Frederick Lothrop Ames (June 8, 1835 – September 13, 1893) was heir to a fortune in railroads and shovel manufacturing. He was Vice President of the

Old Colony Railroad The Old Colony Railroad (OC) was a major railroad system, mainly covering southeastern Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island, which operated from 1845 to 1893. Old Colony trains ran from Boston to points such as Plymouth, Fall Ri ...

and director of the

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pac ...

railroad. At the time of his death, Ames was reported to be the wealthiest person in Massachusetts.

Ames Family

The

Ames family The Ames family is one of the oldest and most illustrious families of the United States. The family's branches are descended from John Ames, the son of a 17th-century settler of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and numerous public and private wo ...

was a wealthy family which had lived in Easton for many generations. Frederick's grandfather Oliver Ames Sr. founded the Ames Shovel Works in

Easton, Massachusetts Easton is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 25,058 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Greater Boston area. Easton is governed by an elected Select Board. Open Town Meeting acts as the legislative br ...

. The Shovel Works earned the family a huge fortune, during a time when aggressive canal and railroad expansion was built by the hands of thousands of men using shovels. Frederick's father Oliver Jr. was president of the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

during the building of the

transcontinental railroad A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous railroad trackage, that crosses a continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single ...

. Frederick's cousin Oliver Ames was governor of Massachusetts 1887–1890.

Biography

Frederick Lothrop Ames was born June 8, 1835 in

, the only son of

Oliver Ames Jr. Oliver Ames Jr. (November 5, 1807 – March 9, 1877) was president of Union Pacific Railroad when the railroad met the Central Pacific Railroad in Utah for the completion of the First transcontinental railroad in North America. Biography Born i ...

and Sarah Lothrop. Sarah's father was Hon. Howard Lothrop, of Easton, who was a State Senator; and her brother was George Van Ness Lothrop, minister to Russia during the

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...

administration. Young Frederick attended Phillips Exeter Academy and graduated

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

in 1854. Although he wished to study law, he was persuaded by his father to join the family shovel business. On the death of his grandfather Oliver Ames Sr., he became a member of the firm. In 1876, he became treasurer. On the death of his father in 1877, Frederick became head of the Ames & Sons Corporation; he also inherited five or six million dollars, which he invested in railroads. He married Rebecca Caroline Blair on June 7, 1860 and they had five children. The children were: Helen Angier; Oliver; Mary Shreve; Frederick Lothrop Jr.; and John Stanley Ames. The family had a winter home on Commonwealth Avenue in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

and their main home was an estate in North Easton, Massachusetts. In 1893 Ames commissioned the 13-story

Ames Building The Ames Building is located in Boston, Massachusetts. It is sometimes ranked as the tallest building in Boston from its completion in 1893 until 1915, when the Custom House Tower was built; however, the building was never the tallest structure in ...

in Boston, considered Boston's first skyscraper and its first elevator-dependent building. Ames worked from his offices there. At the time it was the tallest building east of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Ames stood about five feet 11 inches, and weighed about 175 pounds. He was a Unitarian and member of both the

Unity Church of North Easton Unity may refer to: Buildings * Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building * Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper * Unity Buildings, Liverpool, UK; two buildings in England * Unity Chapel, Wyoming, Wisconsin, US; a ...

and the

First Church in Boston First Church in Boston is a Unitarian Universalist Church (originally Congregationalist) founded in 1630 by John Winthrop's original Puritan settlement in Boston, Massachusetts. The current building, located on 66 Marlborough Street in the Back ...

. He was president of the Home for Incurables (the hospital changed its name to St Barnabas Hospital in 1947), of the Massachusetts General Hospital, and of the McLean Insane Asylum (now called the McLean Hospital).

Business interests

Ames was Vice President of the

and director of the

. All told, he served as director of forty railroads, probably more than any other person in the country. He was a director in the Old Colony Steamboat Company. He also owned over six million dollars in Boston real estate, as well as real estate in Kansas City and Omaha. At the time of his death at age 58, Ames' wealth was estimated at somewhere between 25 and 50 million dollars.

Art collector and architecture patron

Ames was known widely as an art collector. He was a trustee of Boston's Museum of Fine Art, and gave the museum a number of artworks including several large jades and crystals. Ames also donated two Rembrandts, portraits of Dr.

