University of California. 
 
 
JETHRO WOOD. 
 
JETHRO WOOD, 
 
 INVENTOR OF THE 
 
 MODERN" PLOW. 
 
 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE, SERVICES, AND TRIALS; 
 
 TOGETHER WITH FACTS SUBSEQUENT TO 
 
 HIS DEATH, AND INCIDENT TO 
 
 HIS GREAT INVENTION. 
 
 " No citizen of the United States has conferred greater economical 
 benefits on his country than Jethro Wood none of her benefactors 
 have been more inadequately rewarded." Wm. II Seward. 
 

 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1882. 
 BY I. U. KIRTLAND, 
 
 xr/79 
 
 In the Office of the Librarian' &t Congress, at Washington. 
 
 STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED 
 
 BY 
 THE CHICAGO LEGAL NEWS CO. - 
 
EXPLANATION OF THE FOREGOING FAOSIMILE, 
 
 SIDE VIEW of Plough. A M uld-board, the form of which is 
 claimed as new. B Share claimed. C Standard claimed. D D Screw- 
 bolt, and not confining the beam to the Standard, a. 6, c, d, e, the 1st 
 i'd, 3d, 4th and 5th sides mentioned in the specification, g, g. Excava- 
 tion at the fore part of the mould-board to receive the share which fills 
 it up and forms an even surface, h Hole to receive the knob or head 
 cast on the under side of he share, which, on being shoved up to its 
 place, nooks under the mould-board at the upper side of the hole, and 
 is held in its place by a wooden wedge driven between the knob and the 
 lower side of the hole. / Notches in the Standard to receive the latch i 
 in elevating or depressing the beam, s, t, v. Straight diagonal lines 
 touching the mould-board the whole distance, u Vertical or plumb 
 line touch 'ng the mould-board from top to bottom. H Reverse side < f 
 the share, x Knob to hold it fast to the mould-board, y Side view of 
 knob. 22 Shiplaps fitting under the point and edge of the mould- 
 board, k Another form of standard keyed on top of beam. Fig. 2d, 
 landside view : E The " landside " .Fpart of landside cast with mould- 
 board, m m Cast loops to hold the handles claimed, n H< ad of screw- 
 bolt held by a shoulder made by a projection from the mould-board and 
 standard, through which the bolt passes up to the beam, o Share 
 claimed, p Shiplap claimed. G Inside view of landside. r Tennon at 
 forward end to fit into a dovetailed mortice on the inside of that part 
 which is cast with the mould-board. 
 
 (iii) 
 
O- % i'KK 
 
 ((UNIVERSITY" 
 
 \\ 
 
 xk ^_. 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE immediate occasion of this little vol- 
 ume was a malignant misrepresentation from 
 the pen of Ben : Perley Poore. With slight 
 variation from the original text, the words of 
 Thomas Jefferson about Benjamin Franklin 
 and his maligners, quoted in the body of this 
 monograph, apply to this case : I have 
 seen with extreme indignation the blasphemies 
 lately vended against the memory of the father 
 of the American plow. But his memory will 
 be venerated as long as furrows are turned 
 and soil tilled. The present object, however, 
 is not so much to refute falsehood as to estab- 
 lish the truth, and make it a part of the per- 
 manent knowledge of the public. To the ex- 
 (v) 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 tent that this object shall be attained, will 
 these labors be rewarded. 
 
 It is not the design of this publication to 
 disparage any one ; on the contrary, it is de- 
 sired to give ample credit to all who contrib- 
 uted to the solution of the plow problem. If 
 only brief mention is made of others, it is be- 
 cause they really deserved but little credit, or 
 their merits are forever buried in obscurity. 
 It is proposed to set forth without exaggeration, 
 the claims of the supreme inventor in this 
 line to the grateful remembrance of the pub- 
 lic. And by the public is meant not only the 
 American people, but all who are fed from the 
 ample granaries of this country, or share the 
 benefits of the improved tillage, whether on 
 this continent or in Europe, made possible 
 and actual by the inventive genius of Jethro 
 Wood. 
 
