Ellsworth, Henry Leavitt

Ellsworth, Henry Leavitt,

1791–1858, American agriculturist, b. Windsor, Conn., grad. Yale, 1810. His interests were varied. He was a lawyer, businessman, and farming enthusiast. In 1832 he made a trip west as one of the commissioners appointed to superintend the removal of Native Americans to what is now Oklahoma. He was accompanied by Washington IrvingIrving, Washington,
1783–1859, American author and diplomat, b. New York City. Irving was one of the first Americans to be recognized abroad as a man of letters, and he was a literary idol at home.
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, who recorded his impressions in A Tour on the Prairies; by C. J. Latrobe, an Englishman; and by the young comte de Pourtalès. Ellsworth's own account appears in Washington Irving on the Prairie; or, A Narrative of a Tour of the Southwest in the Year 1832 (ed. by S. T. Williams and B. Simison, 1937). He served (1835–45) as commissioner of patents and worked to promote agricultural research and aid to farmers.