So he requested his personal friend, Dr. By some indirection, the ring was not delivered to the donor of the plow, but to the writer of the letter, and Dr. Mitchill instantly appropriated it to his own use.
Wood appealed to the Russian Minister at Washington for redress. The Minister [Pg 45] sent to His Emperor and asked to whom the ring belonged, and Alexander replied that it was intended for the inventor of the plow. Armed with this authority, Wood again demanded the ring of Mitchill. But there were no steamships or telegraphs in those days, and Mitchill declared that in the long interval in which they had been waiting to hear from Russia, he had given it to the cause of the Greeks, who were then rising to throw off the yoke of their Turkish oppressors.
At all events it never came to light again, and Wood, a peaceful man, a Quaker by profession, did not push the matter further. Perhaps another and quite as potent a reason why Friend Wood did not follow up this [Pg 46] matter was that weightier affairs demanded his immediate and entire attention. One difficulty was overcome only to develop another.
No sooner had he silenced the cavils of the farmers and demonstrated the value of his patent, than infringements upon his rights threatened to, and actually did, rob him of the fruits of his invention. The patent laws of that day were very imperfect, and there was a strong prejudice against their enforcement. Wood had expended many thousands of dollars in perfecting his patterns and getting ready to supply the demand which he felt sure would arise for his plows, many of which, during the first few years, he gave away, that their value might be established to the satisfaction of the public.
The stage of probation over, the plow makers of the country, defiant of patent law, engaged [Pg 47] in their manufacture. His patent had fourteen years to run. In an incredibly short time their use by the farmers in all parts of the land became almost universal, and had he been allowed a royalty, however small, he would have realized a vast fortune. Instead of that he very nearly exhausted all his property in unavailing endeavors to establish through the courts his rights as inventor and patentee.
In , when his patent expired, Congress granted a renewal for fourteen years. He was now bowed with the burden of years, and debts incurred in trying to protect himself against infringers. His remaining days were spent in vain efforts to maintain his rights.
His broad and kindly nature had conceived noble plans for the use of the wealth which at one time seemed so nearly within his reach. He had always been deeply interested in education, and had fortune smiled upon him it is [Pg 48] not too much to say that in spirit, however different in detail, Jethro Wood would have anticipated Stephen Girard, Ezra Cornell and John S.
Hopkins, in nobly founding a great institution of learning. In private life Jethro Wood was a model man. If he had faults it is impossible to ascertain them, for it would seem, from the concurrent testimony of all who were acquainted with him, that.
Although a consistent member of the Society of Friends, Mr. Wood was extremely liberal in his religious views, and did not conform to the peculiar dress of the sect. He had that truly Catholic spirit so admirably characteristic of the great Quaker-poet, John G. Not even the cruel wrongs he sustained at the hands of dishonest infringers could turn the sweetness of his kindly temper. Nature [Pg 49] had endowed him richly in every way, and no gift had been abused.
Physically, his was the highest type of manly beauty. Six feet and two inches in height, perfect in proportion, courtly in manner, his presence was worthy his character. We will not linger over the closing scene of his eventful life. That belongs to the sacred secrecy of private grief. His death occurred at the very threshold of a new conflict, and upon it his son and executor, Benjamin Wood, entered with intelligent zeal.
The closing of it being reserved for two of his daughters. The story of these new labors was well told several years ago by a journalist familiar with the facts, and we cannot do better than to unearth the record from its musty file, and by transcribing it to these pages, give it a kind of resurrection worthy its importance. Even now a patent is worth little until it has been fought through the Supreme Court of the United States.
In those days so many obstacles were thrown in the way of inventors, and the combinations against them were so formidable, that Eli Whitney, in trying to establish his right to the cotton-gin in a Georgia court, while his machine was doubling and trebling the value of lands through the State, had this experience, which is given in his own words: I had great difficulty in proving that the machine had been used in Georgia, although at the same moment there were three separate sets of this machinery in motion within fifty yards of the building in [Pg 51] which the court sat, and all so near that the rattling of the wheels was distinctly heard on the steps of the Court House.
He accordingly went to Washington, where he remained through several sessions, always working to this end. Clay, Webster, and John Quincy Adams, all of whom had known Jethro Wood and his invention, aided his son powerfully with their votes and counsel, and he succeeded in securing several important changes in the patent laws. William H. Again and again the case was adjourned, and Europe and America were ransacked for specimens of the different plows which were declared to include his patent.
During his long entanglement in the law, he had contracted many debts, and one of his opponents had managed to purchase several of these accounts. Just before the case was to be heard for the last time, this worthy plow manufacturer, attended by a sheriff, and armed with a warrant to arrest Wood for debt, appeared at the front door of his house. Fortunately Wood had had a few minutes warning, and slipping out at the back door, he made his way under cover of approaching darkness to a house of a friendly neighbor.
There he procured a horse and started for Albany, miles distant, hearing every moment in fancy the clattering of hoofs at his heels. Wood again repaired to Washington to apply for a new extension, but the excitements of so long a contest had been too much for him. Just as he had recommenced his efforts they were forever ended. While talking with one of his friends, he suddenly fell dead from heart disease, and the patent expired without renewal.
On settling the estate, it was found that while not a vestige remained of the large fortune owned by Jethro Wood when he began his career, less than five hundred and fifty dollars had ever been received from his invention. Four daughters of Jethro Wood alone remained to represent the family.
In the winter of the two younger sisters went to Washington to petition Congress that a bill might be passed for their relief, in view of the inestimable services of their father to the agricultural interests of the country. On one memorable day, while they were in the House gallery, Mr. Adams, at his desk on the floor, wrote them briefly in relation to their case.
The tremulous lines, the last his hand ever traced, were found on his desk and delivered to Miss Wood. But Washington already swarmed with plow manufacturers. The city of Pittsburgh alone sent five to look after their interests.
The two quiet ladies, fresh from the retirement of a Quaker home, where they had learned little of the world, were even accused of attempting to secure its extention through bribery. It was the wolf charging the lamb with roiling the water. So ignorant were they of such means, that, though the Chairman of the Committee plainly told the younger lady in a few words of private conversation that a very few thousand dollars would give her a favorable verdict, she did not understand the suggestion till after an unfavorable report was presented, and the bill killed in the House.
They did so, and left them for some years uncalled for. When at last they applied for them they could not be found. Nor from that time to the present has any trace of them been discovered by any of the family. Thus perished the last vestige of proof relating to this ill-fated invention.
This is a fair and candid statement, one fully sustained by unimpeachable documentary evidence. Every year adds to the debt we all owe him. As the area of cultivation widens, the obligation deepens.
Already America is the foremost nation of all the earth in the production of wheat and provisions, the latter being in reality corn in meat form. In exchange for our food supplies, the United States is draining Europe of its gold at an enormous rate, and the fundamental element in the production of American wealth, is our great implement of [Pg 61] tillage. American prosperity is the monumental glory of Jethro Wood and his plow. Appleton , p.
Tucker, Spencer C. ISBN Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. Retrieved Gilbert , p. Carruth, Gorton The Encyclopedia of American Facts and Dates.
The plough is now gone for new york and will be forwarded to thee as soon as possible. He moved permanently to Cayuga County in about Wood later became a proprietor of a female boarding school in Aurora, corresponding secretary of the Cayuga County Agricultural Society, and postmaster of Poplar Ridge. He is best known, however, for the patents he received for improved plows on 1 July and 1 Sept. Tags: agriculture , farming , Iron , Jethro Wood , patent. You must be logged in to post a comment.
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