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Show By ELMO SCOTT WATSON : t P""1 HO Is Uncle Sam ? As Tflki I everybody knows, lie ts ry V ,,int Soulal, lanky Individ-Ir.V Individ-Ir.V V W U111 pressed 111 a s,,,r-; s,,,r-; ' " spangled coat and striped trousers and wearing the ... ., & 4l tall beaver bat who Is v ,T HSmW unlvors:,"-v accepted as 'e V&'W "le s-vm,H' of ,1,e t'"'ied INKVS States, just as John Hull '--- UVvil ls "le s-v,,ll'l of England. ""j.V' JzmM. rm wl, WAS L',u-1(' W Sam? That ls to say. was tliere a real persou who was the v!:- original of this figure, made so fa-miliar fa-miliar to nil of us by the cartoonists? The answer Is: there was but al-though al-though Samuel Wilson, a native 01" : New York and a govenmient contrae. tor during the war of 1S12. Is said by -r most historians to have been this original, orig-inal, there are a few Inconsistencies :f;v: In the commonly-accepted story of :y h: Samuel Wilson's being the original f: .- Uncle Sam which need to be recon-ciled recon-ciled and some account nlsn needs to 7:;.- be taken of n fictitious person, the '- r product of a Canadian humorist, here he-re :. fore the history of "Uncle Sam" can :v .- be declared complete. Two states claim the honor of being srl;. the burial place of the original Uncle 1 Sam. Recently the United Press sent ollt the following dispatch which pre-; pre-; r tents New York's claim to that honor- Catskill, N T Few persons know .. . 'hat this peaceful Hudson river vilinc ; . .. !s lhe birthplace of one of the most - famous nicknames and trademarks tht -i vor!d has ever known. Uncle Sam. who was lar ely responsible respon-sible for the feedine of the American forces during the War of 1 SI 2 was u - ; ' native of Catskill. according to Charles ii'1 A. Elliot, a grand-nephew of the fa :-. rrous "U. S " 7::: According to Elliot, this Is the story of the origin of the nickname. . There were Samuel. Nathaniel anc : ' Edward Wilson, brothers, who were as sociated In the mefit packlne business In the Hudson valley early In the Nine-tenth Nine-tenth century. The countryside knew them as L'ncle Sam. Uncle Nat and '. t'r.cle Ned. Tli Samuel, who lived In Troy, came to . Catskill during the War of 1S12 to take - active part in the firm established by er i - Nathaniel. They were under contract . ; 1 to supply beef and pork to the United States army, drawing their supply from "I' Greene, Delaware, and other centra i-"' New York counties Many of the casks shipped from the -7;:': Catskill dock bore the government .. mark "U S" upon them. The nation 0 T young then and the abbreviation :i ii - cf Its name was not so common in that yi z day as in this. -: So one day. when a boatman asked ". the man who was branding a pork shipment what the two letters repre- sented, the brander replied: "Why. . j j' 'hat means Uncle Sam, the senior part-"... part-"... ner of the firm." 7 . Tne boatman thought it was great "J Juke. He carried the jest down 'the -'J: river, retelling it whenever opportunity : afforded. Th us. L'ncle Sam, the American, came - int0 t,einS- a character unintentionally ": "' created by an unknown boatnum but destined to rank with the world's ; Greatest figures of history and fiction .. - After the war, L'ncle Sam returned ---'; to his business at Troy and his sons 1, ti Benjamin and Albert. He died In Troy July 31. 1S44, and Is buried in that city, y.. but his namesake lives on. a truly Im-". Im-". mrtal being in the opinion of his mil- 'J- ' lions of patriotic nieces and nephews Bui Indiana also lays claim to J holding within her soil the dust of this fatuous character and that claim "' ;. W;'s put forth recently in the foi- lowing, article which appeared In the r-';:' Indianapolis Star: - s: ' Kendallvllle. nd. A woman's lntul tton and her love of patriotic history rU- has led to the discovery of the last resting place or the original "Uncle Sam," whom admiring millions of Americans have held In worshipful es- ' teem ". A chance remark came to the eare or sr. Mrs. Louise B. Young of Kendallvllle associated with your correspondent In the publication of the Noble Farmer, '. ' an agricultural publication. Her nose ::.S -' for news scented a story, and armlnB e herself with a camera, she set out for the facta and obtained a picture of the :. tombstone erected at the grave or t.'.i - Uncle Sam, buried In a little obscure rri'i graveyard near Merriam, Noble county, p.- ; Indiana, on the route of the Lincoln ', highway. The stonecutter made a mis-take mis-take of thirteen years In the date ot ri,- his deatn, which has never been recti-jr'- fied' ae the arnily hoped at some time t0 erect a monument fitting the character charac-ter it represented. Visiting the son, John M. Wilson, a;;r' ninety-three years old, and his grand- n HI pi fm daughter, Mrs. Claea Zumbaugh, both I living at Albion, the following facts were obtained and fully verified: Samuel Wilson, one of triplets, twj boys and a girl, was born at Wilmington. Wilming-ton. Del., March 4, 1773. the son of Marmaduke and Mary Wilson, who came to America from Scotland. There were no other children In the family. Growing to mftnhood there, Samuel with his brother joined the Lewis and Clark Northwest expedition In 1 SO 4, accompanying ac-companying them as far as where Man-dan,' Man-dan,' N. D., is