Ignatius Sargent
Ignatius Sargent (January 20, 1800 – August 18, 1884) was a merchant, banker, railroad executive, philanthropist, and horticulturalist who was best known for his contributions to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and for being one of the Boston Associates who founded Lawrence and Holyoke, Massachusetts. Among his posts, he was president of the Globe Bank of Boston for 28 years, and remained a director there for nearly 50. He also served as a dirctor of the Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company, the first Hadley Falls Company, the Boston and Albany Railroad, and the Connecticut River Railroad. After retiring as a merchant, he spent his time after 1840 at a large farm in Brookline where he spent his time cultivating flowers and other plants, contributing to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society's exhibitions. With his wealth he funded $500 a year to support botanist Asa Gray so that he could devote "undivided attention" to completing his volume Flora of America. His interest in horticultural is credited with inspiring his son Charles Sprague Sargent, the first director of Harvard's Arnold Arboretum, to pursue his own career in that field.

References

External links

 Ignatius Sargent House, 209 Sargent Road - Demolition Application Report, Brookline Preservation Commission
 Ignatius Sargent (1800-1884), FindAGrave

1800 births
1884 deaths
People from Brookline, Massachusetts
American Congregationalists
Businesspeople from Boston
Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery
19th-century American businesspeople
19th-century American botanists
19th-century American railroad executives