Benjamin Franklin Baldwin (December 15, 1777 – October 11, 1821) was one of the five sons of

Loammi Baldwin Colonel Loammi Baldwin (January 10, 1744 – October 20, 1807) was a noted American engineer, politician, and a soldier in the American Revolutionary War. Baldwin is known as the Father of American Civil Engineering. His five sons, Cyrus ...

Woburn, Massachusetts Woburn ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,876 at the 2020 census. Woburn is located north of Boston. Woburn uses Massachusetts' mayor-council form of government, in which an elected mayor is ...

Baldwin held the office of captain in the militia from 1800 to 1805, of major from 1807 to 1811, and of lieutenant-colonel of the local regiment from 1811 to 1816. Rolls of his company of date 1802 are extant. It is said that in addition to his other pursuits he devoted himself to the business of civil engineering, and assisted his brother in the construction of the mill dam across the

Back Bay Back Bay is an officially recognized neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, built on reclaimed land in the Charles River basin. Construction began in 1859, as the demand for luxury housing exceeded the availability in the city at the time, and ...

of Boston, and in other works. Benjamin and his wife Mary Carter Brewster had five children: Mary Brewster (1809–1817), Clarissa (1810–1813), Loammi (1813–1855), Mary Brewster (1815–1854), and Clarissa Coolidge (1819–1900).The Woburnites: The Family of Baldwin, http://www.yeoldewoburn.net/Baldwin.htm

Civil engineering family

Along with his brothers, Cyrus Baldwin (1773–1854),

Loammi Baldwin, Jr. Loammi Baldwin Jr. (May 16, 1780 – June 30, 1838) was an American civil engineer. His father was Col. Loammi Baldwin, a prominent civil engineer. Biography Baldwin was born at North Woburn, Massachusetts living at Baldwin House aka "The Baldw ...

(1780–1834),

James Fowle Baldwin James Fowle Baldwin (April 29, 1782 – May 20, 1862) was an early American civil engineer who worked with his father and brothers on the Middlesex Canal, surveyed and designed the Boston and Lowell Railroad and the Boston and Albany Railroad, the ...

(1782–1862), and George Rumford Baldwin (1798–1888), he was a noted

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

, having assisted his father in conducting the original survey for the

Middlesex Canal The Middlesex Canal was a 27-mile (44-kilometer) barge canal connecting the Merrimack River with the port of Boston. When operational it was 30 feet (9.1 m) wide, and 3 feet (0.9 m) deep, with 20 locks, each 80 feet (24 m) long and between 10 and ...

at the age of nine and assisted his brother in the construction of the mill dam across the Back Bay of Boston, among various other civil engineering achievements. The structure was originally conceived as a means to industrialize the Back BayBrighton Allston Historical Society, http://www.bahistory.org/HistoryMillDam.html but ultimately led to the creation of the Back Bay neighborhoodBoston Rocks, http://bostongeology.com/boston/casestudies/fillingbackbay/fillingbackbay.htm and is considered "one of the greatest engineering accomplishments of early 19th century Boston..." Along with Cyrus Baldwin, Benjamin was also responsible for surveying the

Merrimack River The Merrimack River (or Merrimac River, an occasional earlier spelling) is a river in the northeastern United States. It rises at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into Mass ...

in 1818 for the purpose of making navigational improvements.Middlesex Canal Association, www.middlesexcanal.org

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baldwin, Benjamin Franklin 1777 births 1821 deaths People from Woburn, Massachusetts American civil engineers Benjamin