Ohio History Journal

JOHN FITCH, INVENTOR OF STEAMBOATS.

BY MIRA CLARKE PARSONS. In the closing year of this century of wonders, it is fitting that we should give a thought to the memory of the inventors and investigators to whom the world owes so vast a debt. Fore-- most among them must stand the names of the men who first utilized the tremendous forces of steam and electricity. For generations every schoolboy has been taught that Robert Fulton was the inventor of the steamboat. That honor rightfully belongs to another from whom he received the ideas, which, by means of influential friends, he was afterwards able to develop. The heading of the map illustrating this paper,* published by John Hutchings of New York, in 1846, reads as follows: "The world is indebted to the original idea and mechanical genius of John Fitch of East Windsor, Conn., and the persever- ance and indefatigable attention of Robert Fulton, Esq., for the use of steam, and to the wealth, and exalted and estimable char- acter of Robert D. Livingston, Esq., Chancellor of the State of New York, and American Minister to France." Twenty-one years before the whistle of Fulton's steamboat, the "Clermont", startled the echoes among the hills which guard the Hudson, John Fitch had made a more successful experiment upon the waters of the Delaware river, upon which he propelled three steamboats of his own invention, from 1786 to 1789. In the summer of 1849, when the 'cholera scare" almost de- populated the city of Columbus, Ohio, a family of children were sent to the adjoining town of Worthington, to spend the summer with their grandfather, Colonel James Kilbourne, who kept a hotel there, and was one of the early and honored settlers of the town. One rainy day, the boys in exploring the garret, came across a strange object bearing resemblance to a steamboat. It was three feet in length, having the solid wheels and upright cylinder of steam conveyances of the present day. The working * This map is now in the possession of I. N. Whiting, of Columbus (397)

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machinery was of brass, and it seemed designed to run upon a

submerged track.

Full of wonder, the boys questioned their grandfather about

it, who told them the principal facts in the following paper. To

one of these boys, Hon. Isaac N. Whiting, of Columbus, now an

elderly man, the writer is indebted for the story, supplemented

by reliable information gained from biographies now in the Ohio

State Library, and to the kindly interest of Dr. J. H. McQuown,

of Bardstown, Kentucky.

John Fitch, whose daughter Lucy was the wife of Col. Kil-

bourne, was born at East Windsor, Conn., Jan. 21, 1743. He

was the fifth in a family of six children. His parents, Joseph

and Sarah Shaler Fitch, were of good old Saxon origin. It is said

that their ancestors were entitled to "a coat of arms and a vellum

of pedigree."*

His father was a stern, hard man, of the old New England

type. His mother whom he describes as "an active, enterpris-

ing, good woman," died before the boy was five years old. He

was taken from school when he was eight, and put to work on

the farm, although he tells us in his autobiography, that he was

so small that he could only swingle two pounds of flax, or

thresh two bushels of wheat in a day.

He says that he was "almost crazy for learning," and we

find him working evenings at Hodder's Arithmetic, until he got

as far as Alligation Alternate. When he was eleven years old

he heard of a book that "would tell him all about the whole

world," - Salmon's Geography. The price was twelve shillings.

He rented some unproductive land from his father, borrowed seed

potatoes from him with which to plant it, tended his crop at odd

moments and "training-days," (those red-letter holidays dear to

the old-time New England youth,) harvested his crop in the fall,

paid back the seed potatoes, and bought the book which he

soon knew by heart.+

When he was thirteen he was allowed six weeks more of

 

* Whittlesev's Life of John Fitch, Sparks's American Biography,

Vol. 16, page 98.

+ See Whittlesey's Life of John Fitch, Sparks's American Biography,

Vol. 16, page 94.

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John Fitch, Inventor of Steamboats.      399

schooling, in which time he finished the arithmetic and learned

the first principles of surveying. It was a proud day for the lad

when Governor Wolcott, whose land joined his father's farm, in-

vited him to assist in surveying it. This first and only practical

knowledge of the science was afterwards used to good advantage

in the wild lands of Kentucky.

His story is briefly outlined on this map as follows:

"First we find him a farmer's boy, next an apprentice to a

watchmaker, then a store in Trenton, N. J., with a stock of

guns and soldier's equipments, valued at five thousand dollars,

all of which was destroyed when the British took Trenton, next

a lieutenant in the American Army, then taken prisoner by the

Indians, and sold by one tribe to another through the North

West Territory, until he was purchased by an Englishman,

and thus obtained his freedom. During this time he became

acquainted with that part of the country, of which he made a

map, and although printed upon a common cider-press, it had

an extensive sale. He was next surveyor in Kentucky, then a

civil engineer in Pennsylvania, and on the Delaware made his

first experiment of a Steam-Boat with Paddles.

