430 GEORGE RUMFORD BALDWIN. 



The old mansion, dating, as marked on one of its massive oak tim- 

 bers, from 1GG2, with successive additions and improvements, is one 

 of the noteworthy survivals of our earliest times, in size, arrangement, 

 adornment, and in its well-preserved relics. A history and descrip- 

 tion of it might engage the zeal of the relic-hunters of the day. In 

 it are to be found implements, household utensils, paintings, orna- 

 ments, and sundry furnishings, with luxurious appliances, gathered 

 by the generations which have occupied it from birth to death. Piles 

 of trunks and boxes contain their private papers and settlements of 

 estates. Most interesting among its contents is a large, select, and 

 valuable library of many thousand volumes, collected principally by 

 the father and brothers of our associate, and by himself, giving evi- 

 dence of their scientific and literary tastes. Learned tomes in many 

 languages, costly illustrated works, series of scientific publications on 

 construction and engineering, and sumptuous editions of the best 

 writers in various departments of literature, are among its treasures. 

 It may be that, sooner or later, the collection will find its deposit iu 

 the noble Public Library of the city of Woburn, as a memorial of one 

 of the oldest and most distinguished families of its citizens. 



Of the fourth generation from the original colonist was that dis- 

 tinguished military officer in our Revolutionary war, honored with 

 the hisfh esteem of Washington, and afterwards eminent as the earli- 

 est civil engineer in this State, Colonel Loammi Baldwin. He was 

 born in 1744, and died in 1807. Of his relations with his fellow 

 townsman, playfellow, schoolmate, and life-long friend, the farmer's 

 son, Benjamin Thompson, afterward Count liumford, mention will 

 be made further on. Baldwin manifested from his earliest years an 

 ardent passion for acquiring knowledge, with skill in practical works, 

 and inventive ingenuity. Fie sought and obtained permission to at- 

 tend the lectures of Professor Winthrop at Harvard, walking to Cam- 

 bridge for that purpose with young Thompson, whose tastes and 

 genius were simHar. After his patriotic service in the war. Colonel 

 Baldwin devoted himself to public offices in the town and in the 

 Legislature, and was the first High Sheriff of the County of Middle- 

 sex, never intermitting his scientific pursuits. On the projection of 

 the first of onr public enterprises for more extended internal commu- 

 nication, the connection of the waters of the Merrimac with those of 

 the harbor by the Middlesex Canal, chartered in 1793, he was one of 

 its leading promoters. Its course lay through his own estate. It was 

 completed in 1803. Of this then signal enterprise, Colonel Baldwin, 

 as surveyor, engineer, and constructor, was the efficient aid of Mr. 