JETHRO WOOD; 
 
 INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 
 
 THE last words ever penned by John Quin- 
 cy Adams were these, written in the peculiar- 
 ly tremulous hand of " the Old Man Eloquent :" 
 " Mr. J. Q. Adams presents his compliments 
 to the Misses Wood, and will be happy to see 
 them at his house, at their convenience, any 
 morning between 10 and 11 o'clock." This 
 note was found upon his desk when he was 
 stricken down with paralysis, February 21, 
 1848, in his seat in the House of Representa- 
 tives. The Misses Wood here referred to 
 were the daughters of Jethro Wood, then de- 
 ceased. They were at that time engaged in a 
 labor of love, and the venerable Ex-President 
 was their friend therein. Prompted more by 
 
 co 
 
JETHRO WOOD; 
 
 filial affection than by hope of gain, they 
 were making a final effort to secure from Con- 
 gress a proper recognition of their father's 
 claim as an inventor. It is entirely safe to 
 say that if Mr. Adams had been spared to the 
 end of the Congress then in session, that 
 claim would have been then duly recognized, 
 and the name, services and genius of Jethro 
 Wood become familiar to the American public. 
 Jethro Wood was born at Dartmouth, Mass- 
 achusetts, on the sixteenth day of the third 
 month of 1774. His parents were members 
 of the Society of Friends. His mother, Dinah 
 Hussey Wood, was a neice of Ann Starbuck, 
 a woman of remarkable ability and high 
 standing in colonial annals. Ann Starbuck 
 was virtually governor of Nantucket. The 
 neice was a woman of excellent intellect, and 
 most winsome character. Her conversation 
 sparkled with genial wit and good cheer. Her 
 
'INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 9 
 
 husband, John Wood, was a man of ster- 
 ling worth, calm, self-poised, strong willed, and 
 eminently influential. Jethro was their only 
 son. On New Years Day, 1793, he was mar- 
 ried to Sylvia Howland, at White Creek, 
 Washington County, New York. The fruit of 
 this marriage, every way a happy one, was a 
 family of six children, namely: Benjamin ; 
 John; Maria, wife of Jeremiah Foote; Phoebe; 
 Sarah, wife of Robert R. Underbill; Sylvia 
 Ann, wife of Benjamin Gould. Of these chil- 
 dren the only survivor is Mrs. Gould, who 
 with her sister, Phoebe, were the Misses 
 Wood of the Adams note. So much for the 
 domestic setting of this diamond of inventive 
 genius. 
 
 Even as a boy, Jethro Wood showed plainly 
 the drift and trend of his mind. The child 
 was indeed " father of the man," and almost 
 from the cradle to the grave, he was an in- 
 ventor. In his childish plays he seemed bus- 
 
10 JETHRO WOOD; 
 
 led with the idea which he ultimately per- 
 fected. Many curious incidents and memories 
 are treasured among the traditions of his neigh- 
 bors and friends. " When only a few years 
 old," writes a venerable man whose recollec- 
 tion spans two generations, " he moulded a little 
 plow from metal, which he obtained by melt- 
 ing a pewter cup. Then, cutting the buckles 
 from a set of braces, he made a miniature har- 
 ness with which he fastened the family cat to 
 his tiny plow, and endeavored to drive her 
 about the flower-garden. The good old-fash- 
 ioned whipping he received for this 'mischief,' 
 was such as to drive all desire for repeating 
 the experiment out of his juvenile head." 
 
 Such innate and ruling passion might be 
 suppressed, but could not be subdued. As his 
 mind matured, his thoughts took definite shape. 
 His home was always upon a farm, but he was 
 never a farmer, in the sense of Poor Richard's 
 homely couplet : 
 
INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 11 
 
 <; He who by the plow would thrive, 
 Himself must either hold or drive." 
 
 Born in comparative affluence, blessed with a 
 good education, an ample library and a well 
 equipped workshop, enjoying the correspond- 
 ence of such men as Thomas Jefferson and 
 David Thomas, he was unremitting in his en- 
 deavor to realize his ideal. u His chief de- 
 sire," to quote further from our venerable cor- 
 respondent, " was to invent a new mold- 
 board, which, from its form, should meet the 
 least resistance from the soil, and which could 
 be made with share and standard, entirely of 
 cast iron. To hit upon the exact shape for 
 the mold-board he whittled away, day after 
 day, until his neighbors, who thought him 
 mad on the subject, gave him the soubriquet 
 of the "whittling Yankee." His custom was 
 to take a large oblong potato which was easy 
 for the knife, and cut it till he obtained what 
 he fancied was the exact curve." 
 
