Patch Announces a Jump over the Passaic Falls

Background: This statement published by Paterson’s local newspaper The Paterson Intelligencer in 1828  is one of the few contemporary writings attributed to Sam Patch and provides details about his intent and justification for jumping over the Passaic Falls.

Whereas I consider my reputation injured by a false report, inasmuch as it has been stated that I am a crazy man by several respectable gentlemen of this place and New-York, I have resolved to make the astonishing leap once more from the high rock of the Passaic Falls into the basin below, as 12 o’clock, on Monday the 28th, in order to satisfy the credulous that I am perfectly sober and in possession of my proper faculties––and that the feat is nothing more than an art of which I have both the knowledge and courage to perform. I therefore invite all persons disposed to avail themselves of the opportunity to witness the greatest feat ever performed in this country.

SAMUEL PATCH

Source: “Samuel Patch,” The Paterson Intelligencer (Paterson, New Jersey), July 15, 1828.