He then left America and traveled through France and Eng-

land, but not meeting with the encouragement anticipated, became

poor and returned home, working his pasage as a common sailor

to Boston, from thence to his native town in Connecticut,, thence

to New York where he remained some time, then back to Ken-

tucky, where he died in 1798."

Some amplication of these statements is necessary. His

marriage at twenty-four was an unhappy one, soon resulting in

a separation, after which, for his whole life, John Fitch was a

wanderer. But whether in a watchmaker's shop, or repairing

arms for the American soldiers or with hand-made tools fashion-

ing trinkets for the wives of his Indian captors, he was always

and everywhere conceiving ideas which were afterwards to be

born as the greatest invention of his age.

He never saw his wife after their separation, but always had

a great interest in his two children, a son and daughter. The

daughter became the wife of Col. Kilbourne, and it is believed

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400      Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

he gave her his cherished model of a steamboat, a photograph of

which is now for the first time exhibited to the public.

While serving his time as a soldier at Valley Forge, he heard

some officers from Virginia talk of the wonderfully fertile lands

of Kentucky, and the need of a surveyor there. Returning to War-

minster, Pa., he obtained the appointment of Deputy Surveyor

for these wild lands. He accomplished the work successfully,

his early experience serving him well in this capacity. He re-

turned to Warminster, the owner of six hundred acres of choice

land near the town of Bardstown in Nelson County, Ky. On

a later trip to Kentucky to look after these lands, he was taken

prisoner by the Indians, near Marietta, Ohio. He traveled twelve

hundred miles on foot before he was redeemed.

The wonderful knowledge of his captors concerning every

foot of ground which had felt the touch of their moccasin, he

obtained by often questioning them on their journeys, and after-

wards utilized in constructing a map which is said to nave been

surprisingly accurate. It covers the country from the Lake of the

Woods to the mouth of the Ohio river.

On a later trip to Kentucky he found much of his land

occupied by unauthorized settlers, and in litigation he lost a

great part of it. In 1784 he drifted back to Warminster and

took up his old trade of watchmaking.

 

*      *      *      *

Walking home from church with a friend on Sabbath morn-

ing, in April 1785, a carriage passed them, drawn by two spirited

horses. One biographer says:

"The idea, unfortunate for him but fortunate for the world,

of gaining a force by steam, took possession of his thoughts,

and from that time became the abiding passion of his soul."*

His knowledge of the almost inaccessible lands he had surveyed,

had made him understand what great value they would gain if

a boat could be made to ascend the Mississippi and its tributaries.

So, although the first thought was of making use of steam as a

power for propelling land vehicles, the idea gave place in a few

days to the utilization of it for boats.

* Whittlesey's Life of John Fitch, Sparks's American Biography,

Vol. 16, pages 111-112.

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John Fitch, Inventor of Steamboats.        401

He says in his autobiography, that he had then never heard

of a steam engine. Although Watt had already applied stationary

steam power to do the work of men in England, the unhappy state

of affairs between the two countries, and the difficulty of com-

munication, were sufficient reasons for ignorance of this fact,

in the case of an uneducated man like John Fitch, whose veracity

no one who knew him ever questioned. He says:

"From that time, (April, 1786) I have pursued the idea

with unremitted assiduity. Yet do I frankly confess that it has

been the most imprudent scheme that ever I have engaged in."*

In August of the same year, he laid his first petition before

Congress, in these words:

"Sir:-The subscriber begs leave to lay at the feet of Con-

gress an attempt he has made to facilitate the internal Naviga-

tion of the United States, adapted especially to the waters of the

Mississippi. The Machine he has invented for the purpose has

been examined by several gentlemen of Learning and Ingenuity,

who have given it their approbation. Being thus encouraged,

he is desirous to solicit the attention of Congress to a rough model

of it now with him, that, after examination into the principles upon

which it operates, they may be able to judge whether it deserves

encouragement.

"And he, as in duty bound, shall ever pray.

"John Fitch.

"His Excellency, the President of Congress."

This petition was referred to a committee who never reported.

