A famous jumper. See quotations.

1

1827.  They saw a man making towards the edge of the precipice. [He] stood perfectly erect, and in this posture threw himself from the rock into the river…. The man, whose name is Samuel Patch, said that Mr. Crane had done a great thing, and he meant to do another.—Mass. Spy, Oct. 17: from the N.Y. Evening Post.

2

1829.  The jumping of the illustrious Mr. Samuel Patch of New Jersey. [Then follows an account of the Niagara jump.]—Letter to N.Y. Commercial Advertiser, dated Oct. 8.

3

1829.  Sam Patch jumped down the falls at Rochester on the 6th inst. in presence of 10,000 gapers.—Mass. Spy, Nov. 18.

4

1829.  His last jump at Genesee Falls, N.Y.—Id., Nov. 25.

5

1834.  

        Toll for Sam Patch! Sam Patch, who jumps no more,
  This or the world to come. Sam Patch is dead!
The vulgar pathway to the unknown shore
  Of dark futurity, he would not tread.
A facetious monody on him, by Robert C. Sands: ‘Writings,’ ii. 347.    

6

1836.  He had chalked out his course so sleek in his letter to the Tennessee legislature, that, like Sam Patch, says I, “there can be no mistake in him,” and so I went ahead.—‘Col. Crockett in Texas,’ p. 16 (Phila.).

7

1838.  Why did you play Sam Patch and jump into the river?—B. Drake, ‘Tales and Sketches,’ p. 54 (Cincinn.).

8

1839.  [The American people must] at all times have an idol to worship, and a clown to laugh at; they must have occasionally a Sam Patch, a Morgan, an Abolitionist, or an Oceola, to marvel at, and to talk about.—Mr. Sevier of Arkansas, U.S. Senate, Feb. 20: Cong. Globe, p. 186, App.

9

1854.  Afore you could say Sam Patch, them hogs were yanked aout of the lot, kilt, and scraped.—N.Y. Spirit of the Times, n.d.

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