The Project Gutenberg eBook ofRobert Fulton

The Project Gutenberg eBook ofRobert FultonThis ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: Robert FultonAuthor: Alice Crary SutcliffeRelease date: August 22, 2018 [eBook #57742]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team athttp://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from imagesgenerously made available by The Internet Archive)*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROBERT FULTON ***

This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Robert FultonAuthor: Alice Crary SutcliffeRelease date: August 22, 2018 [eBook #57742]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team athttp://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from imagesgenerously made available by The Internet Archive)

Title: Robert Fulton

Author: Alice Crary Sutcliffe

Release date: August 22, 2018 [eBook #57742]

Language: English

Credits: Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team athttp://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from imagesgenerously made available by The Internet Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROBERT FULTON ***

TRUE STORIES OF GREAT AMERICANS

ROBERT FULTON

Macmillan Company logo

THE MACMILLAN COMPANYNEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO · DALLASATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO

MACMILLAN & CO., LimitedLONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTAMELBOURNE

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.TORONTO

Robert Fulton.From a miniature owned by Mrs. R. Fulton Blight.

Robert Fulton.

From a miniature owned by Mrs. R. Fulton Blight.

ROBERT FULTON

BYALICE CRARY SUTCLIFFE

GREAT-GRANDDAUGHTER OF ROBERT FULTONAUTHOR OF “ROBERT FULTON AND THECLERMONT”AND “THE HOMESTEAD OF A COLONIAL DAME”

New YorkTHE MACMILLAN COMPANY1925All rights reserved

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Set up and electrotyped. Published April, 1915. Reprinted August, 1925.

Norwood PressJ. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

On board the fine passenger boat,Robert Fulton, one of the several queen steamers of the Hudson River Day Line, on a May morning when the beauty of the incomparable river spread in calm perfection before contented eyes, a great-granddaughter of Robert Fulton began to write, for young readers, this story of the steamboat inventor’s life.

No “Hero of America” may lay more just claim to the title than Robert Fulton, the fearless, persistent lad of Pennsylvania. His boyhood of stern self-denial, his struggle for culture and advanced education, and his constant industry place him in “the rank and file” of all students who may read this book with the desire to learn his secret of success.

Fulton’s story reveals it. He solved problems locked from the knowledge of man by a faithful use of the key ofhard work. Born on a lonely farm in the country, deprived in early childhood of his father’s loving care, he earned his ownliving and carved his path to fame and fortune. Therefore his progress is typical of possible similar achievements for all young Americans who wish to render good service to their country and to their fellow-men.

In writing the story of a man whose work for the world has won fame, 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. FrankSemple, 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.

A child of Lancaster, upon this landHere was he born by Conowingo’s shade;Along these banks our youthful Fulton strayedDreaming of Art. Then Science touched his hand,Leading him onward, when, beneath her wand,Wonders appeared that never more shall fade:He triumphed o’er the Winds and swiftly madeThe giant, Steam, subservient to command.How soft the sunlight lies upon the leaAround his home, where boyhood days were sped!These checkered shadows on the fading grassSymbol his fortunes, as they fleeting pass:“He did mankind a service,”—could there beA tribute more ennobling to the dead!Lloyd Mifflin.

A child of Lancaster, upon this land

Here was he born by Conowingo’s shade;

Along these banks our youthful Fulton strayed

Dreaming of Art. Then Science touched his hand,

Leading him onward, when, beneath her wand,

Wonders appeared that never more shall fade:

He triumphed o’er the Winds and swiftly made

The giant, Steam, subservient to command.

How soft the sunlight lies upon the leaAround his home, where boyhood days were sped!These checkered shadows on the fading grassSymbol his fortunes, as they fleeting pass:“He did mankind a service,”—could there beA tribute more ennobling to the dead!

How soft the sunlight lies upon the lea

Around his home, where boyhood days were sped!

These checkered shadows on the fading grass

Symbol his fortunes, as they fleeting pass:

“He did mankind a service,”—could there be

A tribute more ennobling to the dead!

Lloyd Mifflin.

American Independence was young in 1778,—only two years old. The patriotism awakened by the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia was active as this second anniversary of our nation’s birth approached, and sturdy Pennsylvanians, glad of our country’s freedom from English rule, planned a Fourth of July celebration.

