Henry Leavitt Ellsworth

Henry Leavitt Ellsworth was a Yale educated attorney who became the first Commissioner of the United States Patent Office and, through that post, effectively founded what grew into the United States Department of Agriculture. His interest in agriculture during his tenure as Patent Commissioner from 1835 to 1845 led Congress in 1839 to appropriate the first federal funds for farming, which were used to collect seeds from other countries and distribute them to American farmers through the postal service. By 1845 his office was performing the functions of a full agricultural bureau, earning Ellsworth the designation Father of the United States Department of Agriculture. He also served as a commissioner to Indian tribes on the western frontier and predicted that western lands would eventually be cultivated by steam plows, a prophecy technology later fulfilled.