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 Baldwin ( 1773 – 1854 ) , Benjamin Franklin Baldwin ( 1777 – 1821 ) , Loammi Baldwin , Jr . ( 1780 – 1834 ) , James Fowle Baldwin ( 1782 – 1862 ) , and George Rumford Baldwin ( 1798 – 1888 ) were also well - known engineers . He surveyed and was responsible for the construction of the Middlesex Canal , but today he is perhaps best remembered for the Baldwin apple which he developed at his farm , or rather he recognized its potential and propagated it throughout the northeast . The apple had been discovered on the farm of John Ball in Wilmington , Massachusetts , around 1750 , and named Woodpecker by a later owner of the farm . Colonel Baldwin ' s promotion of the apple occurred after 1784 . He was also a surveyor and plantation co - owner in Hartford , Maine , which at that time was known as East Butterfield . ( Source : The Apples of NY ( 1905 ) , and Lorraine Parsons in Hartford , Maine ) Education . Baldwin attended grammar school in Woburn , Massachusetts . Later he would walk from North Woburn to Cambridge with his younger friend and childhood neighbor , Benjamin Thompson , later Count Rumford , to attend the lectures of Professor John Winthrop at Harvard College . He and Thompson performed their own experiments at home . Baldwin received a Master of Arts degree from Harvard in 1785 . Military Career in the American Revolution . In 1774 Baldwin enlisted in a regiment , and commanded the Woburn militia at the Battle of Lexington and Concord as a major . He is recorded as having described the events of April 19 , 1775 as follows " We mustered as fast as possible . The Town turned out extraordinary , and proceeded toward Lexington . " As a major at the time he continues " I rode along a little before the main body , and when I was nigh Jacob Reed ' s ( at present Durenville ) I heard a great firing ; proceeded on , soon heard that the Regulars had fired upon Lexington people and killed a large number of them . We proceeded on as fast as possible and came to Lexington and saw about eight or ten dead and numbers wounded . " He then , with the rest from Woburn , proceeded to Concord by way of Lincoln meeting house , ascended a hill there , and rested and refreshed themselves a little . Then follows a particular account of the action and of his own experience . He had " several good shots , " and proceeded on till coming between the meeting - house and Buckman ' s tavern at Lexington , with a prisoner before him , the cannon of the British began to play , the balls flying near him , and for safety he retreated back behind the meeting - house , when a ball came through near his head , and he further retreated to a meadow north of the house and lay there and heard the balls in the air and saw them strike the ground . Woburn sent to the field on that day , one hundred and eighty men . At the beginning of the war he enlisted in the 26th Continental Regiment commanded by Colonel Samuel Gerrish . Here he rapidly advanced to be lieutenant - colonel , and upon Colonel Gerrish ' s retirement in August 1775 , he was placed in command of the regiment , and was soon commissioned colonel . Until the end of 1775 , Baldwin and his men remained near Boston , but in April 1776 , he was ordered with his command to New York City . He took part in the Battle of Pell ' s Point on October 18 , 1776 . On the night of December 25 , 1776 , in the face of a violent and extremely cold storm of snow and hail , General Washington and his army crossed the Delaware to the New Jersey side , and fought the Battle of Trenton . Baldwin and his regiment participated in both the crossing and the fight . In 1777 , Baldwin resigned from the army because of ill health . Political career . Baldwin was elected to various public offices between 1780 and 1796 . He was appointed high sheriff of Middlesex County in 1780 , and was the first to hold office after the adoption of the state constitution . From 1778 - 1784 , he represented Woburn in the Massachusetts General Court . In 1794 , he was a candidate for election to the United States House of Representatives , and obtained all the votes cast in Woburn but one . Engineering career . Baldwin began work with his older sons on the Middlesex Canal in 1794 and after nine years , the canal began service in 1803 . He later worked on Boston ' s fortifications . His son Cyrus continued his father ' s work on the Middlesex Canal as an agent for the canal company . His son Benjamin worked on the Boston Mill Dam for before an early death at age 43 . Other . Baldwin was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1782 . He opposed Shays ' Rebellion . His published work as a member of the AAAS included early experiments with electricity " An account of a Curious Appearance of the Electrical Fluid , " ( Memoirs Am . Acad . Vol . 1 , 1785 , pp . 257 – 259 ) ; and " Observations on Electricity and an Improved Mode of Constructing Lightning Rods , " ( Memoirs , Vol . 2 , pt . 2 , 1804 , pp . 96 – 104 ) . The first paper was written in 1783 , and the " curious appearance " described was produced by raising an electrical kite at the time of a thunder shower . The experiments , however , were tried in July , 1771 . At that time the author mentions that there stood some lofty trees near his house , and also a shop near by it . His parents , family , and neighbors witnessed the " electrical effect " he succeeded in producing . The date of preparing the second article was January 25 , 1797 . His home Baldwin House — originally built in 1660 and expanded in the 1800s — still stands in Woburn and is currently in use as a Chinese restaurant . Family . Baldwin married July 9 , 1772 , Mary Fowle ( died 1786 age 39 ) daughter of James Fowle , Jr . and Mary Reed , and had four sons . He married again , May 26 , 1791 , Margaret Fowle ( 1747 - 1799 ) , daughter of Josiah and Margery Carter , and had a son and a daughter . Howard Means in Johnny Appleseed : The Man , the Myth , The American Story , references Baldwin as a cousin of John Chapman ( Johnny Appleseed . )