American Furniture, Folk and Decorative Arts

Note

Ephraim Hart, born in Farmington, Connecticut in 1774, was the son of Thomas Hart (b. 1739) and Mary (Hungerford) Hart (1751-1823). In 1817, he moved to Utica, New York, and served on the New York State Senate from 1817-1822. Hart was a friend and political colleague of DeWitt Clinton (1769-1828), and Clinton appointed Hart to serve on the Erie Canal Commission (although Hart was ultimately outbid). According to Hough, Frank B., American Biographical Notes (Albany: Joel Munsell, 1875), pg. 25, Hart was also a merchant and pursued "mercantile pursuits."

One such project Hart investigated was the success of the Chinese mulberry plant (Morus Multicanlis) on the silk industry in Northeast Florida. In The Journal of the American Institute: A Monthly Publication, Vol. IV (New York: T.B. Wakeman, 1840), pg. 201, Samuel Wilkeson describes Hart using the Chinese mulberry plant in 1837 in St. Augustine, Florida to demonstrate that Florida's climate was superior to that of northern states in growing the plant. Evidently, Hart devoted the remainder of his life to this project, as he died in St. Augustine two years later, on February 14th, 1839.