Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Ellsworth, Erastus Wolcott

ELLSWORTH, Erastus Wolcott, poet, b. in East Windsor, Conn., 27 Nov., 1822. He was graduated at Amherst college in 1844, and studied law, but was diverted from the profession by a taste for mechanics, and has occupied himself chiefly as an inventor. In 1845 he took out patents for a drawing or copying instrument, and for a device for making a siphon discharge a portion of its contents at the highest point. He then entered an extensive foundry. His first published poem, entitled “The Yankee,” appeared in 1849; his best and longest is “Ariadne,” originally printed in the “International Magazine” (1852); his most popular is “Tuloom.” Some of his fugitive pieces were collected and published (Hartford, 1855).