John Cleves Symmes

John Cleve Symmes

John Cleves Symmes (born July 21, 1742 on Long Island , † February 26, 1814 in Cincinnati , Ohio ) was an American lawyer and a member of the Continental Congress as an MP from New Jersey .

He was born on July 21, 1742 in Riverhead in what is now Suffolk County , New York , to the Reverend Timothy Symmes (1715-1756) and his wife Mary Cleves (died around 1746). Symmes married after his training as a lawyer Anna Tuthill (1741–1776), with whom he had three daughters, Maria (born April 23, 1765), Mary (born August 30, 1767) and Anna (1775–1864), the future wife of US President William H. Harrison and Grandmother of President Benjamin Harrison .

Symmes supported the American Revolution and served as Colonel of the 3rd Sussex County Militia Regiment , part of the American Infantry , during the American Revolutionary War from 1777 to 1780 . Symmes was from 1777 to 1778 a judge at the "New Jersey Supreme Court" of New Jersey and was then appointed by his friend, Governor William Livingston as chief legal counsel. In 1779, Symmes married Susannah, Livingston's daughter, sister-in-law to John Jays . Symmes was the uncle of John Cleves Symmes jun. (1780–1829), who became known as an advocate of the theory of the hollow earth (also hollow world theory).

He was a member of Congress from New Jersey from 1785 to 1786.

In 1788, Symmes moved west and settled in what is now North Bend , Ohio. He served there as a judge and made a career as a broker. He died on February 26, 1814 in Cincinnati, Ohio, and was buried in North Bend.