John Cleves Symmes, Jr.

Symmes was born in 1779 as son of Timothy Symmes. In order to distinguish themselves from his famous uncle, John Cleves Symmes, he added his name to the auxiliary Junior. His cousin Anna Harrison was briefly the First Lady of the United States.

In 1802 he joined the United States Army and rose during the war of 1812 to a Captain on. He was stationed at the Canadian border in Niagara and Fort Eire Ford.

On April 10, 1818, he joined with a circular letter to the public that the earth is hollow. In his view, there is a 12 to 16 degrees wide opening, where a gentle, navigable sea pours into the Earth at the poles. Furthermore, the country would there are wild animals and maybe even people.

He launched a series of lectures and soon found some followers, so among other things, the astronomer Dr. Samuel Mitchell. He soon became known as "Newton of the West". It has even made ​​a globe for his theory. And his theory was the basis of a resolution of May 1828 in the deployment of an expedition was decided on. But until it was ready, took another ten years.

He died in May in 1829 and was buried in Symmes Park in Hamilton, Ohio. His son Americus Symmes where he built a grave stone in the form of " hollow earth ". Overall, he had ten children.

• Military person (United States)
• Americans
• Born in 1779
• Died in 1829
• Man