In Lancaster, less than seventy miles from Philadelphia, the wise men of the town council foresaw waste and tumult if the young patriots carried out the programme they had arranged. Upon the first day of July the Council discussed the matter and passed this resolution, which they publicly posted:

“The Excessive Heat of the Weather, the Present Scarcity of Candles, and Other Considerations, Induce the Council to Recommend to the Inhabitants to Forbear Illuminating the City on Saturday Evening Next, July 4th.“By Order,“Timothy Matlack, Secretary.”

“By Order,

“Timothy Matlack, Secretary.”

We can imagine the disappointment of the Lancaster boys when they read this notice. Angry groups around the sign-board evinced their displeasure, and some of the bolder ones declared that they would light their candles anyway!

But one conscientious thirteen-year-old boy tried to think of some other method to show patriotism. As the town council forbade the use of candles, he would not disobey their law; perhaps he could prepare a more novel celebration in honor of the holiday.

He had some candles which he had saved for the event; now they were of no use. He therefore took them to a brush-maker who kept powder and shot for sale, and offered to trade them for gunpowder. The brush-maker, surprised that the boy would part with his candles when they were so scarce, asked his reason. The lad replied:

“Our rulers have asked the people not to illuminate their windows and streets. All good citizens should obey law, so I have decided instead to light the heavens with sky-rockets.”

The dealer, although amused, was glad to get the candles and promptly gave gunpowder in exchange. Then the boy went to another store, where he bought several large sheets of cardboard.The clerk was about to roll the sheets for easy handling, but his customer protested:

“I wish to carry them as they are.”

The curiosity of this man also was aroused. He remembered that the lad was said to be “always trying to invent something.” As he handed them over he asked:

“What are you going to do with them?”

Eagerly the boy answered: “We are forbidden to light our windows with candles. I’m going to shoot my candles through the air.”

“Tut! Tut!” exclaimed the man, laughingly. “That’s an impossibility.”

“No, sir,” the boy responded, with a flash of enthusiasm. “There is nothing impossible.”

This is a true story, told by an old-time Lancaster historian. The thirteen-year-old boy was Robert Fulton, who became the inventor of steam navigation.

It is good to carry the story further in imagination. That group of boys who gathered in the town during the twilight of Independence Day, 1778, saw a few spluttering rockets shoot skyward from the hand of a lad determined to carry the good news of freedom to a higher horizon than that of the home windows of Lancaster. A flash! A whirr! and the light arose, zigzagged its message throughthe darkness, like fiery handwriting in the sky, and then died away. But the fine courage and courtesy of the boy who would not disobey a local law, although he felt a national appeal to patriotic jubilee,—these tokens of character have not faded. They prophesied the boy’s success in life. He foretold it in his words, “Nothing is impossible.”

Robert Fulton’s father was one of three brothers, David, John, and Robert. They were of Scotch origin, and came to America from Kilkenny, Ireland, about 1730. Robert, the youngest, settled in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where in 1759 he married Miss Mary Smith, daughter of Joseph Smith of Oxford Township, and bought for their first home a brick dwelling on the northeast corner of Penn Square, in the center of the town. In this house they lived until 1764. They took an active interest in local affairs, for Robert Fulton belonged to every organization then formed; to be sure, there were only three, for the town was small. He was secretary of the Union Fire Company, a charter member of the Juliana Library, and a founder of the Presbyterian Church.

It is pleasant to think of the young couple settling their new home on Penn Square (where not many years before the Indians had a colony), near a spring of clear water under a giant hickory tree.It was on this very spot that the chieftains of “Hickory Tribe,” as they termed themselves, met to confer with William Penn, the wise and kindly Quaker.

Governor Thomas Pownall visited Lancaster in 1754 and wrote that it was “a pretty and considerable town, increasing fast and growing rich.” So we can be certain that when Robert Fulton’s parents established a home of their own on Penn Square, they felt they had a bright future before them.

Two little daughters, Elizabeth and Isabella, were born to Mr. and Mrs. Fulton while they lived in this house and were among the first children to be christened in the new church. Mr. Fulton had a strong voice and was chosen to “lead the psalm” in the old Court House, where services were held until the church could be built. He sang the opening words of each division of the psalm and the congregation joined in unison for the later words.

In 1763 Mr. Fulton signed the charter for the town library, the third to be established in the American colonies. Thomas and William Penn, Esquires of the Province, drafted the papers and named the library “Juliana” after Thomas Penn’s wife. He was a son of the famous old William Penn, who had conferred with the Hickory Indians,and for whom the state of Pennsylvania had been named.

