The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884; . eclaration of Independence. He was also an armyleader, and was at one time in charge of fourteen regiments of troopsabout New York. He was Lieutenant-Governor of Connecticut from1786 until 1796. In this last-named year he was chosen Governor, anddied in office in the month of December, 1797. He was a man naturallyadapted to greatness. Intellectually, morally, and physically he was oflarge and commanding proportions. By his removal to Litchfield his son Oliver, the second Governor ofConnecticut of that name, had his birthplace i
The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884; . eclaration of Independence. He was also an armyleader, and was at one time in charge of fourteen regiments of troopsabout New York. He was Lieutenant-Governor of Connecticut from1786 until 1796. In this last-named year he was chosen Governor, anddied in office in the month of December, 1797. He was a man naturallyadapted to greatness. Intellectually, morally, and physically he was oflarge and commanding proportions. By his removal to Litchfield his son Oliver, the second Governor ofConnecticut of that name, had his birthplace in Litchfield, and not inWindsor, the home of his ancestors. A large number of distinguishedmen have come from the Litchfield branch of tlie family, whose nameswould be out of place in our record. John Fitch was born in tlie town of Windsor, east side of the river,Jan. 21, 1743. In addition to a common-school education, such as thetimes afforded, he studied surveying, which he afterward turned topractical account. He also in early life learned the trade of clock-. fitchs steamboat. 138 MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY. making. He was a man of a remarkably inventive genius. In 1784 heentered upon the project of propelling vessels upon the water by thepower of steam. It is claimed, with a good show of reason, that he wasthe first to conceive this jjlan and to put it in operation. He was deeplyinterested and engaged in this enterprise some fifteen or twenty yearsbefore Fultons experiments were made. In the month of May, 1787,his steamboat was propelled by steam at the rate of three miles an houron the DelaAvare River. The next year he increased this speed ; but hewanted money to perfect liis plans. People were unsympathetic andunbelieving. He was baffled in his endeavors, and died an utterly dis-appointed man, probably by his own hand, in 1798, at Bardstown, Ken-tucky, at the age of fifty-five. He is very generally regarded as the realinventor of the steamboat. In 1798 a committ
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