J. D. Ellsworth

Jeremiah Dolbier Ellsworth (August 28, 1823 - April 27, 1886) was an American farmer resident near Waterloo, Iowa who was said to have been "become deranged" in 1871, his mental condition credited in newspaper reporting to his "overstudy upon a machine which he conceived to be perpetual motion." In one incident during 1872, Ellsworth was arrested after spending several days waiting to see Ulysses S. Grant at Washington, D.C., where he had hoped to "turn over to [the President] several valuable inventions, among them a perpetual motion, the use of which he claimed would pay the national debt right away."

Ellsworth was time and again placed in the custody of various asylums by the courts, including the Iowa Lunatic Asylum (Mt. Pleasant, Iowa), the Government Hospital for the Insane (Washington, D.C.), and the Independence Asylum (Independence, Iowa), beginning in the 1870s through the end of his life.

Press Coverage

• "DERANGED -- (re: J. D. Ellsworth, East Waterloo farmer, and his Perpetual Motion Inspired Madness)", The Courier (Waterloo, IA): 3, 15 Jul. 1871, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121110799/deranged-re-j-d-ellsworth-east/ 
• "CONVEYED TO THE ASYLUM.", The Courier (Waterloo, IA): 2, 30 Sep. 1871, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121111057/conveyed-to-the-asylum/ 
• "J. D. ELLSWORTH, 'An Insane Inventor'", The Courier (Waterloo, IA): 3, 23 May 1872, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121111895/j-d-ellsworth-an-insane-inventor/ 
• "J. D. Ellsworth of Bennington township, ordered to Independence Asylum.", The Courier (Waterloo, IA): 3, 9 Oct. 1873, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121110855/j-d-ellsworth-of-bennington-township/ 
• "J. D. Ellsworth escaped from the insane hospital at Independence last week.", The Courier (Waterloo, IA): 8, 2 Jun. 1875, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121110939/j-d-ellsworth-escaped-from-the-insane/