NEW YORK, August 20 [21]. To the Editor of the American Citizen. Sir, I arrived this afternoon at 4 o'clock in the steamboat from Albany. As the success of my experiment gives me great hope that such boats may be rendered of much importance to my country, to prevent erroneous opinions, and give some satisfaction to the friends of useful improvements, you will have the goodness to publish the following statement of facts: I left New York on Monday at 1 o'clock, and arrived at Clermont, the seat of Chancellor Livingston, at 1 o'clock on Tuesday, time 24 hours, distance 110 miles; on Wednesday I departed from the Chancellor's at 9 in the morning, and arrived at Albany at 5 in the afternoon, distance 40 miles, times 8 hours; the sum of this is 150 miles, in 32 hours, equal near 5 miles an hour. On Thursday, at 9 o'clock in the morning, I left Albany, and arrived at the Chancellor's at 6 in the evening; I started from thence at 7, and arrived at New York on Friday at 4 in the afternoon, time 30 hours, space run through 150 miles, equal 5 miles an hour. Throughout the whole way my going and returning the wind was ahead; no advantage could be drawn from my sails the whole has, therefore, been performed by the power of the steam engine. I am, Sir, Your most obedient, ROBERT FULTON. At the bottom of the foregoing letter the editor appended the following comment: "We congratulate Mr. Fulton and the country on his success in the Steam Boat, which cannot fail of being very advantageWe understand that not the smallest inconvenience is felt ous. in the boat either from heat or smoke." Second: The correct date of Fulton's death is February 23, 1815. The statement that he died on the 24th is attributable to an error of Fulton's own intimate friend, Cadwallader Colden, who, in his "Life of Fulton," published in 1817, says: * * * "His disorder increased and on the 24th day of February, 1815, terminated his valuable life. His corpse was attended from his last residence (No. 1 State street) by all the officers of the national and state governments," etc. Reigart, in his "Life of Fulton," published in 1856, makes the same statement, but he carries no weight as independent authority, for his words are identical with Colden's and are unmistakeably copied from the latter. Reigart says: "His disorder increased, and on the 24th of February, 1815, terminated his valuable life. * * * His corpse was attended from his last residence, No. 1 State street, by all the officers of the national and state governments," etc. As Reigart followed Colden, so others have followed either the same author or Reigart himself, and thus the statement that Fulton had died on the 24th and that he died at No. 1 State street has been indefinitely multiplied. The evidence that Fulton died on February 23d is as follows: The New York Evening Post of February 23, 1815, says: "The public has sustained an irreparable loss in the death of Robert Fulton, Esq. He breathed his last early this morning." The Evening Post of February 24th says: "Died on the The Commercial Advertiser of February 24th says: "Died on the 23d inst. * * * Robert Fulton." The Gazette and General Advertiser of February 24th says: "Died, yesterday morning, between 9 and 10 o'clock, after a very few days' illness, Robert Fulton, Esq." The following death announcement appeared in the Courier and Mercantile Director of Saturday, February 25, 1815: "Died: On Thursday morning, between 9 and 10 o'clock, after a very few days' illness, Robert Fulton, Esq." The foregoing quotations are sufficient to fix the 23d as the date of Fulton's death, but it will be interesting to quote in confirmation the letter of Dr. David Hosack, which appears in the appendix to Colden's "Life of Fulton," in which Doctor Hosack says: "I did not visit Mr. Fulton until the night preceding his dissolution. * ** Between 11 and 12 o'clock of the night of the 22nd of February, I was requested to visit him in consultation. * * * The morning of the succeeding day closed his important life." Third: Fulton died in Marketfield street, now Battery place, west of the foot of Broadway, New York City, not at No. 1 State street. In order that the references to "Marketfield street," "opposite Battery" and "near the steamboat wharf," may be understood, it should be explained that in 1815 the street now called Battery place was known as Marketfield street. At and north of Marketfield street the Hudson River then came up to Washington street. On the south side of Marketfield street Battery Park had been filled in only as far as Greenwich street. The water, therefore, came up to what is now the middle of Battery place along its length between Greenwich and Washington streets. Extending southward from Market field street in a line with Washington street was a steamboat wharf, the Brunswick line of steamers starting from the inside of that wharf. The West Battery, later called Castle Garden and now the Aquarium, stood where it now stands, of course, but as Battery Park was not then filled out to its present frontier, the Battery was a little island, connected with the land by a foot-bridge. It is opposite the block between Greenwich and Washington streets. Now for the authorities as to the place of Fulton's residence when he died. Fulton's name first appears in the city directory in 1809.