Cache American | 1938-09-17 | Page 5 | Uncle Sam

UNCLE SAM " The practice of calling the United Unit-ed States Government, "Uncle Sam" is believed to have originated origin-ated in the following manner: 1 During the American Revolution a man named Samuel Wilson was a beef inspector at Troy, New York, and was very popular with the men in his employ, who always called him Uncle Sam. After the inspection of the beef, it was shipped to a contractor named Ebenezer Anderson, and was always al-ways marked "E.A.U.S." A joking: workman, being asked what those letters were the abbreviations for,j 'replied that he did not know, un-, 'less they were for Ebenezer Anderson An-derson and "Uncle Sam". The joke was kept up and spread until it became common to refer to all packages marked "U.S." as belonging be-longing to "Uncle Sam."