Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 May 1876 — The Real Discoverer of Steam-Water Navigation. [ARTICLE]

The Real Discoverer of Steam-Water Navigation.

Ik one comer of a long-diaused burying ground In this place Uea all that la mortal of one of the groeteat men, not only of Kentucky and Aintrtca, but of the wotfld. I refer to John Fitch, the Inventor of the steamboat. Mr. Filch lived and died in this place, and la buried in the-rear of the Jail of the oountv, without even a stick to mark the »pqt of his “last, long re pose.’’ Hi« invention was studied and perfected in this piace, and he made three separate trips to Philadelphia (then the seat of Government), walking each time,going and returning, in order to obtain Government aid to enable him to perfect his invention. But meeting with nothing but rebuffs and incredulity, he Anally abandoned his attempts, and left the fruit of his labor; to be reaped by Robert Fulton, -who, as is now acknowledged, obtainea his ideas of a steamboat from one built by Fitch in Philadelphia, and which lay rotting on the bank of East River, New York, for years alter his death. All the inhabitants of this place who remember Fitch are now dead. The last one, Mr. Wrn. Heavenhill, died in 1878. Mr. Heavenhill was the first white child born in Kentucky, and was born in a cave near this place while his father and his father's friends were defending the entrance against the Indians. Mr. Heavenhill used to relate many stories of Fitch’s life in this place, of his invention jit the steamboat. Among others, he used to tell of Fitch’s first attempt at applying steam to water navigation; and he stated that Fitch generated the steam in a tea-kettle borrowed from his mother, Mrs. Heavenhill. "Fitch’s experiments were conducted in the attic of a house which stood on the site now occupied by the residence of Felix G. Rogers, Esq., in this place, on the, soutneast corner of Market street and the public square. In using the tea-kettle referred to above he confined the steam by placing the end of a board on the top of the kettle, and wedging the other end under the rafters of the roof, and conducted the steam to his machinery through a pipe leading from the spout. On one occasion Fitch neglected to turn the stop-cock which let the steam on the machinery, and the roof was raised and lowered several times by the force of the steam in the kettle. As the steam raised the lid the plank lifted the roof, and the escape of the steam then lowered it again, when it was again raised and lowered. :: :.Zi. : " Fitch’s first model floated on .a pond which then occupied the northeast corner of Third street and public square, where Gary’s drug-store, Talbott’s tailoring establishment, and Newman’s grocery now stand. It is generally believed that Fitch’s first experiments were a made In Philadelphia, but such was not the case. His first attempts were made here and his invention was perfected before he went east. Fitch was regarded here, during his life, as a mild sort of a madman, but to this popular belief there was one noble exception. Dr. Alexander McCown, a resident of this place, from the first, believed in Fitch and in his boat. And when Fitch’s scanty means were exhausted he took him to his -own house and supplied hint with money with which to continue his attempts, and but for the death of Fitch both would have been amply repaid. All of Fitch’s models, drawings, etc., were burned in the house of Dr. McCown, which stood on the corner of Main and Third streets, in this town, and which was set fire to by an enemy of the doctor’s in 1810. Fitch’s boat, according to the account handed down in this place, from father to son, was moved by means of twelve paddles, six an each side, which paddles were attached at right angles to a horizontal bar on each side of the boat, and the bar was moved back and forth by the piston-rod of the engine. In 1788 Fitch made a .practical test of his invention over a mile course on the river in front of Water street, in Philadelphia. His boat was sixty feet long, eight feet wide ana four feet deep. He had on board the Governor of Pennsylvania and a number of the the Federal Government; yet, although his test was !b every way a sucoess, the General Government would extend him no aid or encouragement. He conveyed his boat from there to New York, hoping to set assistance there; but failing, he left is boat to rot on the shores of the Hudson River, and returned to his home to this place. This was his last >effbrt to obtain recognition, and he then gave up all hope of ever reaping the reward of his genius, leaving at to future generations to place his name where it belongs—at the very head of the list, of the benefactors «f manhind. He died in this place early in the year 1798, and was buried by his friend, ■Dr. Alexander McCown, in the graveyard which now is to the rear of the common jail of Nelson County. The day and month of his death are forgotten. The epot<of his burial was unknown for years, but some two years agoithe deposition of a son-inlaw of Dr. McCown's was found in the County Clerk’s office, which establishes beyond question the site of his grave, which is marked only by the ■depretwion in the ground, caused by the settling of the earth with which his grave was filled. The grave of Fitch deserves some monument to tell the passers-by who sleeps "beaekihranerflifk ’©fflfiffbicMlM'S tWft-' ten with ithe hope of attracting the attention of some of the many gentlemen of your city 'Who owe all that they own to the genius and skill of the greatest man of any eentury, country #r clime—John Fitch. — Rardttown (Ky ) Cor. LouismUe Courier-Journal.