* Following are quotations from the directories for the seven years from 1809 to 1815. In addition to the year, the month of publication is given when indicated on the title page: Longworth's Directory, 1809: "Fulton, Robert, 100 Reed st." Longworth's Directory, July 4, 1810: "Fulton, Robert, 100 Reed st." Longworth's Directory, July 4, 1811: Chambers." "Fulton, Robert, 133 Longworth's Directory, July 4, 1812: "Fulton, Robert, Marketfield opp. Battery." * His residence in 1807 is indicated by a little manuscript book kept by him, now in possession of his grandson, Robert Fulton Ludlow of Claverack, N. Y., which contains the following entry in that year: "March the 10th. Took lodging at Mrs. Loring's, New York." Longworth's City Directory for 1807 contains the following: "Loring, Mrs., 13 Broadway." Elliott's Directory, 1812: "Fulton, R., civil & mil engin 2 Marketfield." Longworth's, July 5, 1813: "Fulton, Robert, Marketfield opposite Battery." Longworth's, June 9, 1814: "Fulton, Robert, Marketfield opposite Battery." 66 Longworth's, 1815: Fulton, widow of Robert, 353 Broad way." It may be observed in passing that No. 2 Marketfield street may not be identical with No. 2 Battery place. Where houses were not officially numbered they were given numbers in the order in which they were located. Elliott's Double Directory of 1812 shows that there were only two residences in Marketfield street at that time, and Fulton's was the second. The directories not only indicate that Fulton lived in Marketfield street, but they also positively indicate that he did not live at No. 1 State street, for that building was occupied in 1815 and for a few years previously by William Neilson and William Neilson, Jr. The next evidence is afforded by contemporary newspapers: The New York Gazette and General Advertiser of February 24, 1815, in its notice of Fulton's death, says: "His friends and fellow citizens are requested to attend his funeral on Saturday next at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, from his late residence in Marketfield street near the steamboat wharf." The Courier and Mercantile Directory of Saturday, February 25th, says: "His friends and fellow citizens are requested to attend his funeral, at 4 o'clock this afternoon, from his late residence in Marketfield street, near the Steamboat wharf." Still another authority for the Marketfield street location is the Messrs. Prime, sons of Nathaniel Prime, who lived at No. 1 Broadway at the time of Fulton's death. In Valentine's Corporation Manual for 1850, on page 416, is a brief history of No. 1 Broadway, furnished by the Messrs. Prime. It says, with reference to the old house then standing: "This house was erected in 1760 by the Honorable Captain Kennedy. * * At the period of its erection the garden in the rear extended to the Hud* From this house, anxious eyes watched the destruc son. * * tion of the Statue of George III. * * * Still later, others looked sadly on the Funeral of Fulton, who died in a house which had been built on what was once the garden." "The house which had been built on what was once the garden" is more particularly indicated in the following letters from Miss Cornelia Prime of Huntington, L. I., who was born in the room in which Fulton died: HUNTINGTON, N. Y., Feb. 8, 1908. EDWARD HAGAMAN HALL, Esq., Secretary The American Scenic & Historic Preservation Society, DEAR SIR: Pardon the delay in replying more fully to your letter of 2nd December, 1907. My Grand Father Nathaniel Prime owned, and resided at No. 1 Broadway, from 1810 to 1831. My father Rufus Prime resided at No. 1 Battery Place, from 1829 to 1840. (I infer that Battery place, previously, had been called Marketfield St.) My uncle Edward Prime resided at No. 1 Broadway, for a number of years subsequent to 1840. Later on, the property passed out of the hands of the Prime family, and the building was added on to, so as to fill in the gap between it and No. 1 Battery Place, and the enlarged structure was known as the Washington Hotel." Shortly before the latter was torn down by Cyrus Field, escorted by my Father, whose wish it was, I revisited the room that I was born in, a rather small one only reached by passing through a larger one. You have my Father Mr. Rufus Prime's authority and that of many of the old members of our family for the statement that my Brother Temple and myself were born in the above described chamber, the identical room where Robert Fulton died at No. 1 Battery Place, in the same "house which had been built on what was once the garden." In 1838, a small bit of the garden still intervened between the two houses, which were so situated that a handful of gravel could be thrown from one of the windows of No. 1 Battery Place against a rear window of No. 1 Broadway, a pre |