It has been announced for years that Miss Leslie--the very clever but
not altogether amiable magazinist--was engaged upon a memoir of JOHN
FITCH, to whom, it has always seemed to us, was due much more than
to Fulton, the credit of inventing the steamboat. While Fitch was in
London, Miss Leslie's father was one of his warmest friends, and
the papers of her family enable her to give many particulars of his
history unknown to other biographers. When several years ago. R.W.
Griswold published his Sketches of the Life and Labors of John Fitch,
the late Noah Webster sent him the following interesting letter upon
the subject:
DEAR SIR:--In your sketch of John Fitch you justly remarked
that his biography is still a desideratum. The facts related
of him by Mr. St. John to Mr. Stone, and published in the _New
York Commercial Advertiser_, are new to me; and never before
had I heard of Mr. Fitch at _Sharon_, in Connecticut; but
I know Mr. St. John very well, and cannot discredit his
testimony any more than I can Mr. Stone's memory. The
substance of the account given of Mr. Fitch by the
indefatigable J.W. Barber, in his Connecticut Historical
Collections, is as follows: John Fitch was born in East
Windsor, in Connecticut, and apprenticed to Mr. Cheney, a
watch and clock-maker, of East Hartford, now Manchester, a
new town separated from East Hartford. He married, but did not
live happily with his wife, and he left her and went to New
Brunswick, in New Jersey, where he set up the business of
clock-making, engraving, and repairing muskets, before the
revolution. When New Jersey was invaded by the British troops,
Mr. Fitch removed into the interior of Pennsylvania, where he
employed his time in repairing arms for the army.
Mr. Fitch conceived the project of steam navigation in 1785,
as appears by his advertisement. He built his boat in 1787.
In my Diary I have myself noted that I visited the boat, lying
at the wharf in the Delaware, on the ninth day of February,
1787. The Governor and Council were so much gratified with
the success of the boat that they presented Mr. Fitch with a
superb flag. About that time, the company, aiding Mr. Fitch,
sent him to France, at the request of Mr. Vail, our consul at
L'Orient, who was one of the company. But this was when France
began to be agitated by the revolution, and nothing in favor
of Mr. Fitch was accomplished; he therefore returned. Mr. Vail
afterward _presented to Mr. Fulton for examination the papers
of Mr. Fitch_, containing his scheme of steam navigation.
After Mr. Fitch returned to this country, he addressed a
letter to Mr. Rittenhouse, in which he predicted that in time
the _Atlantic would be crossed by steam power_; he complained
of his poverty, and urged Mr. Rittenhouse to buy his land in
Kentucky, for raising funds to complete his scheme. But he
obtained no efficient aid. Disappointed in his efforts to
obtain funds, he resorted to indulgence in drink; he retired
to Pittsburgh, and finally ended his life by plunging into
the Alleghany. His books and papers he bequeathed to the
Philadelphia Library, with the injunction that they were to
remain closed for thirty years. At the end of that period,
the papers were opened, and found to contain a minute account
of his perplexities and disappointments. Thus chiefly the
narration of Mr. Barber, who refers for authority to the
American edition of the Edinburgh Encyclopedia. It may be
worth while for some gentleman to attempt to find these
papers. N. WEBSTER.
Rev. RUFUS W. GRISWOLD.
The papers to which Dr. Webster alludes in the above letter, have
been examined by Miss Leslie, and the curious details they contain
of Fitch's early life, his courtship, unfortunate marriage, captivity
among the Indians, experiments, &c. will be embraced in her work,
which will undoubtedly be one of the most interesting biographies of
this country.
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The director of the Museum of Paris has opened a very interesting
gallery of American antiquities, from Yucatan, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia,
and other countries of the New World.
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