James Rumsey

Born in 1743, James Rumsey was a man of many trades. Although not formally educated, he was skilled at science, blacksmithing, cabinetmaking, and milling. In 1784, George Washington commissioned Rumsey to build a house and stable for him at his residence in Bath, Virginia. Washington also supported Rumsey’s vision---realized in 1786---of building a steamboat capable of navigating the Potomac River. The first trial run was not a success, but a reworked design of 1787 fared better. Rumsey spent four years in London in search of financial backers. One day, after showing the latest model, the Columbia Maid, he fell ill and died from what his doctors described as “overstraining his brain.”