder of the United States trade with the west coast of South America. Peabody Museum. pp. 3–. Retrieved 3 January 2013.
  2. 1 2 Lawrence, Robert Means (1904). The descendants of Major Samuel Lawrence of Groton, Massachusetts: with some mention of allied families (Public domain ed.). Printed at the Riverside press. pp. 227–. Retrieved 18 January 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 David L Browman; Stephen Williams (19 February 2002). New Perspectives on the Origins of Americanist Archaeology. University of Alabama Press. pp. 235–. ISBN 978-0-8173-1128-5. Retrieved 3 January 2013.
  4. 1 2 James, Edward T.; James, Janet Wilson; Boyer, Paul S.; Radcliffe College (1971). Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary. Harvard University Press. pp. 180–. ISBN 978-0-674-62734-5. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
  5. ↑ Morison, Samuel Eliot (1921). The maritime history of Massachusetts, 1783-1860 (Public domain ed.). Houghton Mifflin Company. pp. 271–. Retrieved 18 January 2013.
  6. ↑ Patricia Shedd Hemingway (1988). The Hemingways: past & present and allied families. Gateway Press. p. 182. Retrieved 3 January 2013.
  7. ↑ Morgan, William (30 August 2011). Monadnock Summer: The Architectural Legacy of Dublin, New Hampshire. David R. Godine Publisher. pp. 59–. ISBN 978-1-56792-422-0. Retrieved 19 January 2013.
  8. ↑ "An Ancestry community". Genealogy.rootsweb. Retrieved 19 January 2013.
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