now located. These ydung men spent the winter there, returning re-turning to St. LcKjis. Mo., in the spring. Later they returned to Troy-on-the-Hudson, N. V., where they Joined with one Elbert Anderson, who owned and operated a general store. When war with Great Britain was declared in 1S12. the Anderson store was converted Into a government supply sup-ply headquarters, with Anderson as commissary and Samuel Wilson as his superintendent, afterward a quartermaster. quarter-master. Among Mr. Wilson's duties was that of examining and markinK all packages for government use. The mark placed on these containers ws "E. A. U. S." Wilson was known by his associates as "Uncle Sam," and one day when a longshoreman was asked the meaning of these Initials, he replied re-plied by baying: "For Elbert Anderson, the commissary and Uncle Sam, ht superintendent, for he and the United States are all one. He represents the government, too." Meant as a Joke, the idea took hold and Mr. Wilson s name, "Uncle Sam." since that time, has passed current as a personification of the United States the world over Later Uncle Sam began to appear In caricature. In many guises before t'.le Civil war. Although tall and slender, as Mr. Wilson was, It is thought the present conception of Uncle Sam, which began to appear In cartoon In the early 'SOs. had Its Inspiration In the tall, gaunt figure of Abraham Lincoln. Lin-coln. "Uncle Sam" had a varied experience during the war. He was on board the Constitution In that famous twenty-five twenty-five minute battle with the Guerrieie when 'he latter was sunk off Cape Race. In this battle Uncle Sam was cited for gallantry by Capt. Isaac Hull, and when he was honorably discharged he received two land warrants frorr. the government. One of these warrants war-rants he sold to his son John M., who now lives at Albion, Ind., while the other went to a Jim Harrison and was also used in Indiana. After the War of 1312, Uncle Sam went to Pennsylvania where he was united In marriage to a Miss Susan Anderson of Cumberland county. To this uplon ten children were born-seven born-seven boys and three girls, as follows: Noah, David, Andrew. Samuel, Anthony, An-thony, James. John, Mary, AngeHne and Lucinda. By trade and profession Uncle Sam was a tailor and a doctor. His son, John now has a lance that was used by Uncle Sam to alleviate the suffering suffer-ing of his patients, In the old days when "bleeding" was regarded as a cure-all for most ailments. As time rolled on. and the caricature of Uncle Sam became more and more In use his family developed a strong antipathy to this familiarity, and when they moved to Indiana among strangers strang-ers they resolved to avoid any further publicity along this line and kept the I Identity of Uncle Sam a secret. However, How-ever, a chance remark furnished a clew which when followed brought th above story, which was freely told and fully verified. Uncle Sam died -March 7. 1S78. In Kosciusko county, Ind., at the age of one hundred years and three days. His body was later removed to Merriam tvhere it now rests with other members mem-bers of the family. Accompanying the Star story is a photograph of Uncle Sam's gravestone grave-stone which has since been widely printed in newspapers throughout the country. On the gravestone appears the legend "Soldier of 1S12 SAMUEL SAM-UEL WILSON Died Mar. 7, 1S65, Aged 100 Years & 3 ds." From the two accounts given above, It ls apparent ap-parent that, while there is no doubt us to Samuel Wilson being the original orig-inal of Uncle Sam, the conflicting testimony on his death and burial raises some interesting questions. Did he die on July 31, 1S44 or on March 7, 1SG5 or on March 7, 1S7S? How did the stone-cutter happen to make the mistake of 13 years in the date of bis death? Is he buried In Troy, N. Y. or In the obscure little cemetery near Merriam, Ind.? The contribution of a Canadian humorist to the history of Uncle Sam is rather an incidental one, but Interesting, Inter-esting, nevertheless. In 1S35 Judge Tliomas Chandler IaJiburton of Windsor, Nova Scotia, created a character char-acter known as "Sam Slick of Slick-ville, Slick-ville, Onion county, Connecticut," whose adventures appeared anonymously anony-mously in The Nova Scotian. Later it was published as a book by the editor, Joseph Howe, under the name of "The Clockmaker, or the Doings of Sam Slick of Slickville." A copy was lent to Bentley, the English publisher, who issued an English edition. To the English Sam Slick was the typical American, In his shrewd sayings, say-ings, his shrewd business dealings and in his boasting that the United States was the greatest nation in the world. Consequently the pictures of Sam Slick, as drawn by Hervieu, a Frenchman, and Leech, the artist who made Punch famous, for the English editions of "The Clockmaker," came to be looked upon as the symbol of the United States and some unknown artist, whether English or American is unknown, at some unknown time, went a step further with the conception concep-tion of the typical American. He added a goatee to Sam Slick s smootbshaven face, put some stars In the hatband of his tall hat, some more stars on his coat and stripes on his trousers, held down by long straps, and behold Sam Slick was Uncle Sam, the symbol of America henceforth ! |