The Missing Piece

After a month and a half of periodically crawling on the floor, re-checking whether a small piece of wood fell between couch cushions, and refusing to vacuum my apartment out of fear of inadvertently losing a piece of history forever, I have finally retrieved the missing piece to the first jigsaw puzzle made in the United States.

My mother miraculously found this small piece even though I told her it was orange (the only other copy of the puzzle I had found showed an orange Schenectady, see here, but it seems the prototype of the puzzle and the one actually made for sale assigned different colors to many of the puzzle pieces).  My Schenectady piece is green.

Here's the puzzle before the missing piece:

And after:

Just looking at it makes me sigh in relief that it is finally complete!

In anticipation of my trip to upstate New York to visit my family and secure Schenectady, I researched my ancestor, Samuel McCleary, to learn more about who he was.  If I were to try to sum him up, I'd say he was an inquisitive and clever man, who was curious and loved making things.  He moved from one profession to another--perhaps searching for one that suited him best, or merely moving on to a new profession after mastering his last. 

In 1850, he identified himself as a "farmer" for purposes of census records, but it was the year before that he commenced his puzzlemaking undertaking.  Interestingly, his partner in his jigsaw venture, John Pierce, may have been a boarder and laborer on Samuel's farm, for the census records show that a "John Pearce" lived with the McCleary family and his profession was recorded as "laborer."  

The upper left hand corner of the puzzle notes it was created by "McCleary & Pierce"

In any event, Samuel McCleary's first invention, his "Dissecting Map of the State of New York" puzzle (with which you are probably well familiar by now), was actually the very first jigsaw puzzle made in the United States.  Not only did he create the puzzle, but he also invented a new method of cutting jigsaw puzzle pieces.  In the 1840s and 1850s (and beyond), jigsaws were massively popular.  They were first invented in 1760 as an educational tool, and were particularly popular in England.  But, their popularity spread quickly and the familiar pieces were soon scattered across parlors throughout Europe.  Since many who lived in the United States had some connection to England and Europe, puzzles naturally made their way across the Atlantic and were imported into the United States during the early 1800s.  McCleary's was the first jigsaw to be invented and manufactured in the United States, and he set off a wave of American jigsaw makers.  In addition to producing the first American jigsaw puzzle, he also patented his own die-cast method of cutting the pieces in 1849.  Click here to see the patent.

McCleary went on to create a second puzzle, which he also patented.  This second game involved a series of wooden blocks with numbers written on them, which could be assembled so that each row--horizontal, vertical, and diagonal--would add up to the same sum.  I don't think he ever produced this puzzle, but, the idea was patented almost 130 years ago, so it is possible they are out there, but few have survived over the years.  Click here to see the patent. 

It seems McCleary didn't settle on any particular trade.  He went from farmer to puzzle maker to shoemaker to tanner.  As he grew older, he and his wife moved in with their son, Edward McCleary (the Civil War veteran I featured on the blog during the week leading to Memorial Day), and it seems Samuel either delighted or tortured Edward's children with his educational games.  One of my favorite McCleary family relics is this map of New York State, drawn by Edward's daughter, Jennie.  As you can see, she drew each county of New York and labeled them, apparently modeling her map after her grandfather's puzzle:

Jennie McCleary's drawing of the counties of New York State, which appears to be modeled after her grandfather's puzzle

Samuel McCleary went on to live into his late 80s.  In fact, in a letter Edward wrote to a family friend in July 1895, he noted that his father lived with him for nine months out of the year and there was "no need to inquire about his health he is past-88 and a Dynamite Bomb would take no effect on him."  In November 1895, however, Samuel McCleary suddenly passed away after suffering lung problems.  He was buried near his family, in Albany, New York.

While the creation of the first jigsaw puzzle in the United States may pale in comparison to many of the other incredible things that have been invented and produced in America, the jigsaw has proven to be a classic game for all ages.  Even 160 years after the first one was made here, the simple pleasure of an afternoon spent piecing together a puzzle continues to be a favorite pastime for many.

For more information about jigsaws, a great source which I used for some of the background information in this post is Linda Hannas' The Jigsaw Book (which happens to mention that Samuel McCleary and John Pierce created the first American-made jigsaw puzzle).