He next laid the matter before the ambassador of the King

of Spain, who was then in New York, who would have given him

assistance if the invention should be for the benefit of his Royal

Master. The historian+ says, "If he had accepted the offers of the

Spanish Minister, he might have been rich."  He refused, wish-

ing his invention should be for the benefit of mankind.

He afterwards said.++ "God forbid that I should ever be in the

* Westcott's Life of John Fitch (Lippincott & Co., Phila.) Chapter

10, pages 128-129.

+ Westcott, Chapter 10, p. 130.

++ In his autobiography, quoted by Westcott, Chapter 10, page 130.

Vol. VIII-26.

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402       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

like error again! The strange idea I had of serving my country,

without the least suspicion that my only reward would be noth-

ing but contempt and opprobrious names, has taught me a mighty

lesson in mankind, - and to do it at the displeasure of the whole

Spanish nation is one of the most unpolitical strokes that a Block-

head could be guilty of." In September of that year he presented

a drawing of his boat and models to the American Philosophical

Society, in Philadelphia. The model is said to be now in pos-

session of the society, but the papers are missing.

He traveled through different states, going from one legis-

lature to another, asking for help in his undertaking, but with no

success, till Patrick Henry, Governor of Virginia, assisted him in

forming a Company, and a subscription of forty shares at ten

dollars a share, was filled up.

This money and the proceeds from the sale of his map, was the

capital employed in the construction of the first steamboat.

It was impossible to obtain either workmen or machinery

from England, and the undaunted man set himself to making his

own machinery, with Henry Voight, "a plain Dutchman, who

feared no man," as his superintendent.

The trial of the first ship moved by steam was successfully

made July 26, 1786. The little nameless craft, moved by this

strange new power upon the waters of the Delaware river, is

with all her crudeness, rightfully entitled to be called "Mother of

Steamboats," for she contained the embryonic principles which

have been reproduced in every steamboat since that day."*

As an experiment she was a success, but needed improve-

ments in many ways to render her of practical utility.

The power of granting patents was then unknown to Con-

gress, but State monopolies were lawful, and New Jersey gave

Fitch the right of employing steam as a means of navigation

for fourteen years.

The company now resolved to build a new boat, of more

* There lies before us, as we write, a picture of the great battleship,

Kentucky, the magnificent war ship, which, with the exception of her

twin sister, the Kearsage, is the most powerful vessel in the United

States Navy. She cost four million dollars. She is a lineal descendant

of this first steamboat, with no reason to be ashamed of her parentage.

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John Fitch, Inventor of Steamboats.       403

practical utility. The distress of the poor inventor, in being

obliged to raise money from his friends, was terribly acute.

He says:

"Could money have been extracted from my limbs, ampu-

tation would often have taken place." He "did not feel the

insults of the populace, only as they were offered to his friends."*

In every possible way he shared in full the ignominy suffered by

every great discoverer.

Amid discouragement of all kinds the work went on, and in

July, 1788, the second successful steamboat, aptly named the

"Perseverance", was launched on the Delaware river, at a speed

of four miles an hour. The next year, with new machinery, she

was run as a regular passenger boat between Burlington and

Philadelphia, as often advertised in the newspapers of that time,

with a speed of seven, and sometimes eight miles an hour.

One biographer+ says:

"The great problem, it was now thought, was demonstrated.'

John Fitch had provided his claim to be the inventor of the

Steamboat.

At this junction, if a rich and powerful patron, - like Chan-

cellor Livingston in Fulton's time, - could have been found,

this story of a thwarted and wrecked life would never have needed

to be told.

He obtained his patent in August, 1791, and the stockholders

decided to build another larger boat, to be sent to Virginia, to

obtain the benefit of the Virginia law, which secured exclusive

right to the steamboat on Western waters, the Ohio and its trib-

utaries. The bounds of Virginia then included Kentucky, Ohio,

and the Northwestern Territory. If the plan could have matured,

the greatest wish of Fitch's heart would have been realized, but

the boat, though begun, was never finished. Under great dis-

couragements, the faith and funds of the company failed together,

and the inventor, to whom the whole scheme was "as clear as

Euclid", at last abandoned the work. In his journal he tells of

the indignities offered him when he was "in the midst of the most

 

* Autobiography quoted by Westcott, Ch. 12, p. 164.

+Westcott, Ch. 17, p. 284.

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404       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

excruciating tortures of devising plans for completing his under-

taking."

