CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. INFANCY AND BOYHOOD.

Reasons given by John Fitch for writing an account of his life -- Origin of the Fitch family -- Emigration of the ancestors of Jobn Fitch to America -- They settle in Connecticut -- Marriage of Joseph Fitch -- Birth of John -- Is sent to school -- Death of his mother -- Second marriage of his father -- Heroism of the boy, and punishment therefore -- Is taken from school when ten years of age -- His progress in arithmetic -- Studies at home -- Procures a copy of Salmon's Geography -- His efforts to earn sufficient money to pay for it -- Assists Governor Wolcott in making surveys -- Disappointment -- The Governor and the road-menders -- Fitch hired out to a store-keeper -- Goes to sea -- Returns

CHAPTER II. APPRENTICESHIP -- MANHOOD -- MARRlAGE.

Bound apprentice to Benjamin Cheany, to learn clockmaking and watch-making -- Compelled to labor on the farm -- Scarcity of food -- The story of the twelve days-old broth -- Is prevented from learning anything about the business -- Badly treated by Cheany -- His indentures cancelled -- Goes to Timothy Cheany -- Still deprived of opportunities of learning his trade -- Nearly starved -- - Leaves him, at length, at manhood, ignorant of the business -- Sets up brass-founding -- Is allowed to take a clock apart and put it together -- Engages in the manufacture of potash -- Failure in that speculation -- Marries Lucy Roberts -- Unhappy union -- Birth of Shaler Fitch -- Domestic dissensions -- Abandons his wife and family.

CHAPTER III. THE SILVERSMITH -- THE GUNSMITH.

Fitch goes to Pittsfield, New York, and successively visits Albany and New York -- Proceeds toward Elizabethtown, NewJersey -- Adventure with termagant -- Settles at Trenton, New Jersey -- Is aided by Matthew Clunn -- Becomes journeyman to a silversmith -- Makes buttons -- Travels through the country to dispose of them -- Buys the tools of his former employer -- Gets into a prosperous business as a silversmith -- Breaking out of the Revolution -- Fitch elected a lieutenant in the New Jersey line -- Disputes about rank -- Injustice done him -- Leaves the service -- Is employed by New Jersey as armorer of the troops -- His services -- Approach of the British to Trenton -- Removal to Bucks County, Pennsylvania -- Becomes a member of the Hatborough Library Company

CHAPTER IV. THE SUTTLER -- THE SURVEYOR.

Fitch supplies the American army at Valley Forge with tobacco, beer, and other articles -- Buries his gold and silver in Bucks County -- It is discovered and stolen -- Discovery of the thief, and partial restitution -- Commences work again as a silversmith -- Great depreciation of Continental money -- Determines to lay out his Continental money in Virginia land-warrants -- Is appointed a deputy surveyor in Kentucky -- Adventures on the Ohio River -- Stirring fight with Indians, who capture a boat -- Escape from the enemy -- Arrival in Kentucky -- Surveys of lands there -- Profitable investments -- Patents for l600 acres of land.

CHAPTER V. THE INDIAN'S CAPTIVE.

Journey to Kentucky in the spring of 1782 -- Buys flour at Pittsburg -- Voyage down the Ohio -- Boat runs aground near the Muskingum River -- Flour taken out to set her afloat -- Scouts sent out on the island -- Do not return -- The parties in the boats attacked by Indians -- Two men killed -- Resistance -- Capture by Indians -- Magee and Bradley scalped -- Boat set adrift with a war-club tied to the steering-oar -- Attempt of Captain Buffaloe to tomahawk Fitch -- Interposition of Captain Crow -- Fitch, bareheaded, marches witb his companions through the wilderness toward Detroit -- Division of the prisoners among their captors -- Fitch becomes the property of Captain Buffaloe -- Manner of securing the prisoners by day and night -- Scarcity of food -- The pains of hunger -- They reach a village of the Delawares -- The scalp halloo -- Ceremony with the scalps of Bradley and Magee -- Williamson's massacre Of Moravian Indians on the Muskingum -- Consequences of that ruthless act to the prisoners -- March toward the principal town of the Delawares -- Preparations for running the gauntlet -- The flight toward the council-house -- Assaults received by the prisoners on their way there -- The worst treatment from the women -- The council-house gained.

