Name Oakes Ames Died September 19, 1899 | Parents Oakes Ames Uncles Oliver Ames, Jr. | |
Similar People Oakes Ames, Oliver Ames - Jr, Henry Hobson Richardson, Andrew Jackson Downing | ||
Oakes Angier Ames (April 15, 1829 – September 19, 1899) was a wealthy industrialist and philanthropist in the Ames family of North Easton, Massachusetts.
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Family
The Ames family was a wealthy family in Easton, Massachusetts, for generations. His great-grandfather Capt. John Ames and grandfather Oliver Ames, Sr. founded the Ames Shovel Works during a time when shovels were needed to build canals and railroads across the country. The Ames family was among the wealthiest in Massachusetts.
Oakes Angier Ames was the oldest son of Oakes Ames, and Eveline O. Gilmore. Oakes was a major force behind the Union Pacific Railroad and a U.S. Congressman. Oakes Angier's brother Oliver Ames was Governor of Massachusetts. His son Winthrop Ames became a theatre director and producer, playwright and screenwriter.
Biography
Oakes Angier Ames became a partner in the family's shovel factory in 1863, and in 1877 became its president.
Ames' legacy to North Easton can still be seen in Queset House, his home beside the Queset Brook. The house's front portion design was drawn in 1854 from a plan by noted architect Andrew Jackson Downing (who died in 1852) and John Ames Mitchell, (a first cousin of Oakes Angier,) designed the rear in 1872. The famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted planned its grounds and also, in consultation with Ames, created The Rockery nearby.
Together with his family, Ames commissioned Olmsted and architect H. H. Richardson to create a remarkable set of buildings and landscapes in North Easton, including: