The History Cellar: 1837 Lauriat's Balloon Ride East Boston to Duxbury

Thursday, March 11, 2010

1837 Lauriat's Balloon Ride East Boston to Duxbury

From the Christian Register and Boston Observer, July 8th 1837, this article details a balloon ascension from East Boston to Duxbury Bay in Massachusetts. Lewis A. Lauriat was born on the island of Guadalupe in the French West Indies. Colonial records give his date of birth as October 13, 1785 (although his obituary following his death on October 31, 1858 gives his age as 92.) He may have been educated in France (where he was supposedly elected Professor of Chemistry at the College of Marseilles), and came to the United States in 1806. He married and subsequently worked as a gold-beater. In the mid-1830s he began a number of hot-air balloon ascents, and became recognized as one of the pioneers in this field. Lauriat voyaged around Cape Horn to California in 1849, where he worked as an assayer and as a merchant. He returned to Boston briefly but came back to California, where he died in Sacramento.¹

The following is quoted from the 1838 Boston Almanac: On July 4th 1837, everything went off well, the wind was northwest, and the day was one of the finest of the season. Every one seemed to participate in the festivities of the occasion. In the afternoon [Louis] Lauriat ascended from East Boston in his balloon. He passed over Duxbury, and landed safely on the flats beyond that town, in about an hour after he left the amphitheater. His greatest height was 17,000 feet. The evening was mild, with scarcely a cloud above the horizon. Crowds of people soon filled the Common, where they witnessed fireworks that surpassed any thing of the kind ever seen in Boston.

¹ California State Library.

MORE INFORMATION ON THE HISTORY OF BALLOONING: