Thomas Jefferson Coolidge was born on August 26, 1831 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. He was the youngest child of Joseph Coolidge, Jr. , and Eleanora Wayles Randolph. His father was seventh in descent from John Coolidge, the immigrant, who settled about 1630 in Watertown. His great-grandfather on his mother's side was Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States.
Coolidge attended boarding school in London, in Geneva, and in Dresden. At the age of sixteen he returned and entered the sophomore class at Harvard College "without difficulty. "
Beginning his business career in foreign commerce, he soon showed a capacity for mercantile affairs.
Weathering the commercial crash of 1857, he was persuaded by his father-in-law to accept the treasurership of the Boott Mills, thus embarking on a life-long activity in the cotton-spinning industry of New England, holding at different times the treasurership of the Lawrence Manufacturing Company, and of the Amoskeag Mills, and directorships in other New England manufacturing companies.
His business enterprise engaged him in the management of various railroads, and he served for a short time as president of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé railroad.
He also devoted himself to the public interest, serving as a member of the first Park Commission, which laid out the park system of the City of Boston. He was the donor to Manchester-by-the-Sea of a town library, and to Harvard College of the Jefferson Physical Laboratory. He also established a fund for research in physics and served for eleven years as a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University. In 1889 he was appointed a member of the Pan-American Congress. In 1892 he became minister to France, where his ability to speak the language as a native, and his tact, courtesy, and sound judgment won him the high consideration of his associates. A change of administration brought him home, where in 1896 he was appointed member of a Massachusetts Taxation Commission.
His distinguished life of business achievement and public service closed in his ninetieth year.
He was director of the Merchants National Bank of Boston, of the New England Trust Company, and of the Bay State Trust Company, and one of the original incorporators of the Old Colony Trust Company of Boston. He was appointed to the Joint High Commission of the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and Newfoundland, to examine the question of the Alaskan boundary, the fisheries, the destruction of fur seals, armaments upon the lakes, and transportation of goods in bond.
Quotations: "I believed myself to belong to a superior class, and that the principle that the ignorant and poor should have the same right to make laws and govern as the educated and refined was an absurdity. "
In 1852 he married Hetty Sullivan, daughter of William Appleton of Boston. They had three daughters and a son.
