Inventor; born in East Windsor, Conn., Jan. 21, 1743; was an armorer in the military service during the
[
380]
Revolution, and at
Trenton, N. J., manufactured sleeve-buttons.
For a while, near the close of the war, he was a surveyor in
Virginia, during which time he prepared, engraved on copper, and printed on a press of his own manufacture, a map of the
Northwest country, afterwards formed into a Territory.
He constructed a steamboat in 1786 that could be propelled eight miles an hour.
A company was formed (1788) in
Philadelphia, which caused a steam-packet to ply on the
Delaware River, and it ran for about two years when the company failed.
In 1793 he unsuccessfully tried his steam navigation projects in
France.
Discouraged, he went to the
Western country again, where
he died in
Bardstown, Ky., July 2, 1798, leaving behind him a history of his adventures in the steamboat enterprise, in a sealed envelope, directed to “My children and future generations,” from which
Thompson Westcott, of
Philadelphia, prepared an interesting biography of
Fitch, which was published in 1867.
