Show People of f Washington Irving Country Claim First Uncle Sam Lived There I CATSKILL N. N Y United Press Press Pe Few Few tew pers persons ns know that this peaceful l Hudson river Village mage i ithe 11 is the birthplace of or one orte of ot the the most famous nicknames mes and trademarks the world has ever known Uncle Sam who was largely re responsible responsible re- re for the feeding of ot the American forces during the War Yar of or 1812 was a a. native of ot Catskill ac according according ac- ac cording to Charles A. A Elliott a a. nephew grand-nephew of the famous U S. S According to Elliott this thIs' is the tho story of ot th the tho origin of the nickname nickname nickname nick nick- name There were Samuel Nathaniel and Edward J Wilson brothers who were associated in the tho meat packing bus bus- iness mess In tho Hudson 1 valley early carly In the tIte nineteenth c century nury The coun tr side knew them as Uncle Sam Uncle Nat and Uncle Ned Samuel who lived In Troy came cam to during Catskill-during the War of ot 1812 to take take- active p part rt in ie firm es es- es by Nathaniel Nathanel They were were I under contract to supply beef beet and pork to th the tho United States State army drawing their supply from Greene Delaware and other central New York counties Many of the casks casks' shipped from the dock bore the government government govern govern- ment meat mark U S. S upon them The nation was young oung then an and the abbreviation abbreviation abbreviation ab ab- ab- ab of Its ita name was not so common In that day as In this So one ono day when a boatman asked the man who was branding a pork porle shipment what the the tw two l letters let letters let let- t- t represented the brander replied re replied re- re plied Why th that t means Uncle Sam th the senior partner of the firm The boatman tl thought it Jt was f a great joke Ho lIe carried the the jest down the river retelling it when- when over er opportunity afforded Thus Uncle Sam the Sam Am American rican came into being a character unintentionally created reat d by an an unknown wn boatman b but t destined to rank with the worlds world's greatest figures of history his lis- his his- tory and fiction Thus also a nation na na- nation na- na tion vas was added to to Sam Wilson's Wilsons already al already already al- al ready sufficiently large family Carto Cartoonists took up the Idea and it is said that the man they drew and 11 have ave been drawing ever since is a likeness of Uncle Sam Wilson himself After Atter the war Un Uncle e Sam San re ye- returned re- re turned to his big business at Troy Troy- and his hIs' sons Benjamin and Albert He died In Troy July 31 1844 and is burled buried In that city city- but his namesake namesake namesake name name- sake lives hives on a a. truly immortal be being beng be- be ing ng in the opinion of his millions of patriotic nieces and nephews |