Joseph Coolidge (1798-1879)

He was born in Boston and graduated from Harvard University. After traveling in Europe, he returned to the United States in 1824 and attended the reunion of Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette at Monticello. There he met Jefferson's granddaughter Ellen Wayles Randolph, whom he married the following year. Back in Boston, he became a prominent shipping merchant trading with China, working initially with Russell & Co., and then later as an agent for the firm of Augustine Heard & Co. He spent much of his time abroad, particularly in China, and his wife occasionally accompanied him while their four sons attended school in Geneva and Berlin. He was reputed to be worth $300,000 in 1851, mostly inherited and through the China Trade.