Herbert Hathorne Stimpson

Herbert Hathorne Stimpson married Mary Ann Devereau Brewer. The Stimpsons were of the colonial stock of Massachusetts, the earliest known member of the family being James Stimpson, who was married in 1661, in Milton.

Herbert Stimpson was an ingenious inventor, and a leading merchant of Boston in the mid decades of the nineteenth century, trading as "H. & F. Stimpson, stoves and furnaces, corner of Congress and Water Streets. It was he who invented the "Stimpson range", the first sheet-iron cooking stove, famous in its day throughout New England. He also made improvements in rifles, and suggested the placing of the flange on the inside of railway car wheels instead of on the outside, as had been the custom.

_________________

Herbert Hathorne Stimpson, while not liberally educated, became an inventor and a leading merchant in Boston. (According to Alfred G. Mayer, “Biographical Sketch of William Stimpson,” National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs 8 (1918): 419, the earliest known ancestor is James Stimpson, married in Milton, Massachusetts in 1661.There are conflicting accounts of the spelling of Herbert's middle name.In his Dictionary of Scientific Biography entry on Stimpson, Richard I. Johnson lists it as Hawthorne. Mayer, however, uses Hathorne, and the grave stone also uses this spelling.)

Indeed, Herbert Stimpson invented the renowned "Stimpson range," famous in its day throughout New England, and he and his brother Frederick ran a thriving business in stoves and ranges. (Herbert’s 1844 patent for improving cooking ranges is cited in Scientific American vol. 2, #6, October 31, 1846, p. 41, Cornell University Making of America.Herbert and his brother F. H. Stimpson made further improvements in 1850, and Herbert received another new patent in 1859.Scientific American 5, #38, June 8, 1850, p. 302; Scientific American, vol. 2, #20, May 12, 1860, p. 318, Cornell University, Making of America series.Ralph Waldo Emerson bought a stove from the Stimpson’s.See Editors, William H. Gilman and J. E. Parsons, The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, vol. 8, p. 576, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1970.)

Herbert’s other innovations included the development of the first sheet-iron cooking stove, and the suggestion that the flanges on railway cars be placed inside the wheels, rather than outside.The elder Stimpson also made improvements in rifles and in other railway technology.

He moved the family to Cambridge. Herbert Stimpson was a man of vision, one of the public-minded entrepreneurs who saw that Cambridge would soon need better transportation and utilities. In late 1851, he leased the rights to the debt-ridden Harvard Branch Railroad, which ran from Harvard Square to a trunk road into Boston. He later served a term as President of the Union Railway, founded in 1855. (Harding U. Greene, "The History of the Utilities in Cambridge," Proceedings of the Cambridge Historical Society 42 (1970-1972): 7-13; Robert W. Lovett, "The Harvard Branch Railroad, 1849-1855," Proceedings of the Cambridge Historical Society 38 (1959-1960): 23-50.)

A devout Episcopalian, Herbert served as Warden at Cambridge’s Christ Church, an imposing edifice once home to Tory loyalists. His commercial success and his church ties made him a respected man in the Cambridge community, and he possessed great energy, a love of social life, and a brilliant wit, all qualities later attributed to his son William.

(Mary Isabella Gozzaldi, History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1877 with a Genealogical Register: Supplement and Index, Cambridge, MA: Cambridge Historical Society, 1930, p. 707, Ancestry.com-Cambridge, Massachusetts History, Supplement; Charles F. Richardson, “Cambridge on the Charles,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, 52, #307, December 1875, pp. 191-208. pp. 201-2, Cornell University Making of America. Mount Auburn Cemetery records show dates for Herbert Stimpson as November 5, 1802-January 23, 1887.)

Little is known about Stimpson's wife. From an old Virginia family, the former Mary Ann Devereau Brewer married Herbert Stimpson in May of 1830, and she died at age 32, probably between 1840-1842. (Index of marriages in Massachusetts Centinel and Columbian Centinel 1764-1840, Ancestry.com-Massachusetts Centinel Marriage Notices. I have been unable to find a record of a birth or death date for Stimpson's mother.The records at Mt. Auburn cemetery show only that she died at age 32.)

She gave birth to Francis Stimpson in 1839, and the 1840 census records show that the Stimpson household contained one female between the ages of 30-40. Information on William Stimpson's brothers and sisters is also scarce. A sister, Sarah Hall, was born in November 1834, James Herbert was born in April 1837, and another son, Francis Eaton in November 1839. In 1844 Herbert Stimpson remarried, to the former Mary Elizabeth Sawyer, who was only ten years older than William. (Information on Stimpson's siblings is based on the records of Mount Auburn Cemetery, lot #1173, the U. S. Bureau of the Census, Population Schedules of the United States, 1840, Massachusetts, Roxbury, and entries on Francis E. and James H. Stimpson in the International Genealogical Index, www.familysearch.org. For Herbert Stimpson’s remarriage see Family Search International Genealogical Index, http://www.familysearch.org.http://www.familysearch.org.)

https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/stimpson/206/

• Reference: Ancestry Genealogy - SmartCopy: Jun 21 2018, 11:36:56 UTC