Photo: Boris Karpachev, en:User:BCarpaccio (uploaded to the English, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Samuel Wilson was born in Massachusetts in 1766 and moved to Troy with his brother Ebenezer in 1789. The brothers made bricks and later went into meat packing on the Hudson.
During the War of 1812, Wilson supplied beef and pork in barrels to the Army troops stationed nearby. The barrels were stamped “U.S.” for the government.
The joke that stuck
Wilson was well known locally as “Uncle Sam.” As the story goes, soldiers and workers joked that the U.S. on the barrels stood for him. The nickname spread to mean the federal government itself, and later cartoonists gave the figure a beard and a star-spangled hat.
In 1961 Congress passed a resolution recognizing Samuel Wilson as the namesake of the national symbol.
Remembering him in Troy
Wilson died in 1854 and is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Troy, where his grave is marked and draws visitors, especially around the Fourth of July. Troy calls itself “the Home of Uncle Sam,” and the city holds an Uncle Sam parade.
A statue of Wilson stands downtown near the riverfront, and a historical marker identifies the site of his home.