The new church, the Juliana Library, and the Union Fire Company, together with his business, kept Robert Fulton well occupied, but they yielded friendly comradeship and varied interests. In 1765 Mr. Fulton sold his Lancaster home and moved his family to a farm of more than three hundred acres on Conowingo Creek, in Little Britain Township, which he had purchased the preceding November. It lay sixty-five miles from Philadelphia, but not many from Lancaster, so they were not far from their friends, though they had to give up active work in the town.

The plastered stone farm-house to which the Fulton family moved is still standing by the country cross-roads. A wide sloping roof shelters the two-story building and overhangs a porch at the eastern end. There the ground slopes to the valley where the Conowingo Creek, a picturesque stream, flows on its quiet way to join the Susquehanna River. It is a place of great beauty and may well have proved attractive to early settlers. The low-ceiled parlors remain as they were during Mr. and Mrs. Fulton’s occupancy, and the upper bedrooms show broad window sills of great age. The fireplace of the old-time kitchen also is unchanged, thesturdy crane swinging in the sooty shadows where Mrs. Fulton hung her kettle to boil, in those distant days of pioneer life. Joseph Swift, of Philadelphia, wrote in after years that his grandmother “well remembered in her youth the preparations which a visit to Aunt Fulton required in the way of baking, boiling and roasting, and in getting ready the camp equipage which the journey through the wilderness required. It was only less formidable than a journey across the Atlantic.”

It was in this quiet farm-house[1]that Robert Fulton, the inventor, was born on the 14th day of November, 1765. He was the first son and there was great rejoicing at his birth. During the cold winter days he slept by the open fireside while his mother attended to her household tasks and cared for the little daughters,—Peggy and Belle, as they were called,—who toddled about the baby brother’s cradle. When the springtime threw its mantle of green over the fresh country-side, Robert laughed and grew strong in the clear country air.

Possibly farming did not pay, for during the succeeding year Mr. and Mrs. Fulton mortgaged the property to Joseph Swift and two others, arrangingpayments to be made during five years. When Robert Fulton finally moved his family back to Lancaster, Joseph Swift came to live in the house, now pleasantly shaded by a tall button-wood tree. This tree is said to have grown from a riding-whip which Joseph Swift’s daughter, Esther, stuck into the ground one day as she dismounted from her favorite pony.

Although the Fulton family lived but a short time upon these farm lands, it gave a sufficient reason for a change of name in the township, for when Little Britain was resurveyed in 1844 the section containing the farm was entitled “Fulton Township,” in honor of the baby boy who first saw the light under that sloping roof, on the bleak November day in 1765.

In selecting land near Conowingo Creek, the elder Robert Fulton realized—as his son came to realize in later years—the importance of watercourses and turnpike advantages. He continued upon the farm till 1771, when it was advertised for sale as “the place where Robert Fulton lives.” But he died early in the autumn of 1774, and his widow, with scanty means, took up the task of rearing their five children, for a daughter, Mary, and a second son, Abraham Smith Fulton, had been born since 1765.

Robert Fulton’s Birthplace, Little Britain, Pennsylvania.

Robert Fulton, the older son, was then nine years old, a bright, active boy, eager for all sorts of fun. An uncle, his father’s brother, took him to his home for a time, but Robert was unhappy away from his mother and returned to her. He early learned to carve his fortune from the hard rock of adversity.

[1]In 1909, a bronze tablet, commemorative of Fulton’s birth, presented by the Lancaster County Historical Society, was unveiled at the entrance door, by the writer.

So many anecdotes have been told about Robert Fulton’s boyhood that they will fill a whole chapter. It is an inspiration to boys and girls, who dream of fame through splendid future action, to realize that a hero usually begins life by a normal childhood, striving to do well the trivial tasks. Daily duties well done form character, and only character creates worth.

Robert Fulton studied at home, under his parents’ teaching, until he was eight years old. By this time the family had returned to Lancaster, and Robert was considered old enough to attend the school kept by one Caleb Johnson, a Quaker.

