was, at
this time (1788), attracting much attention. Boulton and Watt were urged
to undertake experiments. This they declined to entertain, having their
facilities fully employed in their own field, but finally Fulton, on
August 6, 1803, ordered an engine from them from his own drawings,
intended for this purpose, repeating the order in person in 1804. It was
shipped to America early in 1805, and in 1807 placed upon the Clermont,
which ran upon the Hudson River as a passenger boat, attaining a speed
of about five miles an hour. This was the first steamboat that was ever
used for passengers, and altho Fulton neither invented the boat nor the
engine, nor the combination of the two, still he is entitled to great
credit for overcoming innumerable difficulties sufficient to discourage
most men. Fulton, who was the son of a Scotsman from Dumfrieshire,
visited Syminton's steamboat, the _Charlotte Dundas_, in Scotland, in
1801, and had seen it successfully towing canal boats upon the Forth and
Clyde Canal. This was the first boat ever propelled by steam
successfully for commercial purposes. It was subsequently discarded, not
because it did not tow the canal boats, but because the revolving
paddle-wheels caused waves that threatened to wash away the canal banks.

Several engines were sent to New York. The men in charge of one found on
shipboard a pattern-maker going to America named John Hewitt. He settled
in America January 12th, 1796, and became the father of the late famous
and deeply lamented Hon. Abram S. Hewitt, long a member of Congress and
afterward mayor of New York, foremost in many improvements in the city,
the last being the Subway, just opened, which owes its inception to him.
For this service, the Chamber of Commerce presented him with a memorial
medal. Mr. Hewitt married a daughter of Peter Cooper, founder of the
Cooper Institute, which owes its wonderful development chiefly to him.
His children devote themselves and their fortunes to its management. At
the time of his death in 1902, he was pronounced "the first private
citizen of the Republic." Small engine-shops (of which the ruins still
remain), called "Soho" after their prototype, were erected by his father
near New York city, on the Greenwood division of the Erie Railroad. The
railroad station was called "Soho" by Mr. Abram S. Hewitt, who was then
president of the railroad company. Upon Mr. Hewitt's eightieth birthday
congratulations poured in from all quarte