Dear Matthew: From whence or what does the term or phrase “Uncle Sam" derive? — Greg. Where did Uncle Sam come from? — Vlada. — Greg and Vlada, Point Loma

Greg: The term “Uncle Sam” derives from “Uncle Sam” Wilson. Vlada: Uncle Sam came from Troy, New York, not too far from Albany. (What an egalitarian pair. Do you write all your letters in tandem?) Anyway, Sam Wilson was a meat packer in Troy, New York, at the time of the War of 1812/ He was widely known and loved as a heck of a nice guy, and virtually everyone, old and young, relative or stranger, called him “Uncle Sam.” He was assigned the task of inspecting meat sold to the Army. The meat was packed in barrels that bore the initials “E.A.—U.S.,” for “Elbert Anderson" (the man who supplied the meat) and “United States.” But soon enough it became a joke among the soldiers that the “U.S.” actually stood for inspector “Uncle Sam” Wilson. Gradually, anything marked “U.S.” came to belong to “Uncle Sam." By 1813 the term was already appearing in print as a symbol for the federal government. The first cartoons date from 1815, though he didn’t gain his Lincolnesque look until later in the century. Early on, he looked more like someone’s old maid aunt wearing a stars-and-stripes bathrobe. Wilson himself was tall and thin and frequently wore a swallowtail coat and top hat, but this, apparently, is just coincidence. For a thorough history of our favorite uncle and many other American symbols (including “In God We Trust,” which was the brainchild of a Pennsylvania minister and Lincoln’s secretary of the treasury, not the Founding Fathers), read Alton Ketchum’s Uncle Sam: The Man and the Legend.