Welcome to Troy, NY! Founded as a town in 1791, Troy soon became known as the "Collar City" due to its history in
shirt, collar, sand other textile productions. At one point, Troy was also the second largest producer of iron in
the country.
Uncle Sam, mascot of the USA, was real. At least according to folks in upstate New York, who claim that a local 19th
century meatpacker named Samuel Wilson was the guy. Samuel Wilson, the story goes, was called "Uncle Sam" around Troy
because he employed a lot of nephews and was an amiable, honest fellow. When the War of 1812 broke out,
Wilson answered a classified ad in the Troy newspaper and got a job packing his meat into barrels and shipping it
eight miles downriver to the Army, which was preparing to go to war with Canada. Rations of fresh meat were rare in
those days, and the soldiers asked who had supplied it. "Uncle Sam" was the answer, and because "U.S." was
stamped on the barrels, the goodness of "United States" and "Uncle Sam" became synonymous.
There are plenty of holes in the story, but no one's ever suggested a better one.
