When a book on quirky New Jersey history is written, a man named Sam Patch will get a chapter.

He was called the "Jersey Jumper." It is fair to say that he was America's first daredevil.

It was on Sept. 30, 1827 when he jumped off the Great Falls of Paterson, launching his career.

He was working in a mill nearby when he thought there could be fame in jumping from great heights.

He survived the Paterson jump.

Patch would later jump off bridges, ships and even into Niagara Falls.

But barely two years after the Paterson jump, in front of 8,000 people, he never resurfaced after jumping into a waterfall in Rochester, New York.

On his original tombstone, it reads, "Such is fame."