CHAPTER VI. ADVENTURES AMONG THE SAVAGES.

The Grand Council deliberate on the fate of the prisoners -- Preparations for a dance -- Fires built -- Curious steps and ceremonies -- The prisoners invited to join -- Refusal of Fitch -- Offer made to him by a chief for his breeches -- His refusal -- Another prisoner more compliant -- The prisoners suffered to proceed -- Four of them given up to the Delaware chief -- Fitch and six others marched to Captain Buffaloe's town -- Separation from Captain Washington's party -- The prisoners set to house-building by Buffaloe -- Scarcity of food -- Buffaloe and his handmaid -- The march resumed towards Detroit -- Meeting of Buffaloe with his wife and child -- Their separation -- The party proceeds -- Bad weather -- Arrive at the trading-post of Cochran and Saunders, at an Ottawa town on the Maumee River -- Arrival of Delawares -- Murder of a servant of Saunders by one of them -- Fearful peril of the prisoners from the drunken Indians -- The scalp halloo -- The Ottawa Indians take the part of the captives -- The Delawares retire -- Captain Buffaloe dooms the prisoners to destruction, and orders them to go to the Delaware camp -- Special protection accorded to Fitch -- Danger of theothers -- Narrow escape of Jarrad -- Interposition of Saunders on their behalf -- They go with him in a canoe to Detroit -- Capture of Sturgeon, and great feast . . . . .

CHAPTER VII. THE PRISONER OF WAR IN CANADA. ultivates a garden -- Makes tools out of hoops and rough pieces of iron -- Builds a furnace -- Makes buttons and wooden clocks -- Makes his own charcoal -- Takes journeymen and apprentices from among the prisoners -- His workshop a favorite place of resort for the British officers -- Jealousy of the other prisoners -- Attempts of prisoners to escape

Exchange of the prisoners -- Fitch sent to Quebec -- Placed on board the cartel-ship Baker and Atly, bound to Philadelphia -- The voyage -- A severe storm -- Fears of shipwreck -- Curious preparation for the expected disaster -- Encounter of an American frigate -- The South Carolina chased by three British men-of-war -- The sea-fight -- Capture of the South Carolina -- The Baker and Atly steered for New York -- Release of the prisoners -- Fitch returns to Bucks County -- Joins a Masonic lodge . . . .

A company formed to survey lands in Ohio -- The party go to that region -- Survey from the Hockhocking to Wheeling Island -- Difficulty -- Fears of Indians -- Fitch goes with frontier men into the woods -- Rapid surveys -- Return to Pennsylvania on foot -- Journey to Ohio in the spring of 1785 -- Survey in the neighborhood of the Muskingum and the Hockhocking -- Indian signs -- Division of the party -- Narrow escape of Fitch and his companions -- Sterrett and his associates captured -- Surveys at the great Kanawha -- Return to Bucks County -- Resolution of Congress for laying out new States -- Another journey to Ohio -- More surveys -- Return to Bucks -- Petition to Congress for the post of surveyor -- A map of the North-western Territory engraved by Fitch and printed on a press made by him

First idea of steam land-carriages, April, 1785 -- The idea given up for the plan of a steamboat -- Trial of a model with paddle-wheels -- Daniel Longstreth -- Hon. N. B. Boileau -- Application to Congress -- Letters of Dr. John Ewing, William C. Houston, and Provost Smith, of Princeton -- Fitch's letter to Congress, asking assistance -- Referred to a Committee, who make no report -- Application to the Spanish Minister -- Draftings and model of the steam-boat laid before the American Philosophical Society -- Application to Dr. Franklin -- Accusation that Dr. Franklin attempted to deprive Fitch of the honor of the invention -- Fitch sets out for Kentucky, to gain assistance -- Visit to William Henry, at Lancaster -- Interview with Governor Johnson, of Maryland -- Interview with Washington -- James Rumsey's pole-boat, working by mechanical power -- Petition to the Legislature of Virginia for assistance -- Bond to Patrick Henry, Governor of Virginia, conditioned to apply the proceeds of the map of the North-western Territory to building a steam-boat -- Petitions to the Legislatures of Pennsylvania and Maryland -- Interview with Franklin -- Insulting conduct of the latter

