(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 voyoge 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 proposed 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 acknowledged 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 suggestions 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 building a small boat for trial.

John Hutchings makes affidavit on the map here represented, that in the summer of 1796 or 1797, he helped to steer a boat built by Mr. Fitch, and propelled by steam power upon Collect 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.

John Hutchings tells us:

"At that time Robert R. Livingston, esq., and Robert Fulton, 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 operandl 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 successful 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 constant 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.

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 inventor 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 Inspector 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 description 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).

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 monument 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?

PROFESSOR EDWARD ORTON.*

1829-1899.

A MEMORIAL ADDRESS.

BY WASHINGTON GLADDEN.

The genealogical history of "The Orton Family in America," a book of which Dr. Edward Orton was the author, begins with the paragraph:

"The surname ORTON is neither a common nor an unusual one. It is a name that could be heard without surprise in any community of English decent. It occurs in the directories of many cities of the country and can probably be found in many towns of the United States that have a population of 100,000 or more; but the list of Ortons is generally confined to a few individuals, and in many cases there is but a single family."

The name is found in Denmark, and Norway: there is at least one Norwegian family in Minnesota who brought the name from the Scandinavian peninsula. But it is more common in England; several localities in Leicestershire bear the name of the family, and since the larger number of the earliest settlers of New England came from the central and eastrn portions of Old England it is fair to assume that Thomas Orton who settled in Windsor, Conn. between 1636 and 1641, belonged to the

Edward Orton became a life member of the Ohio State Archæological and Historical Society soon after its organization. He gave it much of his valuable time and took a deep and unremitting interest in its work and progress. He delivered many addresses at its meetings, and added much to its published literature. The officers and trustees of the Society freely counseled with him concerning the work entrusted to them. The secretary was often greatly indebted to Dr. Orton for suggestion and encouragement. A few weeks previous to his death Dr. Orton was elected a trustee of the Society, a position which had been many times offered him before. While characteristically disclaiming great learning in archæology, Dr. Orton nevertheless was regarded as a scholar of high authority in that subject. - E. O. R.