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EA-Biography

(Leila F. Clark)

JOHN CLEVES SYMMES

        John Cleves Symmes (1780 - 1829), soldier and "hollow earth" theorist,

was born in Sussex County, New Jersey, November 5, 1780, the son of Timothy

and Mercy (Harker) Symmes. He was a descendant of Zechariah Symmes who

emigrated from England to Charlestown, Mass., in 1634. His father was Judge

of the Court of Common Pleas of Sussex County, and the only brother of the

John Cleves Symmes (1742-1814) whose name is famous in the history of the

Middle West for his connection with the "Symmes Purchase" and the founding

of the city of Cincinnati. Like his brother, Timothy Symmes was said to

have taken "an active part in the cause of liberty in the Revolutionary war."

        Except that he received "a good common English education" and showed a

keen interest in science and mathematics, little is known of Symme's education.

His insatiable intellectual curiosity undoubtedly added greatly to whatever

body of knowledge he acquired from his formal schooling.

        Through his uncle's influence Symmes entered the United States Army as

an ensign, March 26, 1802, and he rose ultimately to the rank of captain in

1813. For several years he was stationed at different posts in the Southwest;

at Fort Adams near Natchez, in New Orleans, and at other points. It was while

at Fort Adams that he fought a duel with a brother officer, Lieutenant Marshall,

who had made some slighting remarks, entirely unfounded, about Symmes's financial

integrity. Both were wounded in the encounter, Marshall in the thigh, and Symmes

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EA-Biog. Clark: John Cleves Symmes

in the left wrist, the use of which he never fully recovered.

        In 1808, while he was stationed at Fort Adams, Symmes married Mrs. Mary

Anne (Pelletier) Lockwood, widow of Captain Benjamin Lockwood, and mother

of six children. Mrs. Symmes was a warmhearted, vivacious, intelligent

woman of French descent. She spoke no English until after her second marriage.

Symmes himself learned French, and is said to have spoken both French and

Spanish fluently. He was devoted to his wife, and looked after the interests

of his stepchildren equally with those of his own four.

        Symmes was stationed in Missouri at the outbreak of the war of 1812 and

later was ordered to join the army of General Brown on the northern frontier,

where he commanded his company with skill and gallantry. He was given honorable

mention for his bravery at the battle of Lundy's Lane, and in the successful

sortie from Fort Erie he and his command captured one of the batteries, Symmes

leading his men over the intrenchments and spiking the first cannon with his

own hand.

        Captain Symmes received his honorable discharge from military service

June 15, 1815, and settled in St. Louis where he engaged in the business of

furnishing supplies to the troops stationed on the upper Mississippi, and

traded with the Fox Indians under a special license received from Governor

Clark of Missouri Territory.

        It was from St. Louis that Symmes made the first startling announcement

of his hollow earth theory in a circular dated April 10, 1818, declaring the

earth to be hollow, habitable within, containing a number of concentric

spheres, and open at the pole, twelve or sixteen degrees. He declared himself

ready to explore the hollow, and asked the world to support and aid him in the

undertaking. "My terms are the patronage of this and the new world, I dedicate

to my wife and her ten children."

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EA-Biog. Clark: John Cleves Symmes

        The circular was widely distributed and the theory was received at

first with almost universal derision. Undiscouraged, Symmes spent all the

rest of his life, until illness overcame him, writing and lecturing about

it, and tryint to obtain support for an exploring expedition to prove its

truth and to open the new inner world which he expected to find. Later it

gained a good many warm adherents, Symmes's own great simplicity of manner

and the absence of any evidence of mental unbalance winning him many friends.

        Symmes moved from St. Louis to Newport, Kentucky, in 1819, and in 1824

to Hamilton, Ohio. In 1822 and 1823, petitions for financial aid and ships

received little serious consideration from Congress and were laid on the table.

In 1825, Symmes was given permission to join a Russian exploring expedition

but was not financially able to take advantage of it.

        Symmes was first introduced to a large audience in Cincinnati in 1824,

and in 1825, accompanied by his stepson, Anthony Lo [c ?] kwood, and by Jeremiah

N. Reynolds, one of his most earnest and influential converts, started on a

prolonged lecture tour through Ohio and the East. In Philadelphia, Reynolds

left him to lecture separately, and he and his stepson continued on through

New England, New York, and as far north as Quebec. Local newspapers everywhere

were full of notices of the lectures, both favorable and unfavorable. Many

of them were skeptical of the truth of the theory but favorable to an arctic

expedition whatever the outcome so far as the incidental testing of the theory

might be.

        Symmes's health, never very good, suffered from the severe climate in

Canada, and he went back to New York in 1827. He spent some time with relatives

in New Jersey but seldom lectured after 1827. Seriously ill, he returned to

Ohio, and died in Hamilton, May 28 or 29, 1829.

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EA-Biog. Clark: John Cleves Symmes

        Though Symmes himself was unsuccessful, the enthusiasm and dogged

persistence with which he and his converts, notably Reynolds, championed

this theory and campaigned for its testing undoubtedly influenced public

support of an exploring expedition, and so, by devious ways, played a

part in the ultimate launching of the first great U.S. Exploring Expedition,

in 1838, under Captain Wilkes, U.S.N., not to the Arctic, it is true, but to

the Antarctic.

       

Leila F. Clark