Proposal to Arthur Donaldson to build a steam-boat -- Application to the State of New Jersey for an appropriation of loan-certificates refused -- Donaldson pretends to be the inventor of a steam-boat -- Fitch presents a petition to the Legislature of Pennsylvania for a law giving him an exclusive right to the navigation of vessels by fire and steam -- Donaldson contests his claim -- The matter referred to a committee -- Law of New Jersey in favor of Fitch -- New petition to theLegislature of Pennsylvania -- The Steamboat Company formed -- Difficulty about getting a Steamengine made -- Sketch of Christopher Colles, who built the first steam-engine ever constructed in America, in 1773 -- Introduction to Henry Voight, who is induced to interest himself in the scheme -- Working model of a steam-engine with one-inch cylinder made -- Failure -- Larger model (three-inch cylinder) made -- Trial of a skiff with the screw of paddles -- Not very successful -- Disheartened -- Invention of the mode of rowing by oars at the side of the boat -- Trial of the first skiff, moved by steam -- Success of the experiment, July 27, 1786 . .

The Steam-boat Company resolve to build a large steamboat, to be moved by an engine with twelveinch cylinder -- Difficulty about getting the subscribers to contribute the required sums -- Indifference of the shareholders -- Distress of the projector -- Application to the Legislature of Pennsylvania for the loan of £150 to build the boat and machinery -- Favorable report of Committee -- The Assembly reject the proposition -- Letter to General Mifflin for assistance -- The controversy with Donaldson -- The latter meets with no favor -- Laws granting special rights to Fitch for fourteen years passed by Pennsylvania, New York, and Delaware . . . . . . . . . . . .

The company resolve to go on with the boat -- Description of the steam-boat of 1786, with paddles at the sides -- The steam-engine -- Difficulties attending its construction -- Deed of reciprocal advantage -- Names of the members of the Steam-boat Company -- The steam-engine completed, and found defective -- Taken out of the boat from the foundation and set up again -- The condenser imperfect -- New pipe condenser adopted on a plan of Henry Voight's -- Steam-valves will not work -- Double cock invented by Voight -- The steam-boat propelled -- The engine brought to work briskly, but the boiler does not furnish enough steam -- Shareholders discouraged -- Some abandon the project -- Appeal to the public prepared by Fitch -- Effect of this paper on the stockholders -- More money furnished -- Successful trial on the 22d of August, 1787 in presence of the members of the Convention to frame a Federal Constitution -- Certificates of Dr. Johnston, of Virginia, David Rittenhouse, John Ewing, and Andrew Ellicott -- The Company order a larger steam-engine to be constructed, with an eighteen-inch cylinder -- First information that James Rumsey, of Virginia, claimed to have invented a steamboat -- Application by Fitch to the Legislature of Virginia for a law securing his rights -- Opposition by the friends of Rumsey -- Rumsey's boat proved not to be a steam-boat -- Report in favor of Fitch, and passage of a law securing his rights -- Law in favorof Fitch asked of Maryland -- Resisted by Ex-Governor Thomas Johnston . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Return to Philadelphia -- Petition to Congress for assistance -- Congress not full enough to vote on the proposition -- Favorable report of the Committee of Congress -- A vote not pressed -- Appearance of Rumsey'a pamphlet upon the steam-boat -- Fitch's reply, " The Original Steamboat supported " -- The report on Fitch's proposition called up in Congress, and laid on the table -- Chagrin and mortification of the inventor . . . . . . . . . . . .

