Jasper County Democrat, Volume 18, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 July 1915 — SAM PATCH IS RECALLED. [ARTICLE]

SAM PATCH IS RECALLED.

A 1 anions Old-Time Jumper Whose Story Few People Know. Sam Patch, the famous jumper, whose exploits almost 90 years ago thrilled old and young, lived for a time in Patterson, N. J. His first big leap was off the Passaic Falls. In a small volume by .1. Kennaday, published in 1 837. there is some local information about Patch, which not only adds to facts about his career, but shows his connection with this state. Patch was born in 1807 at Pawtucket, R. 1. For a time he worked there in the cotton mills. He learned th-e habit that made him famous through jumping from the windows of the mill into the river below, vying with other lads in jumping from the highest possible windows of the building. Coming to Patterson before 182 7, Patch lived with the Filield family just west of the falls and near the raceway. Possibly he originally Had conie to work in the mills, but he engaged as hired help to do chores. According to Kennaday he was prone to idleness and drink. With a little wit, we are told, he could make a great amount of amusement for vulgar people. They would laugh at his jokes and he would drink at their expense.

It was in 1827 that a man named Crane, who lived near the falls, swung a bridge across the chasm, and the placing of this bridge was an indirect cause of Sam Patch’s first great exploit. Sam watched the preparations for spanning the gorge and said to Crane that when the bridge should be completed he would jump off. He was not taken seriously, but he several times said: “Well, some things can be done as well as others, and when a bridge gets there I’ll make a jump.” The bridge was constructed as a whole prior to its placing over the gorge. Then cables were strung from precipice to precipice and the bridge, mounted upon axle-trees and wheels, was hauled by a great crowd of men across the cables until it spanned the gorge. Many onlookers were there, expecting the cables to part or looking for some unforseen disaster.

Patch determined to make on (his occasion his threatened leap. Some endeavored to dissuade him, but there were others w r ho gave him open or sly encouragement. He rushed unhindered to the precipice and leaped down, narrowly missing the great rock below the bridge that rises usually just above the surface. He sank from sight, but was later seen swimming to shore. The multitude, we are told, rent the air with shouts.

The notoriety gained by Sam Patch at Passaic Falls led to engagements to thrill the public at other Places. He jumped from a masthead at Hoboken soon afterward on a Fourth of July. He then went to Niagara Falls and jumped from a height of 125 feet. At the Genesee Falls, near Rochester, in 1829, he jumped for the last time. Before a great crowd of sight-seeing people, rhany of them laughing, he sank to rise alive no more. News.