Nicolaes Tulp Nicolaes Tulp (9 October 1593 – 12 September 1674) was a Dutch surgeon and mayor of Amsterdam. Tulp was well known for his upstanding moral character and as the subject of Rembrandt's famous painting ''The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp' ...

and his wife dated 1632. Ames' collection also included "Pointer Dog" by

Constant Troyon Constant Troyon (August 28, 1810 – February 21, 1865) was a French painter of the Barbizon school. In the early part of his career he painted mostly landscapes. It was only comparatively late in life that Troyon found his ''métier'' as a pa ...

, "Tiger Hunt" by Eugène Fromentin, several landscapes by

Charles-François Daubigny Charles-François Daubigny ( , , ; 15 February 181719 February 1878) was a French painter, one of the members of the Barbizon school, and is considered an important precursor of impressionism. He was also a prolific printmaker, mostly in etchin ...

, and several other paintings by French Romanticists. On October 6, 1885, the Ames estate in North Easton was robbed of several paintings, including "Teybeck at Brousic" by Stanisław Chlebowski, and "Goose Girl" by

Jean-François Millet Jean-François Millet (; 4 October 1814 – 20 January 1875) was a French artist and one of the founders of the Barbizon school in rural France. Millet is noted for his paintings of peasant farmers and can be categorized as part of the Realism ...

. In 1882, Ames commissioned artist

John La Farge John La Farge (March 31, 1835 – November 14, 1910) was an American artist whose career spanned illustration, murals, interior design, painting, and popular books on his Asian travels and other art-related topics. La Farge is best known for ...

to design a large stained glass window in Unity Church of North Easton as a memorial to his only sister, Helen Angier Ames. The work is called ''Angel of Help''. Frederick (and others in the

) commissioned architect

Henry Hobson Richardson Henry Hobson Richardson, FAIA (September 29, 1838 – April 27, 1886) was an American architect, best known for his work in a style that became known as Richardsonian Romanesque. Along with Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, Richardson is one ...

to build several buildings. The first was

Ames Free Library The Ames Free Library is a public library designed by noted American architect H. H. Richardson. It is located at 53 Main Street, Easton, Massachusetts, immediately adjacent to another Richardson building, Oakes Ames Memorial Hall. In 2016 the ...

, built with a $50,000 bequest from his father (Oliver Jr.)'s will. Construction was started 1878 and completed 1883. Perhaps the most notable was the

in Boston, built by Richardson's firm after his death. It was for many years the tallest skyscraper in Boston.

Orchids

Ames was also an avid amateur

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowerin ...

gardener, an interest which he shared with his nephew, professional botanist Oakes Ames. Frederick's collection of orchids was considered one of the finest in the country. The orchid amesianus was named in honor of both Frederick and Oakes. Ames was a generous donor to Harvard's Arnold Arboretum and a vice president of the

Massachusetts Horticultural Society The Massachusetts Horticultural Society, sometimes abbreviated to MassHort, is an American horticultural society based in Massachusetts. It describes itself as the oldest formally organized horticultural institution in the United States. In its m ...

. He was a member of the corporation of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

at the time of his death.

Politics

Ames was elected to the

Massachusetts State Senate The Massachusetts Senate is the upper house of the Massachusetts General Court, the bicameral state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Senate comprises 40 elected members from 40 single-member senatorial districts in the st ...

in 1872 "in his absence and without his knowledge." He served one term as a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

Death and legacy

Ames died suddenly aboard his steamboat ''Pilgrim'' sometime early in the morning of September 13, 1893 ''en route'' to

Fall River, Massachusetts Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The City of Fall River's population was 94,000 at the 2020 United States Census, making it the tenth-largest city in the state. Located along the eastern shore of Mount H ...

. He went to bed "in the best of health and spirits" but was found dead the following morning. The cause was reported to be cerebral

apoplexy Apoplexy () is rupture of an internal organ and the accompanying symptoms. The term formerly referred to what is now called a stroke. Nowadays, health care professionals do not use the term, but instead specify the anatomic location of the bleedi ...

, a condition which would later be called a stroke.

References

External links

*
Ames family mansions

Portrait of a man wearing a black hat
, a Rembrandt painting owned by Frederick L. Ames {{DEFAULTSORT:Ames, Frederick Lothrop 1835 births 1893 deaths Butler–Ames family Union Pacific Railroad people People from Easton, Massachusetts Businesspeople from Boston American Unitarians Phillips Exeter Academy alumni Harvard College alumni 19th-century American railroad executives Republican Party Massachusetts state senators American art collectors 19th-century American politicians American billionaires