The controversy with Rumsey -- The allegations on each side -- The invention of the pipe or tubular boiler -- The pamphlets by Rumsey, Fitch, and Barnes -- Collocation of proofs -- Reasons for believing that Fitch was entitled to priority in actual experiment -- Action of Congress on the claims of Rumsey's heirs, 1837-8-9 . . . . . .

Work on the boat continued -- Improvements by Voight -- The pipe boiler put in use -- The eighteen-inch cylinder
defective -- Broken up by the founders -- Dilemma of the Company -- Resolve to procure a new boat -- Abandonment of the oars at the sides of the boat -- They are placed at the stern -- The steam-boat goes to Burlington, July, 1788 -- The pipe boiler springs a leak -- The boat boats back to Philadelphia -- Visit of Brissot
de Warville, and description of the steam-boat -- The leak in the boiler repaired -- Frequent trips to Burlington -- The great principle
made manifest -- Certificate of the services of the steam-boat, by Ewing, Rittenhouse, Ellicott, Matlack, Smilie, Captain Hart, and others -- Speed, four miles an hour -- Not fast enough for a
packet-boat- Several stockholders, disheartened, abandon the
Company -- Withdrawal of the assistance of Voight -- New appeal --
An auxiliary com pany proposed -- Names of the members -- Distress and destitution of Fitch -- Insults offered to him and suffered by him -- The Rumseian Society -- Dr. Franklin's conduct -- Barnes and the Rumseian Society attack Fitch's law in Pennsylvania -- Argument before the Committee of the Legislature -- Report adverse to Rumsey, and failure of the effort -- Attempts made to procure
the repeal of Fitch's laws in Virginia, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware -- Second attempt in Pennsylvania also unsuccessful -- Fitch visits Shepherdstown, Virginia, in order to procure evidence in relation to Rumsey's experiments -- Altercation and quarrels with the townspeople -- Fresh proofs procured, etc. -- The steam ice-boat . . . . . . .

Work on the new boat resumed -- Eighteen-inch cylinder -- The boat ready for trial in August, 1789 -- Difficulties about the condenser -- Petition to Congress for a patent -- Hall's condenser taken out of the boat, and Thornton's put in -- The latter crushed by atmospheric pressure -- The new steam-boat tried with Ha11's condenser -- Propelled as swiftly as in the previous year -- The new Thornton condenser tried -- The boat is propelled, but not fast enough -- Voight's pipe condenser tried -- Voight's forcingpump, to throw neater in the condenser -- Constant failures -- Attention turned to the air-pump -- It is enlarged -- The engine works better -- The boat catches fire -- It is sunk, to extinguish the fire -- The damage repaired -- The steam-boat tried again, and propelled with greater speed than hitherto obtained -- The boat laid up for the winter -- Distressing and destitute condition of Fitch -- A new boiler to be put in the boat -- Trouble and disputes with the shareholders about a new condenser -- The Directors order a very large one -- A complete failure -- Fitch's views of the difficulty -- A condenser obtained on his plan -- Very successful result, April 16, 1790 -- The steam-boat tried in a strong North-east storm -- Visit to Burlington -- Trip in the boat by the Governor and Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania -- They present the steam-boat with a suit of colors -- Speed of the boat, eight miles an hour at slack water -- The steamboat run as a passenger-boat on the Delaware to Burlington, Bristol, Bordentown, Trenton, Lambertville, Chester, Wilmington, and to Gray's Ferry, on the Schuylkill -- Advertisements of the trips -- Description of the steam-boat in the New York Magazine -- Rembrandt Peale's account -- The steam-boat passes over two thousand miles -- Speed, seven miles and a half an hour -- Fulton's letter, denying the possibility of propelling a steamboat six miles an hour, 1811 -- Dr. Thornton's reply

