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Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing) 8 0 Browse Search
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Browsing named entities in Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing). You can also browse the collection for Elkanah Watson or search for Elkanah Watson in all documents.

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Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Erie Canal, the, (search)
Erie Canal, the, The greatest work of internal improvement constructed in the United States previous to the Pacific Railway. It connects the waters of the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Hudson River. It was contemplated by General Schuyler and Elkanah Watson, but was first definitely proposed by Gouverneur Morris, at about the beginning of the nineteenth century. Various writers put forth essays upon the subject, among them De Witt Clinton, who became its most notable champion. The project took such shape that, in 1810, canal commissioners were appointed, with Gouverneur Morris at their head. In 1812 Clinton, with others, was appointed to lay the project before the national Congress, and solicit the aid of the national government. Fortunately the latter declined to extend its patronage to the great undertaking. The War of 1812-15 put the matter at rest for a while. That war made the transportation of merchandise along our sea-coasts perilous, and the com
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Expositions, industrial. (search)
ame the founding of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics' Association in Boston, and the Maryland Institute in Baltimore. These four organizations early began holding annual expositions, or fairs, as they were then called, and have since continued to do so. Numerous other mechanics' institutes were soon afterwards organized in various cities, and these for various periods imitated the exposition features of the older organizations. The American agricultural fair dates from 1810, when Elkanah Watson succeeded in gathering, in Pittsfield, Mass., an exposition, or fair, of articles allied to agricultural life. Now nearly every State and Territory in the country has its agricultural society, which gives annual expositions of the products of the farm and dairy, with a variety of other features deemed necessary to popularize the undertaking. Some of the most noteworthy State agricultural fairs began to diminish in interest about the time of the first International or World's Fair hel
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Flag, National. (search)
escaped prisoners, captured Fort Nassau, New Providence, Bahama Islands. The captors were menaced by the people, when the stars and stripes were nailed to the flagstaff in defiance. John Singleton Copley, the American-born painter, in London, claimed to be the first to display the stars and stripes in Great Britain. On the day when George III. acknowledged the independence of the United States, Dec. 5, 1782, he painted the flag of the United States in the background of a portrait of Elkanah Watson. To Captain Mooers, of the whaling-ship Bedford, of Nantucket, is doubtless due the honor of first The National flag. displaying the national flag in a port of Great Britain. He arrived in the Downs, with it flying at the fore, Feb. 3, 1783. That flag was first carried to the East Indian seas in the Enterprise (an Albanybuilt vessel), Capt. Stewart Dean, in 1785. When Vermont and Kentucky were added to the union of States the flag was altered. By an act of Congress (Jan. 13, 1794)
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Watson, Elkanah 1758- (search)
Watson, Elkanah 1758- Agriculturist; born in Plymouth, Mass., Jan. 22, 1758; was apprenticed in 1773 to John Brown, a merchant in Providence, R. I., who in 1775 sent him with a large quantity of powder to Washington for use in the siege of Boston. At the age of twenty-one (1779) he was made bearer of despatches by Congress to Dr. Franklin, in Paris. He visited Michigan and explored the lake region, and also a route to Montreal, with a view to opening some improved way for its commercial connection with New York and Boston. In 1828 he settled at Port Kent, on the west side of Lake Champlain, where he died, Dec. 5, 1842. His unfinished autobiography, completed by his son, Winslow Cossoul Watson, was published in 1855 under the title of Men and times of the Revolution. Among his published writings were a History of the Western canals of New York; A history of the modern Agricultural societies; Agricultural societies on the modern Berkshire system, etc.