12 JETHEO WOOD; 
 
 The manhood home of Jethro Wood was at 
 Scipio, Cayuga County, New York, a purely 
 agricultural town, with nothing in its later 
 history to distinguish it ; but in its palmier 
 early days of the present century, it must 
 have been a nursery of invention. Roswell 
 Toulsby, Horace Pease, and John Swan, of 
 that town, each took out letters patent for im- 
 provements in plows, and that prior to the is- 
 suance of any patent to Mr. Wood. Their 
 improvements were of no practical value, and 
 played no part in the development of this 
 branch of mechanism, but their efforts serve 
 to show the state of the intellectual atmosphere 
 breathed by the man who was destined to solve 
 the knotty problem which underlies the very 
 foundation of scientific agriculture. 
 
 Of the cotemporaries of Mr. Wood, who 
 wrought at the solution of this problem, the 
 most illustrious was Thomas Jefferson, states- 
 man, philosopher and farmer. 
 
INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 13 
 
 In one of bis letters to Jethro Wood, Mr. 
 Jefferson spoke of Lis own labors in that 
 direction, as the experiments of one whiling 
 away a few idle hours, but herein he did him- 
 self injustice. His efforts, however, were far 
 from exhaustive in their results, and it was 
 with good reason that he urged Mr. Wood to 
 go forward in his undertaking, and no doubt 
 he was perfectly sincere in wishing him suc- 
 cess. His correspondence, as published in 
 nine large volumes, attests his long and deep 
 interest in the problem, which it was reserved 
 for Jethro Wood to solve. Having carefully 
 examined those volumes, to glean all there is 
 in them on this subject, I herewith append the 
 observations found, for besides being in them- 
 selves interesting, in view of their authorship, 
 they throw important light upon the general 
 subject. 
 
 Under date of July 3, 1796, Mr. Jefferson 
 wrote to Jonathan Williams: "You wish me 
 
14 JETHRO WOOD; 
 
 to present to the Philosophical Society the re- 
 sult of my philosophical researches since my 
 retirement. But, my good Sir, I have made 
 researches into nothing but what is connected 
 with agriculture. In this way I have a little 
 matter to communicate, and will do it ere long. 
 It is the form of a mould-board of least re- 
 sistance. I had some years ago conceived the 
 principle of it, and I explained it then to Mr. 
 Bittenhouse. I have since reduced the thing 
 to practice, and have reason to believe the 
 theory fully confirmed. I only wish for one 
 of those instruments used in England for 
 measuring force exerted in the drafts of dif- 
 ferent ploughs, etc., that I might compare 
 the resistance of my mould-board with that 
 of others. But these instruments are not to 
 be had here. In a letter of this date to Mr. 
 Bittenhouse I mention a discovery in animal 
 history, very signal indeed, of which I shall 
 lay before the society the best account I can, 
 
INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 15 
 
 as soon as I shall have received some other 
 materials collecting for me. 
 
 " I have seen, with extreme indignation, the 
 blasphemies lately vended against the mem- 
 ory of the father of American philosophy. 
 But his memory will be venerated as long as 
 the thunder of heaven shall be heard or 
 feared.' 7 
 
 March 27, 1798, Jefferson wrote to Mr. Pat- 
 terson: " In the life time of Mr. Rittenhouse, I 
 communicated to him the description of a 
 mould-board of a plough, which I had con- 
 structed, and supposed to be what we might 
 term the mould-board of least resistance. I 
 asked not only his opinion, but that he would 
 submit it to you also. After he had consider- 
 ed it he gave me his own opinion that it was de- 
 monstratively what I had supposed, and I think 
 he said he had communicated it to you. Of 
 that however, I am not sure, and therefore, now 
 take the liberty of sending you a description 
 
16 JETHEO WOOD; 
 
 of it, and a model which I have prepared for 
 the Board of Agriculture of England, at 
 their request. Mr. Strickland, one of their 
 members, had seen the model, also the thing 
 itself in use on my farm, and thinking favorably 
 of it, had mentioned it to them. My purpose 
 in troubling you with it is to ask you to ex- 
 amine the description rigorously, and suggest 
 to me any corrections or alterations which you 
 may think necessary. I would wish to have 
 the idea go as correctly as possible out of my 
 hands. I had sometimes thought of giving it 
 into the Philosophical Society, but I doubted 
 whether it was worthy of their notice, and sup- 
 posed it not exactly in the line of their publi- 
 cations. I had therefore contemplated sending 
 it to some of our agricultural societies, in 
 whose way it was more particularly, when I re- 
 ceived the request of the English board. The 
 papers I enclose you are the latter part of a 
 letter to Sir John Sinclair, their president. It 
 
INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 17 
 
 is to go off by } ackett, wherefore I wish to ask 
 the favor of you to return them with the model 
 in the course of the present week, with any 
 observations you will be so good as to favor 
 me with." 
 
