Troy’s prominent Uncle Sam monument, along the waterfront at River and Front Streets, memorializes bearded local meat-packer Samuel Wilson, who supplied beef to the soldiers quartered at the local Watervliet Arsenal during the War of 1812. Wilson’s donations were quickly dubbed “Uncle Sam’s beef,” and the nickname and character have become the finger-pointing stuff of legend. Wilson himself is buried in the macabre, gothic hillside Oakwood Cemetery, at the head of 101st Street north of Troy via Oakwood Avenue. A health food store around the corner from the monument admonishes passersby with an “I want you . . . to enjoy good health” window poster.
