Ellsworth 's twin sons followed their father into public service . William Wolcott Ellsworth married a daughter of lexicographer Noah Webster and became Governor of the State of Connecticut , a United States Congressman and a justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court . His twin brother , Henry Leavitt Ellsworth , served as mayor of Hartford , then was appointed the first commissioner of the U.S. Patent Office . He later became president of Aetna Life Insurance Company . Henry Leavitt Ellsworth was instrumental in the creation of the U.S. Agriculture Department , and he was appointed by President Andrew Jackson to oversee the so-called Trail of Tears , the transfer of Cherokee Indians from Georgia to the Oklahoma Territory that cost approximately 4,000 lives . He was a friend and backer of inventors Samuel Colt and Samuel F.B. Morse , and his daughter Annie Ellsworth proposed the first message transmitted by Morse over the telegraph , " What hath God wrought ? " Henry Leavitt Ellsworth was a major benefactor to Yale College , his alma mater
Trail of Tears
Trail of Tears
Oliver Ellsworth