Augustus Lowell

Augustus Lowell (Jan 15, 1830–1900) was a businessman and philanthropist from Massachusetts. Born in Boston to John Amory Lowell and his second wife Elizabeth Cabot Putnam. His great-grandfather, John Lowell, was among the first Judges for the newly created federal courts, appointed by President's George Washington and John Adams. Augustus' elder brother, Judge John Lowell, would be appointed, to hold the same seats held by their great-grandfather, by Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Rutherford Hayes.

Family

Lowell was amongst the fifth generation in his family to graduate from Harvard College, class of 1850. And on June 1, 1854 he married Katherine Bigelow Lawrence, the daughter of the Hon. Abbott Lawrence. Both, Augustus and Katherine, were able to trace their ancestry back through the earliest colonial settlers and founders of New England, in the mid 17th century, to notable English families in the 12th and 13th centuries.

Augustus and Katherine had seven children and thus named their 10 acre, Brookline, Massachusetts estate, Sevenels. The Lowell's lost two of their children during infancy but their surviving children went on to do great things. Percival Lowell, wrote several books on the Far East and Mars and founded the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. Their second son, Abbott Lawrence Lowell, succeeded Augustus as Trustee at the Lowell Institute in 1900, and became President of Harvard College in 1909. And their youngest daughter, Amy Lowell, 20 years younger than her brothers, would become the second celebrated poet in the Lowell family (Greenslet 1946).

Career

Augustus was Treasurer of the Merrimack Manufacturing Company, a textile mill in Lowell, Massachusetts, for much of his early career. In 1875, he became Treasurer of The Boott Cotton Mill, also in Lowell. And in 1883, he was Director of The Winnipiseogee Lake Cotton and Woolen Manufacturing Company. All positions his father, John Amory, had once held within the same companies.

Lowell was also a member of the Corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Vice President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1881, Augustus was appointed as the sole Trustee of the Lowell Institute, upon his fathers death (Lowell 1899, pp 118-119), a position he would hold for the last 20 years of his life.

See also

• Lowell family
• First Families of Boston
• Lowell Institute
• Lowell, Massachusetts