He's an iconic symbol of the United States and he was based off a man that was from Troy, New York. Samuel Wilson was a meat packer who rationed to troops during the war of 1812, but it's the image created after his death that has lived on almost two centuries later. As we continue to Explore New York, Karen Tararache takes us to the home of Uncle Sam.

TROY, N. Y. -- As the Rennselaer County and Troy city historian, Kathryn Sheehan described him as "a man who wouldn't have known that he was going to become as famous as he has." 

Laid to rest here at the Oakwood Cemetery in 1854, it would be more than 100 years before Congress would recognize Samuel Wilson as a national symbol of the United States. But who was Uncle Sam?

As legend has it, in 1789, Samuel Wilson and his brother Ebeneezer walked over the mountains from Arlington, Massachusetts, to get to Troy. 

The brothers started a brick making business and a fruit orchard. 

"Samuel Wilson was known as being a tall man and he had a lot of nephews that worked with him so his family referred to him as Uncle Sam," Sheehan said.

But it was their meat packing business that would ultimately put Troy on the map.

"So they answered an ad that was put in by Elbert Anderson and he needed barrels of beef and pork and they were be to packed in good white oak barrels and a good brine. So Samuel and his brother answered that ad and they received the contract," Sheehan said.

The shipped goods down the Hudson River, stamped "USEA" for "United States Elbert Anderson," to what is now East Greenbush, where troops were stationed during the War of 1812.

"It starts to become synonymous with all things that are good so even though it's for the United States everyone goes 'Ah! Here comes Uncle Sam's beef!'" Sheehan added.

It wasn't until after Samuel Wilson's death that a political cartoonist would create a caricature calling on soldiers to serve in both world wars.

"People say, so that's what Uncle Sam looked like and I say no, that's what James Montgomery Flagg looks like. He actually dressed himself up in that costume so really it was a self portrait," she said.

Over 3,000 Trojans petitioned to legally name Samuel Wilson as the progenitor of "Uncle Sam" and in the 1960s President John F. Kennedy signed it into law.

"He is the iconic symbol of the United States and people want to know where that came from," Sheehan said.