As a commander of the Woburn Militia, Major Loammi Baldwin went to Concord on April 19, 1775, where he fought at Elm Brook Hill (formerly called the Bloody Angle). He later served in the 26th Continental Regiment, rising to the rank of colonel.
An engineer and inventor, Baldwin supervised the development of the Middlesex Canal and propagated the Baldwin apple, at one time the most popular apple in the world.
A statue honoring Baldwin is sited close to his former estate alongside remnants of the canal in Woburn. The six-foot-tall Loammi Baldwin Statue, created by American sculptor Herbert Adams in 1917 and dedicated on April 19, 1920, rests on a four-foot square pink granite base. It features five bronze plaques that provide a biography of Baldwin’s multi-faceted life.
The plaque on the front of the monument’s base is inscribed:
LOAMMI BALDWIN
PATRIOT
PUBLIC OFFICIAL
BORN JANUARY 21, 1745, N.S.
IN NORTH WOBURN
MASSACHUSETTS
DIED OCTOBER 20, 1807
Below, another plaque is inscribed:
ERECTED IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE WILL
OF HIS GRANDDAUGHTER
CATHERINE RUMFORD GRIFFITH
BY HIS GREAT-GRANDSONS ROSWELL PARK
LOAMMI FRANKLIN BALDWIN AND BALDWIN COOLIDGE
EXECUTORS AND TRUSTEES
A.D. MCMXVII
The plaque on the west side of the base is inscribed:
A PARTICIPANT WITH THE
RANK OF MAJOR
IN THE BATTLES OF
LEXINGTON AND CONCORD
A COLONEL OF
THE 26TH REGIMENT OF
THE CONTINENTAL ARMY
WITH GENERAL WASHINGTON
DURING THE OCCUPATION
OF NEW YORK
AND IN THE BATTLE
OF TRENTON
The plaque on the east side of the base is inscribed:
ONE OF THE PROPRIETORS
AND
A PRINCIPAL CONSTRUCTOR
OF THE MIDDLESEX CANAL
A MEMBER OF
THE COMMITTEE TO SIGN
THE PAPER MONEY OF
MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY
FIRST SHERIFF OF
MIDDLESEX COUNTY
UNDER THE STATE CONSTITUTION
A LEADER OF AFFAIRS
IN WOBURN
The plaque on the back of the base has the relief image of an apple surrounded by a wreath and is inscribed:
DISSEMINATOR OF THE APPLE
IN HONOR OF HIM CALLED
THE BALDWIN
WHICH PROCEEDED FROM A TREE
ORIGINALLY GROWING WILD
ABOUT TWO MILES NORTH
OF THIS MONUMENT