The Pro steam-boat companies consolidated -- The stockholders determine to build a new steamboat, to be named the Perseverance, to be sent to Virginia -- A new levy made on the shareholders -- Difficulty of collecting the money -- Aid sought from members of the Pennsylvania Legislature from the western counties -- General Gibson requested to become a partner in building a boat at Pittsburg -- A great storm -- The Perseverance blown aground at Petty's Island -- Expiration of the time limited in the law of Virginia for the navigation of steam-boats on the waters of that State -- The old steam-boat and the Perseverance laid up for the winter -- Fitch petitions for a patent under the laws of the United States -- Letter to Robert Morris -- A trading-house proposed at New Orleans-Curious estimates of the cost of navigating the Mississippi, and of the great profit of steam-boats as compared with other boats -- Address to the stockholders of the Steam-boat company -- Fitch becomes interested in the doctrines of Socinianism, or Unitarianism -- Formation of the Universal Society -- Subjects proposed for essays -- Dissolution of the Society . . . . . . . . . .

Fitch petitions the Legislature of Pennsylvania for the appointment of Sergeant-at-Arms or Supervisor of Roads -- Unsuccessful -- Fitch and Voight petition General Washington for appointments in the Mint as Assay Master and Chief Coiner -- Voight appointed Chief Coiner -- Fitch's application refused -- Delay in obtaining a hearing before the Commissioners of Patents -- Estimates and proposals submitted to Robert Morris and Oliver Pollock -- Agreement made with Aaron Vail to build steam-boats in France, Holland, Germany, Russia, Prussia, Denmark, Sweden, and Switzerland -- Proceedings to obtain a patent -- Rumsey offers to submit his claims to arbitration, but afterwards refuses -- Patents finally granted to Fitch, and Rumsey, all bearing even date. . . . . . . . . .

A permit for the navigation of the Mississippi by steam granted by the Governor of New Orleans -- The Company order the engine to be taken out of the old steam-boat, and direct the hull to be sold -- Resolution to finish the Perseverance -- Delay about collecting money -- Fitch draughts plans whereby the new boat may, in addition to the oars, be propelled by sucking in and voiding water, and by ejections of currents of air -- Distress of the projector for decent clothing -- Work on the boat resumed -- The Perseverance ready to be tried -- Trouble about the boiler-case and condenser -- New air-pump and condenser exhausted -- The funds of the Company all spent -- Dispute with Voight about the cattle-boat -- Letter to David Rittenhouse -- Notice of the Savannah; the first steamship that ever crossed the Atlantic -- The Sirius -- The Great Western -- The shareholders in the Company will advance no more money -- Efforts by Fitch to raise money on the credit of his lands in Kentucky -- Final abandonment of the scheme by the Steam-boat Company -- Carnes and Blanchard's balloons -- Ambroise's gas-lights -- Rev. Nathaniel Irwin -- Distress of Fitch -- Thomas P. Cope's reminiscences of Fitch and the steam-boat -- Fitch meditates suicide -- Letter to Jefferson -- Deposits his papers in the Philadelphia Library -- Recollections of a passage in the steam-boat by Samuel Palmer -- Sale of the steamengine in 1795. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A new method of distillation invented -- Fitch sails to France -- The building of steam-boats prevented by the French Revolution -- Publishes a pamphlet and tables in London, with an explanation of a ready way of keeping a ship's reckoning at sea -- Robert Leslie -- Fitch returns to the United States -- Lives with his brother-in-law, Timothy King, in Connecticut, for two years -- Goes to New York, and, by aid furnished by Chancellor Livingston, propels a steam-boat with a screw-propeller on the Collect, 1796 -- Goes to Philadelphia -- Entertains the project of forming, a steam-boat company in Kentucky -- Goes there -- Suits against trespassers -- Reminiscences of his career at Bardstown, by Hon. Robert J. Wickliffe and Hon. Nathaniel Wickliffe, of Kentucky -- The plan to form a steam-boat company fails -- A model steam-boat made -- Death of Fitch by suicide, 1798 -- His will -- Proposition to erect a monument to his memory never carried out......

