Nathan Appleton | |
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.jpg) Painting byGeorge Peter Alexander Healy c. 19th century | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMassachusetts's1st district | |
| In office March 4, 1831 – March 3, 1833 | |
| Preceded by | Benjamin Gorham |
| Succeeded by | Benjamin Gorham |
| In office June 9, 1842 – September 28, 1842 | |
| Preceded by | Robert Charles Winthrop |
| Succeeded by | Robert Charles Winthrop |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1779-10-06)October 6, 1779 |
| Died | July 14, 1861(1861-07-14) (aged 81) |
| Political party | National Republican Whig |
| Spouses | |
| Relations | Samuel Appleton (brother) William Appleton (cousin) James Appleton (cousin) Robert James Mackintosh (son-in-law) Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (son-in-law) Greely S. Curtis (son-in-law) |
| Children | 8, includingThomas |
| Parent(s) | Isaac Appleton and Mary Adams |
| Relatives | Appleton family |
| Signature |  |
Nathan Appleton (October 6, 1779 – July 14, 1861) was an American merchant and politician and a member of the group of entrepreneurs known as "The Boston Associates".[1]
Appleton was born inNew Ipswich,New Hampshire, the son of Isaac Appleton (1731–1806) and his wife Mary Adams (1741–1827). Appleton's father was a church deacon, and Nathan was brought up in the "strictest form ofCalvinistic Congregationalism".[2] Appleton was also the cousin ofWilliam Appleton (1786–1862) andJames Appleton (1785–1862).
His paternal grandparents were Elizabeth Sawyer (1709–1785) and Isaac Appleton Jr. (1704–1794), the son of Isaac Appleton (1664–1747), who was the son ofMajor Samuel Appleton (1625–1696), and Priscilla Baker, granddaughter ofLt. Gov. Samuel Symonds.[3]
He was educated in theNew Ipswich Academy. He then enteredDartmouth College in 1794, however, that same year he left college to begin mercantile life inBoston, Massachusetts, working for his brotherSamuel (1766–1853), a successful and benevolent man of business, with whom he was in partnership from 1800 to 1809.[4]
In 1813, Appleton co-operated withFrancis Cabot Lowell,Patrick T. Jackson,Paul Moody and others in introducing thepower loom and the manufacture ofcotton on a large scale into the United States, establishing a factory atWaltham, Massachusetts, in 1814.[5] The Waltham mill employed the first power loom ever used in the United States. This proving successful, he and others purchased the water-power atPawtucket Falls, and he was one of the founders of the Merrimac Manufacturing Company. The settlement that grew around these factories developed into the city ofLowell, of which in 1821 Appleton was one of the three founders. In a pamphlet entitledThe Origin of Lowell, Appleton wrote of the mills: "The contrast in the character of our manufacturing population with that of Europe has been the admiration of most intelligent strangers. The effect has been to more than double the wages of that description of labor from what they were before the introduction of this manufacture".[6] In 1818, Appleton purchased 300shares of theSuffolk Bank, aclearinghouse bank onState Street inBoston.[7]
Appleton was a member of the general court ofMassachusetts in 1816, 1821, 1822, 1824 and 1827. In 1831-1833 and also 1842 he served in theUnited States House of Representatives,[5] in which he was prominent as an advocate ofprotective duties. He was also a member of the Academy of Science and Arts, and of theMassachusetts Historical Society. He published speeches and essays on currency, banking, and the tariff, of which hisRemarks on Currency and Banking (enlarged ed., 1858) is the most celebrated, as well as his memoirs on the power loom and Lowell. He was elected a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1842,[8] and elected a member of theAmerican Antiquarian Society in 1854.[9]
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Appleton married Maria Theresa Gold (1786–1833) on April 13, 1806. Two months later, he hired the artistGilbert Stuart to paint portraits of the newlyweds.[10] The couple had five children:
The Appletons attendedFederal Street Church. Maria Theresa Appleton died oftuberculosis in 1833.[11] Nathan Appleton remarried on January 8, 1839, to Harriot Coffin Sumner (1802–1867), the daughter of Jesse Sumner, a Boston merchant, and Harriot Coffin of Portland, Maine. They had three children:
He gave his daughter Fanny, who marriedHenry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1843, a house in which her husband had rented rooms as a wedding gift (it is now known as theLongfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site).[12] He paid $10,000 for the home.[13] Frances wrote to her brother Thomas on August 30, 1843: "We have decided to let Father purchase this grand old mansion",[14] which was also a former headquarters ofGeorge Washington during theAmerican Revolutionary War. Nathan Appleton also purchased the land across the street, as Longfellow's mother wrote, "so that their view of theRiver Charles may not be intercepted".[15]
Fanny Appleton died on July 10, 1861, after accidentally catching fire;[16] her father was too sick to attend her funeral. Appleton died the next day in Boston on July 14, 1861.[17]
He is buried in theMount Auburn Cemetery.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Appleton, Nathan".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 224–225. Endnotes:
"Appleton, Nathan".The Biographical Dictionary of America. Vol. 1. 1906. p. 132.| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromMassachusetts's 1st congressional district March 4, 1831 – March 3, 1833 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromMassachusetts's 1st congressional district June 9, 1842 – September 28, 1842 | Succeeded by |
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