He had learned to read and write and was eager for school. We can fancy the scene of his entrance to the class-room, his dark eyes bright with excitement, his curls brushed to parted order, as he encountered for the first time the austere schoolmaster, an impressive personage in that day. He was guarded on either side by his fond elder sisters,Peggy and Belle, but their care could not protect him later from the tutoring birch, when Caleb Johnson discovered, as he thought, that Robert was “a dull boy.” The younger sister, Mary,—or Polly, as she was called,—and the baby brother, Abraham, were at home eager to hear Robert’s description of school life.

But after all, Robert seems not to have cared very greatly for his books. His delight lay in visiting the machine-shops of the town, where he spent all his spare time in trying to make things he needed or wanted. One day he explained his late arrival at school by saying that he had been at Nicholas Miller’s shop making a lead-pencil—“the best I ever had,” he declared. He had pounded out the lead and fitted it so neatly into a wooden case that Caleb Johnson admitted it was indeed an excellent pencil. Within a few days,—so eager are children to follow a leader,—all the boys had made for themselves, with more or less success, pencils like Robert’s.

Sometimes his plans for making things so filled his thoughts that he dreamed over his books and was unprepared for recitation; then Caleb Johnson, after the stern fashion of those days, called him to the desk and bade him hold forth his hand for a whipping by the ferule. Once, when the teacherthought him particularly idle, he struck Robert sharply over the knuckles, saying, “There, that will make you do something!” The boy, roused by a sense of injustice, replied with politeness yet with reproof:

“Sir, I came here to have something beaten into my brains, and not into my knuckles.” With head held high and arms folded, he walked back to his place, seeming even to Caleb Johnson, at the time, “a strange boy.” When Robert’s mother called at the school to talk over her son’s progress—for she was worried at his giving so little attention to his books—the master replied,

“Robert says his head is so full of original ideas that there is no room in his brain to store away the contents of dusty books.”

He was beginning to consider life’s problems and he dared to try to solve them by ways of his own. He was never really idle, for two absorbing interests claimed attention,—the study of machinery and the study of art.

For it was not very long before that lead-pencil, pounded with such care at Nicholas Miller’s store, began to reveal Robert’s talent for drawing. He sketched parts of machinery in the various shops of the village and made himself so useful to the mechanics that they welcomed his visits. Then,as Robert realized the beauties in nature, his black pencil seemed to disappoint him. He could find no paints or crayons at the shops, and it was not until a playfellow brought a box of paints to school that Robert realized the possibility of such an aid to making pictures. He pleaded with his friend for a share that he might try his hand at mixing colors, so it was agreed that each boy should paint a picture on a mussel shell. The result proved Robert so excellent an artist that his generous schoolmate, whose talents lay in another direction, presented Robert with the entire outfit. His delight knew no bounds, and thereafter he never was at a loss for occupation.

Like many another famous man, it should be noted that Fulton did not enjoy the advantages of a liberal education in his youth. Beginning work at an early age, by the need of earning his living, he necessarily left his desk and books before he had mastered the higher branches of knowledge demanded by his later work. Still, he was determined to acquire knowledge. Busy by day, he studied by night, and in time added higher mathematics, languages, chemistry and perspective drawing to his mental stores. In fact, Fulton was a student throughout his entire life.

To-day his spelling seems to us distinctly originaland often amusing; but let us remember that he lived in “the good old days” when that particular art was largely a matter of inspiration, instead of being governed, as it is to-day, by stern and unbreakable rules.

The War of the Revolution was in progress during the days of Fulton’s boyhood, and the town of Lancaster was the scene of many important acts.

There had been many English settlers in Lancaster, so it is not surprising that the town abounded in “Royalists,”—sympathizers with the British Crown.

The time and place were rife with excitement. Village boys shared the news, one with another, and followed every skirmish with active interest.

In 1775, Major John André, with other British officers on their way to Quebec, was captured by General Montgomery and taken for safety to Lancaster. So crowded were the barracks that André, on his word as a gentleman, was allowed the following parole:

“I, John André, being a prisoner in the United Colonies of America, do, upon the honor of a gentleman, promise that I will not go into or near any seaport town, nor further than six miles from Lancaster, without leave of the Continental Congress of the Committee of Safety of Pennsylvania,and that I will carry on no political correspondence whatever on the subject of the dispute between Great Britain and the Colonies, so long as I remain a prisoner.”