One biographer* says: "His few stout-hearted friends had

rendered themselves subject to ridicule and derision, for their

temerity and presumption in giving countenance to this wild pro-

jector and visionary madman.

The company gave up the ghost, the boat went to pieces,

and Fitch became bankrupt and broken-hearted." We find these

sadly prophetic words recorded in his journal:

"The day will come when some more powerful man will get

fame and riches by my invention; but nobody will believe that

poor John Fitch can do anything worthy of attention."

In 1795 the last act in the drama of the "Perseverance" was

concluded by the sale "by Public Vendue, on Smith's Wharf,

Philadelphia, between Race and Vine streets, a sixteen-inch cyl-

inder steam engine, with machinery appertaining thereto."+

After this, Mr. Fitch devoted some time to writing his auto-

biography, and the history of his steamboat inventions. The

manuscripts consist of six pasteboard-covered books, of the old-

fashioned "cyphering book" style. They were sealed, and de-

posited in the Philadelphia library, not to be opened for thirty

years. He gave as a reason for this requirement, that his son

and daughter would by that time be "Marryed," and any con-

duct of his would not then "affect their temporal interests." They

are addressed to "My children, and future generations."

These manuscripts were formally opened in February, 1828,

an abstract made of their contents, as he had requested, and then

again sealed and deposited in the library, where, the Actuary of

Franklin Institute informs us, they still remain.

During these thirty years, the poor inventor's wildest dreams

had been more than realized. He said: "The day will come

when vessels propelled by steam will cross the ocean! And I

almost venture to prophesy that the same power will be utilized

in moving land vehicles !"

*Thomas P. Cope, in Hazard's Register (Penn.), p. 91, quoted

by Westcott, Chapter 20, page 338.

+Bache's Aurora and General Advertiser, Aug. 18, 1795, quoted

by Westcott, Chapter 20, page 348.

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John Fitch, Inventor of Steamboats.      405

(The first steamer that ever crossed the Atlantic is said to have been the Savannah, an American vessel of three hundred and eighty tons, built in New York. The Sirius, an English steamer, made the voyage in 1838.) Mr. Fitch sailed for France in 1793, to lay his cherished scheme before that country through Aaron Vail, United States Minister there, who had become greatly interested in it, and pro- posed that France should aid in perfecting the invention and receive the benefits of it. But the revolutionary state of things there made this impossible. Leaving his valuable papers and models in the hands of Mr. Vail, he returned to America in a state of utter destitution, working his passage to Boston. Robert Fulton was then in Paris. Mr. Vail afterwards ac- knowledged that he lent him "all the papers, drawings, and specifications of John Fitch, which he retained for some months."* He had time to assimilate their contents, to be made use of afterwards. When a lad he had known Fitch, who was twenty-two years his senior, and he was quick-witted enough to profit by the sug- gestions and experiments of the elder man, although never giving him credit for them. The time of his return to New York is not certainly known by Fitch's biographers, but he was a passenger on the little boat which made its trips around Collect Pond, as we shall see. After his return to this country, Mr. Fitch visited his sister and his daughter, Lucy, in Connecticut, spending some time with them. He then went to New York, and it is thought that he received assistance from Robert R. Livingston (who was even then interested in experiments in steam navigation) in build- ing a small boat for trial. John Hutchings makes affidavit on the map here repre-- sented, that in the summer of 1796 or 1797, he helped to steer a boat built by Mr. Fitch, and propelled by steam power upon Col- lect Pond, a "section of New York afterwards occupied in part by "The Tombs." "It was then, as history tells us, "a large pond of fresh water." The map is a curiosity now.   *Westcott, Chapter 20, page 348.

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406       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

John Hutchings tells us:

"At that time Robert R. Livingston, esq., and Robert Ful-

ton, with Mr. Fitch and myself, worked or passed several times

around the pond on different occasions, while Mr. Fitch explained

to Mr. Livingston and Mr. Fulton the modus operandi of the

machinery, Mr. Fitch having a patent for his invention from the

State of New York."

He records some of the conversation between Fitch and

Fulton, showing them in the attitude of teacher and pupil. The

boat and its machinery are accurately described, and the four

persons on board designated by figures.

He goes on to say:

"If his country had furnished John Fitch the necessary means

we should have been blessed with steam navigation ten or fifteen

years before we were."

His statements are corroborated by the testimony of the

highest officials then in New York. The boat and its machinery

were abandoned, and left to decay on the muddy shore of Collect

Pond. It was carried away, piece by piece, by the children of

the neighborhood for fuel.

