How One Man Nearly Persuaded the U.S. Government that the Earth was Hollow: The Remarkable Story of John Cleves Symmes Jr.
On November 5, 1780 John Cleves Symmes Jr. was born in Sussex County, New Jersey. He was named after his uncle John Cleves Symmes who had served as both a delegate from New Jersey to the Continental Congress and as a Colonel during the American Revolution. As a teenager, young John arbitrarily placed the suffix “Jr.” onto the end of his name so that local residents could tell him apart from his famous patriot uncle. John Cleves Symmes was a voracious reader growing up, and the scope of his intellectual interests was wide and varied, ranging from engineering to natural science to philosophy and religion. It seemed as if John Cleves Symmes Jr. would be destined for a successful career in academia. Soon, though at the age of twenty-two, the younger John followed in his elder uncle’s footsteps by gaining a commission as an Ensign in the United States Army in March of 1802. He went on to receive an officer’s commission as a Lieutenant in the 1st In...