A man named Caleb Cope received John André into his home and André tutored his son, John Cope, thirteen years old, and gave him lessons in art; for André had a decided talent for the brush and loved to depict, from recollection, the scenes of his English home. One of these pictures, a landscape with a church and lodge among a bower of trees, André gave to Mr. Cope who treasured it in later years. He described André as “a gifted and deceived, but noble-hearted and generous, man.” It is thought that John Cope was the boy who presented the painting outfit to Robert Fulton, so it is probable that, indirectly, Robert may have profited from Major André’s instruction.

Because of its political importance Lancaster was the local headquarters for supplies necessary to American troops, and rifles, blankets and clothing were manufactured there. American soldiers patrolled the streets and had in charge the two thousand British prisoners at one time garrisoned there.

The boys of Lancaster, in the late afternoons, gathered to view the novel scenes of the encampment. After a time, growing braver, they challenged“the rebels,” as they termed the Hessian boys, with the consequence that boyish battles began to take place between the “Tories” and the “Rebels.” A rope, stretched across the street, defined a limit which none dared to pass.

Robert Fulton’s imagination was lively and carried him beyond bounds. One day he made a graphic sketch of the scene, depicting the “Rebels” advancing beyond the line to threaten a thrashing to the “Tories.” He showed the picture to the boys and it had the unfortunate result of inspiring them to the very action portrayed. The town authorities, hearing of the skirmish, feared that the boys were carrying their fun too far and put a hasty stop to these martial games.

Through these stirring days Robert Fulton was daily learning the excellent lessons of self-reliance and self-support. He learned, as we all should, in school and out of school. The Continental authorities employed certain firms to manufacture and repair arms. Guards at the doorways of factories forbade any interruption of the important work, which was pushed with speed, and none but employees might enter. Workmen labored in relays, night and day; even on Sunday the sound of the hammer and engine could be heard.

Special permit was granted to young RobertFulton to go within the shops, for by this time he was so good a draughtsman that his pencil could occasionally outline a suggestion of value, and his increasing knowledge of mechanics made him an apt pupil in the study of the tools of warfare. At this time he commenced to draw designs for fire-arms and as early as 1779 made himself an air-gun.

A certain druggist sold Robert several packages of quicksilver, and these formed part of some mysterious experiments which Robert declined to describe to his curious friends. The workmen in the gun-shop tried in vain to compel him to explain the use to which he put the silvery, elusive metal. So puzzled were they by his secret that they called him in fun “Quicksilver Bob,” and by this name he was known for some time among the workmen of the shops and among his young comrades.

Robert accompanied the gunsmiths upon their testing tours of marksmanship on the open common, or village park; he soon learned to prove calculations of comparative carrying distances of varying sized bore and balls, by shooting at a mark and finding the relative distances and forces of carrying powers.

Among the factory clerks was an intelligent youth, Christopher Gumpf, four years older thanRobert, who in 1779 became his intimate friend. The father was an enthusiastic fisherman and accompanied the boys upon many a fine excursion in his flatboat on Conestoga Creek. When it was not in use he padlocked his boat to a tree, but when off on holiday trips he would ask the boys to pole the boat to certain shady fishing-grounds.

Robert became weary of the hard work of poling the heavy boat for long distances. During a visit of a week at his aunt’s home in Little Britain, he planned and made a small model of a boat to be propelled by side paddles. It was too large to carry home, so Robert placed the model in his aunt’s attic and asked her to keep it for him. Many years after, when Robert’s first steamboat had become famous, that model was brought down from the attic and proudly placed in the aunt’s parlor as the most valued treasure of the house.

When he returned to Lancaster Fulton told Christopher Gumpf about his plan, and together they made a set of paddles, propelled by a double crank action, to move the fishing-boat. Two lengths of timber, with a blade at each end, were fastened at right angles to the boat: a crank at the stern turned the blades, while a third paddle, as a rudder, revolved on a pivot to steer the course. The invention worked well and the delighted boysabandoned the work of poling. The paddles were removable from the boat, and, when not in use, were hidden in thick bushes near the water.

So it was on the Conestoga Creek, with only two witnesses who little dreamed what the contrivance would lead to, that Robert Fulton, the fourteen-year-old boy, began to plan a solution to the problem of navigation.

There comes in every boy’s life a day of great decision; it is when school days are over, and the boy, face to face with the toiling world, decides by which branch of industry he shall perform his share of the world’s work to earn his living. Such a day came to Robert Fulton and he had prepared himself for it.

