Robert Fulton

								

the seeker for historic fact must patiently piece together the threads
gathered from many sources to weave the fabric of connected truth.
For these facts concerning Robert Fulton’s life I have searched during a
period extending over several years. In presenting this volume I desire
to acknowledge my indebtedness to the several biographers who, during the
century since his death, have traced his eventful career: Cadwallader
D. Colden (1817); J. Franklin Reigart (1856); Thomas W. Knox (1886);
Robert H. Thurston (1891); Peyton F. Miller (1908); and, most valuable
because most recent and therefore most comprehensive, H. W. Dickinson
in “Robert Fulton, Engineer & Artist” (1913). Also am I indebted to the
Historical Societies of Chicago, New York, and Pennsylvania; the Library
of Congress; the Estate of Cornelia Livingston Crary; the Hon. Peter
T. Barlow; Messrs. Louis S. Clark, Newbold Edgar, Charles Henry Hart,
John Henry Livingston, Robert Fulton Ludlow, Mrs. Frank Semple, and
Mrs. George Montgomery, individual owners of the inventor’s original
manuscripts and letters shown at the Robert Fulton Relic Exhibit, during
the Hudson-Fulton Celebration of 1909, gathered jointly by the New York
Historical Society and the Colonial Dames of America, of which latter
organization the writer served as chairman of the Hudson-Fulton Committee.
From this vast mass of data is the present modest volume built,—a tale
retold for the boys and girls of America, whose lives, through the
inspiration of famous men and women, may in future years provide records
of equal worth for historians.



                                                   ALICE CRARY SUTCLIFFE.
NEW YORK CITY, November 7th, 1914.

CONTENTS

                                              PAGE



                    CHAPTER I



    AN OLD-TIME FOURTH OF JULY                   1



                   CHAPTER II



    ROBERT FULTON’S BOYHOOD                     10



                   CHAPTER III



    PAINTING PORTRAITS AND MINIATURES           20



                   CHAPTER IV



    THE GIFT OF A FARM                          29



                    CHAPTER V



    STUDYING ART IN ENGLAND                     37



                   CHAPTER VI



    FROM ART TO INVENTION                       48



                   CHAPTER VII



    ACHIEVEMENTS IN PARIS                       62



                  CHAPTER VIII



    BUILDING THE FIRST SUBMARINE                73



                   CHAPTER IX



    BUILDING THE FIRST STEAMBOAT                84



                    CHAPTER X



    IN HOLLAND AND ENGLAND                     100



                   CHAPTER XI



    EXPERIMENTS WITH A SUBMARINE               107



                   CHAPTER XII



    SOME EARLY STEAMBOATS                      121



                  CHAPTER XIII



    BUILDING THE CLERMONT                    130