Oct 166 min read

106 Digging Up History in Blawenburg

Sometimes new information comes from the strangest places. I was cleaning my very old basement in East Blawenburg recently when I found inside a very old box, something I dug up in my backyard many years ago—likely in the 1970s. I don’t actually remember digging it up or putting it in the treasure box. Most of the “treasures” in that box are shards of old glass, pieces of unidentifiable metal, and stones that may or may not have been used by Neanderthals to cut up their evening dinner. This treasure was different, though.

It was a circular metal plaque that looked like a lid to a small can, and it had the embossed head of a man I never heard of on it. It had Lawson on the left side and Valentine on the right, with 1828 on the bottom. Since I had no clue who this person was, I did what we do these days. I typed both names and the date into my favorite search engine. I figured if he was important enough to have his head embossed on a three-inch piece of metal, I might find him on the Internet.

Discovered lid on left; eBay lid on right

Not very much came up in my first search, but I confirmed his full name was Lawson Valentine, and he was born in 1828. The next link I opened was on eBay, where I immediately saw a cleaner picture of the same piece of unknown metal. My treasure had been underground for a long time and was downright dirty. eBay had a cleaner metal for sale for $98.00. Really? I thought. I hoped it was more like $980 or even $98,000! Maybe I watch Antiques Road Show too much.

My real mission was to find out who Mr. Valentine was, so I continued by opening the few links that resulted from my search. Hmm, I thought. Maybe this guy isn’t well known. Nevertheless, I wanted more information. Wow, was I surprised to learn who this unfamiliar person was, and I wondered why there wasn’t more information about him. There wasn’t even a biography written about him.

Lawson Valentine

Learning about Lawson Valentine

Lawson Valentine was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, just before the Industrial Revolution. Even though we had fought the British and won our independence, the young nation was still dependent on England for many of its manufactured products. This was soon to change, and Lawson Valentine had a part in the economic revolution.

Where he was born and where he grew up had everything to do with how Valentine’s future would evolve. Two families in his neighborhood became well known for different reasons. The Homer family, whose son Winslow became a famous painter, lived nearby as did the Houghtons, the founders of one of the first American publishing companies. Valentine fell in love and married the Houghtons’ daughter, Lucy Heywood Houghton, on May 27,1851, in Cambridge, MA. This gave him access to an emerging company that he would help later in his life. Similarly, the Homer connection would play an important part in his later years.

Valentine had an early interest in making varnish and paint products as well as a desire to apply his skills of entrepreneurship. Varnish was very important to the shipping industry, which was centered in Boston. It was used in a variety of ways to waterproof the wooden ships and their parts.

In 1847, at age 19, Valentine began working for a varnish and paint company in Boston. By 1852, he partnered with Augustus Stimson and Otis Merriam to form Stimson, Valentine and Company. By 1866, Stimson and Merriam retired, and Valentine hired Winslow Homer’s brother Charles, who had become one of the few skilled chemists in America. He improved the varnish products and established Valentine and Company for substantial growth.

By that time, New York was becoming a growing manufacturing center. Valentine and Company acquired the Minnesota Linseed Oil Paint Company and moved to New York. Valentine plied his growing marketing skills to expand their market.

By 1876, a fire in their Boston manufacturing plant and the trend of large manufacturers moving their businesses to New York led the Valentines to leave Boston. They bought a farm in Mountainville, Orange County, New York. It was a large farming operation on 504 acres with dairy cows and cattle.

Their friend, Winslow Homer, had lived in New York City since 1860. He needed more space for a painting studio, so Lawson and Lucy Valentine opened their home to him at Houghton Farm. Winslow was a prolific painter and many of his later paintings were scenes from the farm. Valentine bought over 100 of Homer’s paintings, many of which were painted on the Houghton Farm.

Girl Reading Under an Oak Tree, Winslow Homer

Painted at Houghton Farm in 1878

Valentine’s skills made him a rich man, and he used his wealthy generously. When other business friends needed money, he loaned it. He was a patron of the arts and frequently supported the lifestyles of artists.

When his varnish business ran into financial trouble, he put his energy into the family publishing business. He was able to strengthen Houghton-Mifflin publishing through innovative marketing techniques he used to grow the varnish business. Unfortunately, the large farm operation had financial troubles, too.

In 1889, Valentine used his remaining capital to form the Lawson Valentine Company while retaining Valentine and Company for his earlier enterprises. He died in 1891 at 64 with his companies still in operation. The family took over the business and Lucy managed it well. After her death in 1911, another generation of Valentines and Houghtons successfully continued to grow the companies.

Later generations of Valentine’s family sold both businesses. In turn, they were sold several more times. Valspar now has 11,000 employees and Houghton-Mifflin is a global publishing company. It merged with Harcourt, and then was bought by a private equity firm, Veritas Capital.

Lawson Valentine Foundation

Alice Doyle, Valentine’s great-granddaughter, was very interested in environmental concerns. She inherited 11 of Winslow Homer’s paintings, which had grown to great value, and in 1989, she used them to create and support the Lawson Valentine Foundation. She wanted them in places where the public could see them. After looking for a buyer for two years, Paul Mellon agreed to buy all the paintings. He held two exhibitions and published a catalog of the paintings. After Mellon’s death, all Homer’s paintings were donated to museums for further public enjoyment. The Valentine Foundation uses the proceeds from the sale of its paintings to support environmental causes.

Who would have thought that a young man from Boston with an interest in varnish could have used his talents to have such an impact on others? There is little written about Lawson Valentine because he was a private and modest man, unlike many of his Gilded Age peers. Valentine did not engage in self-publicity. Instead, he turned his energy to entrepreneurial action. Lawson Valentine likely never set foot in Blawenburg and certainly never imagined his embossed image would one day be found underground in the village. Nevertheless, he has left a message for us all in the way he lived his life. He is reminding us to be humble, generous, and focused on action, not self-promotion. If we all followed his example, the world would be a better place.

Lawson Valentine—April 13, 1828 — May 5, 1891

Lucy H. Valentine—January 7, 1830 — March 1, 1911

Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, MA

FACTS

1. According to the Lawson Valentine Foundation, “Since its inception, the foundation has pursued Alice’s broad vision of protecting both the human environment — in particular, by working to dismantle prejudice and discrimination — and the natural environment. Like Alice’s interests, our grants have ranged widely. In recent years, our major grants have centered on the focus areas of food systems and environmental justice.”

2. Beeswax was very important to the shipping industry before varnish was readily available. It was used to keep the ropes waterproofed.

3. Before and after varnish was created, oils such as linseed oil were used as a wood finish and preservative. Varnish has been around since the Egyptians dynasties. Early varnish was created by mixing resins, such as pine pitch, with oil and then heating it until the desired thickness was reached. Today, synthetic materials are used to create varnish.

4. While there is no full biography of Lawson Valentine, there is a short (28 pages), free PDF biography. You can download it at: www.gramps.org. The full citation appears in Sources/Information below.