Steam-boat experiments in Europe and America by other projectors -- Rumsey's boat in Virginia, December 1787, and on the Thames, February, 1793 -- Patents in England for propelling boats by powers not described -- Bourne, 1578 -- Ramsay, l630 -- Grant, 1632 -- Lin, 1637 -- Ford, l640 -- Marquis of Worcester, 1667 -- Twogood 1661 -- The Chatham horse-boat, with paddlewheels at the sides, 1682-Allen, 1730 -- Hulls describes a plan for navigating a boat by steam, 1736 -- No boat built by him -- Difficulty in converting the vibratory rectilinear motion of the piston into a rotary one -- Watt's double-acting steamengine -- Perrier and Count Auxiron's steam-boat experiments on the Seine, 1774 and 1775 -- De Jouffroy's boat on the Saone, 1782John Fitch the first person who succeeded in making the steamboat of utility by using it for the transportation of freight and passengers -- Experiments, July 1786, 1787,1788,1780,1790, at Philadelphia, and at New York in 1796 -- The first steam-boat propelled in Great Britain by Patrick Miller and William Symington, at Dalwinston, Scotland, October, 1788 -- The first practicable steam-boat for useful purposes, the " Charlotte Dundas," built by Symington in 1803 -- Samuel Morey's steam-boats with paddle-wheels on the Connecticut, Hudson, and Delaware rivers, 1793,1794, and 1795 -- Longstreet, of Georgia -- Oliver Evans propels the Eruktor imphibolis, as a steamwagon on land and as a.steam-boat on the water, 1804 -- Latrobe's opinions of the impossibility of steam navigation, 1803 -- Rooseveldt's steamboat experiments -- John Cox Stevens' steam-boat on the Hudson, 1804 -- The Phoenix the first steam-boat navigating the ocean -- The New Philadelphia -- Robert Fulton a resident of Philadelphia in 1785 and 1786, after Fitch's steam-boat scheme was made known, and the first experiment made -- Fulton visits Symington's steam-boat in Scotland, in 1801 -- Is on board during a trip -- Takes drawings of the machinery -- Aaron Vail lends Fulton, in France, all the papers, drawings, and specifications of John Fitch, which are retained for some months -- Dr. Cartwright gives Fulton a plan of a steam-boat, 1799 -- Fulton's experiment at Plombieres, 1803 -- Fulton's steamboat, the " Clermont," on the Hudson, 1807 -- The claims of Fulton to originality considered -- His appropriation of the discoveries of others -- Livingston procures an assignment, or re-transfer and extension, of the law of New York in favor of Fitch -- The steam-boat controversy between the citizens of New York and New Jersey, in consequence -- A retaliation law passed in New Jersey -- Effort to repeal it -- The prior invention of Fitch relied upon -- Evidence of the usefulness of his boat -- The affair made a party question -- Repeal of the New Jersey law -- Application made by Colonel Ogden, of New Jersey, to the Legislature of New York, to repeal the Fulton and Livingston Fitch steam-boat law -- Governor Bloomfield, of New Jersey, testifies to having been a frequent passenger in Fitch's boat on the Delaware -- The Committee report in favor of repeal, and that the boat of Robert Fulton is in substance the invention of John Fitch -- Duer's controversy with Colden in relation to this matter -- Law-suits -- The Supreme Court of the United States declares the New York law unconstitutional. . . . .

New interest aroused in steamboats -- Dr. William Thornton's vindication of the claims of Fitch, 1810 -- Reasons why Fitch rejected the use Of paddle-wheels -- Henry Voight invents a new method of rowing a steamboat with three banks of oars or paddles, 1809 -- Fernando Fairfax claims to have sole right to license the building of steamboats under John Fitch's patents, 1815 -- Rooseveldt builds the first steamboat to navigate the Ohio and Mississippi, 1811 -- The eventful first voyage of the New Orleans -- The Comet, French's steam-boat -- The Vesuvius, Fulton's steamboat -- The Enterprize, French's patent -- Captain H. M. Shreeve builds the Washington, 1816 -- Lawsuit with Fulton and Livingston -- Decision in favor of Shreeve -- The Western waters free to steam-boat navigation

Their descendants -- Death of Mrs. Lucy Fitch -- Conclusion. ....