James Rumsey of Maryland began experiments as early as 1774 and by 1786 had a boat that made four miles an hour against the current of the Potomac.
The most interesting of these early and unsuccessful inventors is John Fitch, who, was a Connecticut clockmaker living in Philadelphia.

He was eccentric and irregular in his habits and quite ignorant of the steam engine.

But he conceived the idea of a steamboat and set to work to make one.

The record of Fitch's life is something of a tragedy.

At the best he was an unhappy man and was always close to poverty.