Sam Patch

Sam Patch (1807 – November 13, 1829) was known as "The Jersey Jumper", "The Daring Yankee", or the "Yankee Leaper" became the first famous American daredevil after successfully jumping from a raised platform into the Niagara River near the base of Niagara Falls in 1829.

Biography

Early life Sam Patch was born to Mayo Greenleaf Patch and Abigail McIntire and was the fifth child of the family that included Molly, Greenleaf, Nabby, Samuel (died as an infant), Samuel, and Issac. where he began working as a child laborer spinning cotton in a mill. When he was not working, he entertained other boys by jumping off the mill dam. By his early 20s, he was working at a mill in Paterson, New Jersey, and was jumping off ever-higher spots. He was beginning to attract crowds for his well-advertised stunts. On September 30, 1827, and his slogan "some things can be done as well as others" became a popular expression across the nation.

Rochester Shortly after, Patch went to Rochester, New York, to challenge the High Falls of the Genesee River. On Friday, November 6, 1829, in front of an estimated 7,000 to 8,000 spectators, Patch went out onto a rock ledge in the middle of the falls. He first threw a pet bear cub over the falls and the cub managed to swim safely to shore. Patch then successfully jumped after the bear. Local ministers and newspapers were quick to blame the crowd for urging him to jump, and put the guilt of his death on them. A wooden board (now gone) was placed over his grave. It read: "Here lies Sam Patch – Such is Fame". Drunk History featured Sam Patch's story in the Season 4, Episode 2 episode, "Legends", played by actor and comedian Kyle Mooney. Canadian musician Tim Kingsbury adopted the name Sam Patch for a musical project. Sam Patch is the name given to a replica Erie Canal packet boat that provides tours of the Rochester area waterways.

Literary references

"Sam Patch's Fearsome Leap," a tale in Grandfather Stories by Samuel Hopkins Adams, is a reconstructed first-hand account of the day of Patch's last leap. It is not clear whether Adams based the tale on a real first-hand account or wrote it as historical fiction.

Patch appears as a "daring moral hero" in the works of Hawthorne and Melville, and also appears in the poem "Paterson" by William Carlos Williams.

The adventures of Patch and his bear, as narrated by the bear himself, comprise the picaresque novel by William Getz, Sam Patch: Ballad of a Jumping Man (New York: Franklin Watts, 1986).