268 



sions are that he was once a candidate for mayor of Hartford, and again for the legis 

 latnre. In one case, I think, the twin-brothers ran against each other, and Henry 

 L. was defeated. He was hy President Jackson appointed commissioner to the Indian 

 tribes of the then far West, and afterward Commissioner of the Patent Office, which, 

 under his advice and suggestion, was created a separate bureau of the Government. 

 AYheu Commissioner to the Indians, on one of Jiis trips toward the Eocky Mountains, Mr. 

 Ellsworth was accompanied by Washington Irving. He was the tirst head of a bureau 

 who was invited to take a seat in the Cabinet. 



His mind possessed great quickness and versatility, and he thoroughly enjoyed the 

 duties of his position, and was always ready to listen with eagerness and interest to 

 any suggestion of possibilities in the matter of progress and invention. He was the 

 most thoroughly amiable of men, and always accessible to all. His interest in agri- 

 culture was genuine and enthusiastic, and his appreciation of the agricultural wealth 

 of the country, and the growth of the newer portions of it, was far in advance of his 

 time. In fact, he had the misfortune to be in advance of his time on the entire subject 

 of agi'icultural processes, machinery, &c., and of course incurred the charge of being 

 visionary. That he was a theorist rather than a practical farmer was his glory; that 

 Le was an enthusiast was a great merit; that much which he discussed and felt hopeful 

 of proved to be fallacious was to be exjjected in one whose business was at that early 

 day to stimulate and encourage progress and discovery. His motto as to all inventions 

 was, " With hoijefiilness to all, and prejudice toward none." The country will perliaps 

 never know the debt it owes to him for the stimulus given by his labors and publica- 

 tions in the Patent OtKce. 



Early in 1S34, or soon after, he commenced to make investments in wild lands at the 

 West, principally in the vicinity of Lafayette, Indiana. He was one of the earliest to 

 foretell the value of prairie lands, and invested in these when others laughed at his 

 follj-, declaring that they were so far from timber as to be forever uninhabitable. He 

 also interested capitalists and public men from all sections of the country in the same 

 class of investments, and in some counties at the West almost the entire lands in the 

 county were entered by him for himself and the parties he represented ; as, for iuatance, 

 the counties of Warren and Benton, in Indiana. 



On leaving tlie Patent Office, in 1845, he removed to Lafayette, Indiana, to take 

 charge personally of his large lauded interests. He had ali'eady improved large sec- 

 tions, though still residing in Washington, and now, though residing in the town, he 

 commenced other large improvements in Tippecanoe, Benton, and Warren Counties, 

 Indiana. He was always experimenting and striving after improved results, and the 

 use of machinery in agriculture — an idea at that time considered nearly chimerical. 

 He jjrobably used the lirst mowing machine ever introduced upon the prairies. He 

 was es^iecially interested iu the improvement and proiiagation of swine, and, much to 

 the annoyance of his family, when living in Washington he had extensive piggeries 

 iu the vicinity of that city. 



JMr. Ellsworth was an earnest Christian, and his purity in thought and language, 

 and his courtesy aud polish, were something remarkable in one who disregarded the 

 externals of dress and equipage so entirely as he seems to have done. His life was 

 exceedingly active and laborious, and he finally became a victim of overwork, like so 

 many of the men of the present time, leaving his estate to be a subject of controversy 

 between the members of his family aud Wabash College, Indiana, on the one side, and 

 the corporation of Yale College aud various religious and charitable societies on the 

 other, growing out of the existence of two wills. With a good sense and temper rare 

 on such occasions, the controversy was withdrawn from the courts and compromised to 

 the satisfaction of all parties. 



Mr. Ellsworth was thrice married. The second time to Miss Marietta Bartlett, of 

 Guilford, Connecticut, aud the last time to Miss Catharine Smith, of Durham, Connec- 

 ticut, who survived him. He died at Fair Haven, Connecticut, December 27, 1858, 

 having removed from Indiana only a few mouths before his death, and was buried at 

 New Haven, Connecticut. As the father of the Patent Office iu several important 

 particulars, his jjortrait should certainly grace its walls, and esiiecially the walls of the 

 Department of Agriculture. 



EXTRACTS FROM CASUAL CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 

 SEDGWICK COUNTY, KANSAS. 



A'letter from y\llliain Packard, one of our corresijondents in this new 

 county, says : 



Tliis county was organized in April, 1870. By comparing the election returns w^e 

 find that the number of voters in one year, to Ai)ril, 1871, had increased nearly nine to 