His mother’s early lessons, the sterner teaching of Caleb Johnson, the visits to the machine-shops, the constant sketching with pencil and crayon,—all had enriched his mind for this day of the choice of vocation. As he felt the call to a larger field of action than Lancaster afforded, it was natural that in seeking his fortune he should turn to the nearest big city, Philadelphia, noted as a center for the peaceful arts of the gentle Quaker folk, its founders.

Robert Fulton was seventeen years old when he left Lancaster to take up his abode in Philadelphia. With war at an end, the country had entered upon the enjoyment of the welcome fruits of peace.

As we study the few facts known about Fulton during this period, it is easy to discover several important reasons which influenced him toward art as a career, and Philadelphia as a place of residence.

Benjamin West, a native of Chester County, Pennsylvania, was at this time famous as a painter in London; he was a man whose success had brought special pride to Lancaster, for he had there begun his career as portrait painter. West’s father, an intimate friend of Robert Fulton’s father, allowed his son, at the early age of twelve, to visit Lancaster in order to paint the portraits of a certain Mrs. Ross and her children. He had been so successful that orders poured in, taxing his time and strength to fill them. Canvas could not be had, so he painted his pictures upon smooth boards. His genius had been shown when he was very young, for at the age of seven he sketched a correct likeness of his sister’s child in the cradle. He had no colors to work with until a party of friendly Indians visited his home, and Benjamin, in boyish pride, showed them his pencil sketches. They generously gave him the colors they used to paint their faces and ornaments, hues extracted from the juices of berries and herbs. They also taught him to mix the paints to form new shades and combinations.He had no brush, so he made one by taking from the tail of a cat some furry hairs which he pulled up through a goose-quill. We remember the adage, “A poor workman blames his tools.” A good workman can manage to make tools from almost nothing, if he really wants to work.

The fame of Benjamin West in London was a favorite topic of conversation in Lancaster. Robert Fulton had already been able to sell mechanical drawings to the shops and had painted tavern-signs, as had West, for local inns. What more natural than that Fulton, with like talent for art, should decide to adopt portrait-painting as his profession?

Mrs. Fulton’s heart must have been very full as she bade her eldest son goodby and saw him mount the stage-coach for the journey to Philadelphia. He had some friends in the city, Lancaster people who had gone there for business or other reasons, for a large city always drains the adjacent villages of the enterprising folk who desire greater fields for action.

Robert Fulton had a cheerful and happy nature and a real talent for making friends, so he soon added new acquaintances to his list, though he was always particular to choose his companions wisely.

It was a brave venture for a country lad of seventeento attempt self-support by art in a great city, but he was eager to acquire every kind of knowledge, and applied himself earnestly to whatsoever his hand could find to do. He designed carriages and buildings; he made mechanical drawings for machine-shops; he copied sketches in India ink; he painted tavern-signs, and all the while, he studied the finer art of portrait and miniature painting, with the hope of making this alone his profession when time should grant him sufficient skill.

An interesting example of Fulton’s early art is a sketch in India ink of a French landscape, showing peasant women washing linen by the side of a stream. It is entitled “La Blanchiseuse” and signed “Robert Fulton, March 15, 1783,” so it was made during his first year in Philadelphia. Probably it was a copy of a French engraving in the Museum where Fulton took lessons when he could afford to employ a teacher.

At that time Charles Wilson Peale was the foremost artist in Philadelphia, and it is thought that Fulton availed himself of his instruction,—at any rate they were friends during later life.

In 1785 the young Lancaster student was registered in the city directory, “Robert Fulton, Miniature Painter, Cor. of 2d. & Walnut Streets,” which indicates that he was launched in his profession.The following year he painted a portrait of his “Good Friend, Joseph Bringhurst,” a Quaker patron. This portrait is labeled “Second portrait in oils”, which defines the time when Fulton began to paint large portraits, although prior to this date he had made many crayon portraits and miniatures.

At that time Benjamin Franklin, about to go to France as American Ambassador, was the chief personage of Philadelphia. It was a fine feather in Fulton’s cap when the great man showed him favor. Franklin admired Fulton’s painstaking work and pleasant manner; it is said that he showed him unusual attention and introduced him to prominent men of the city. From this time Fulton’s services as a portrait painter were steadily engaged and orders flowed in. In 1787 Benjamin Franklin himself sat for his portrait, and this, of course, greatly helped to set the fashion. Its astonishing adventures are thus described in thePennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography:

Back to Index Next