That autumn, Mr. Fitch left New York for Kentucky,-

again quoting John Hutchings-"having made his last success-

ful effort in this glorious enterprise of Steam Navigation."

 

*      *      *      *

The rest of his story is soon told. He established himself in

the tavern of Alexander McCown, in Bardstown, the county seat

of Nelson county, where the remainder of his life was passed.

He told his host that he neither expected nor desired to live

very long, and executed a bond, conveying to him the remnant

of land left him there, after long litigation with the settlers who

had taken possession of it. Mr. McCown said, "It was the con-

stant burden of his conversation, that he should descend to his

grave penniless, but should leave in his discoveries, a legacy to

his country that should make her rich."*

He had hoped to interest the Kentuckians in his invention,

 

* Quoted by Westcott (Chapter 21, page 364) from a letter written

by Hon. Robert Wickliffe, of Kentucky.

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John Fitch, Inventor of Steamboats.      407

but in vain. As his health failed, he worked at intervals upon his

last model, a steamboat three feet in length, with wheels and

brass machinery, which was often seen floating in a small stream

near the village.

On July 1, 1798, this weary and disappointed man left the

world which had never smiled upon him, honestly believing to

the last in the final fulfillment of his dreams. His fast friend,

Alexander McCown, assisted by two others, with their own

hands laid him in his grave. A relative of the McCown family

has kindly furnished the writer with the last information we

have concerning John Fitch. He says: "His grave was never

marked by wood, marble or stone, until October, 1854, when

three of the citizens of Bardstown located it, and placed two

small pieces of marble or rock, as head and foot stones to it. It

can now be located by these two stones, and by the records in

the county clerk's office. These men are all dead. The stones

are too rough for lettering."

From the same source we learn that Robert Fulton took one

model from the tavern, soon after Fitch's death.

It was a cherished wish of this lonely man, that he might

be buried upon the banks of the Ohio river, "where the song

of the boatman might penetrate the stillness of his resting place,

and the sound of the steam  engine might send, its echoes

abroad."*  But the wish was not realized.

Nothing now remains to perpetuate the memory of the in-

ventor of the first steamboat, save the model here represented.

Which of the four it is, which are mentioned in the autobiography,

the present owner cannot certainly tell. He was a young lad

when it came into the hands of his father, Isaac N. Whiting, Sr.,

who, in 1854, lent it to James H. McCord, United States In-

spector for the port of St. Louis. There was at that time much

curious speculation about it and it was examined by machinists

of note.

The St. Louis Democrat, in October, 1854, published a de-

scription of it, a part of which we give. It is called "the original

+John H. McQuown, M.D., Bardstown, Ky.

*A paraphrase of his own words, as quoted by John F. Watson,

Germantown, Pa. (Westcott, Ch. 24, p. 415).

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408       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

model of the engine and boiler constructed by John Fitch about

the year 1790, and by him applied to the propelling of boats," and

goes on to say:

"It rests on a model railway car constructed by him, em-

bracing all the essential requisites of the present railway car, such

as a flange on the rim, just as we have it now, used for a guide

to keep the wheels on the track, also the framework outside the

wheels, as our cars were at first constructed. It was evidently

thus arranged for the purpose of exhibiting the power of steam

in propelling boats, and was constructed on a railway immersed

in a trough of the proper depth for the paddles to strike the

water, and when the motion was given, the wheels would guide

it along the submerged railway. * *  * There is no doubt of

the identity of the original model upon which the great mind of

Fitch expended its energies, the result of whose labors was the

application of the wonderful agent, steam, to practical purposes."

With the exception of this little journey in the world, the

strange relic has remained for more than a hundred years silent

and still in a dim garret. From time to time those interested in

this true story have planned to remove the ashes contained in

the obscure grave to a location such as its tenant would have

chosen. But the plans have thus far been barren of results.

More than fifty years ago, a number of Kentucky gentlemen

promised they would have the remains deposited under a mon-

ument on the margin of the Ohio river, below Louisville, but

the promise was never kept.

Westcott, in the preface to his biography, written in 1857,

makes a strong appeal to a new generation to "do justice to the

memory of one whose power has been long obscured by an

usurped credit, improperly allowed to another."

Can our country afford longer to ignore this man's claims

on the present age? Is not the closing year of this century a

fitting time to build a monument to the memory of one to whom

it owes so great a debt?

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