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 Irving, 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.
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