It wasn’t easy being whaling magnate and multi-millionaire Jonathan Bourne, Jr. – at least, not if you wanted to sleep, according to Brian Witkowski.

Witkowski, the director of apprentices and interns at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, gave a presentation on Bourne’s life and legacy to a group of about 20 people at the Wareham Historical Society Friday evening. According to Witkowski, Bourne was one of New Bedford's wealthiest whaling agents and merchants. After buying the store in which he formerly worked, he began investing in whaling vessels, and later pursued other ventures, such as banks and railroads.

“If it affected his business, he [almost always] became the director of it,” Witkowski said of Bourne’s business strategy.

Bourne was also an alderman for New Bedford, and served on the Governor's Council for five years.

Wareham Historical Society President Angela Dunham said the Society decided to bring in Witkowski to speak because two of the society’s members heard him speak at the Whaling Museum and thought, “it would be a perfect collaboration.”

“[The New Bedford Historical Society has] been very helpful with information about fundraising,” Dunham said. “We’ve invited them to some of our programs, they’ve invited us over there, so this, to me, was a logical collaboration. I am hoping this is the first of partnerships that we do with a lot of the surrounding historical societies.”

Dunham said it was hard to choose what most interested her from the talk, but said she felt the talk was important for the community.

“It is important for the town, because I think that people lose sight of the fact that people from generations past were so courageous,” Dunham said. “They were self-starters. … They knew what to do to make a community thrive. And they are the foundation that we have built upon. … Our roots, after all, are what we stand on, what we build from.”