 Writing from Washington, July 15, 1808, 
 to Mr, Sylvestre, in acknowledgment of a 
 plow received from the Agricultural Society 
 of the Seine (France), he adds: "I shall 
 with great pleasure attend to the construction 
 and transmission to the society of a plough with 
 my mould-board. This is the only part of 
 that useful instrument to which I have paid 
 any particular attention. But knowing how 
 much the perfection of the plough must depend, 
 1st, on the line of traction ; 2d, on the direc- 
 tion of the share; 3d, on the angle of the 
 wing; 4th, on the form of the mould-board; 
 and persuaded that I shall find the three first 
 advantages eminently exemplified in that 
 which the society sends me, I am anxious to 
 
18 JETHRO WOOD; 
 
 see combined with these a mould-board of my 
 form, in the hope it will still advance the per- 
 fection of that machine. But for this I must 
 ask time till I am relieved from the cares 
 which have more right to all my time that 
 is to say, till next spring;" i. e. until after 
 the expiration of his second term as President 
 of the United States. 
 
 The importance of any step in civilization 
 can be understood only in its relations, ante- 
 cedent causes and actual results. 
 
 The Scientific American, which is certainly 
 good authority in such matters, ranks Jethro 
 Wood with Benjamin Franklin, Eli Whitney, 
 Robert Fulton, Charles Goodyear, Samuel B. 
 Morse, Elias Howe, and Cyrus H. McCormick, 
 and these are certainly the great names and this 
 a just classification. Each in his way laid the 
 foundation on which all inventors in his re- 
 spective line have built, and must continue to 
 build, and none of them all came so near per- 
 
INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 19 
 
 fecting his grand idea as Mr. Wood. His now 
 venerable daughter stated the exact truth when 
 she remarked in a letter not designed for pub- 
 lication: " My father patented the shape and 
 construction of the plow. He took the iron 
 and shaped the plow that turns the furrow for 
 every product of the soil in America. His 
 plow has never been improved. It came from 
 his hand simple and perfect, as it now is, and 
 there is no other plow now in use." It was 
 not the use of cast iron that he invented, 
 although the use of " pot metal " by him oc- 
 casioned a great deal of hostility to the original 
 Wood plow. 
 
 Jethro Wood took out two plow patents, 
 and those who wish to belittle his work, des- 
 cant upon the first as if it were his only claim 
 to credit. That first patent was issued in 
 1814. It fell far short of satisfying the pat- 
 entee's ambition. The plows made under it 
 must have been a great improvement on any 
 
20 JETHRO WOOD; 
 
 then in use, for although he abandoned it al- 
 most from the first, a great many of them 
 were sold during the period between the first 
 and the second patents. The second patent 
 dates from 1819. The natal day of the mod- 
 ern plow may be fairly set down as September 
 1, 1819. The original specifications in this 
 plow deserve to be given in full, and may 
 well be inserted in this connection. The doc- 
 ument was the handiwork of Mr. Wood him- 
 self, and runs thus : 
 
 " The Schedule referred to in these Letters 
 Patent, and making part of the same, contain- 
 ing a description in the words of the said 
 Jethro Wood himself of his improvement in 
 the construction of Ploughs. 
 
 " Considering the manifold errors and defects 
 in the construction of Ploughs, and the in- 
 conveniences experienced in the use of them, 
 the petitioner and inventor hath applied the 
 powers of his mind to the improvement of 
 
INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 21 
 
 this noble utensil, and produced a Plough so 
 far superior to those in common use, that he 
 asks an exclusive privilege for the same from 
 the government of his country. 
 
 "The principal matters for which he solicits 
 Letters Patent, he now reduces to writing, and 
 explains in words and sentences as appropriate 
 and significant as he possibly can. But, being 
 perfectly aware of the feebleness and insuffi- 
 ciency of language to convey precise and ad- 
 equate ideas of complicated forms and propor- 
 tions, the said Jethro Wood annexes to these 
 presents, a delineation upon paper of his said 
 new and improved Plough, with full and ex- 
 planatory notes ; urging with earnestness and 
 respect that the delineation and notes may be 
 considered as a part of this communication. 
 The said petitioner and inventor also, being 
 perfectly convinced, as a practical man, that 
 a model of his inventions and improvements 
 will convey and preserve the most exact and 
 
22 JETHliO WOOD; 
 
 durable impressions of the matters to which 
 he lays claim, he sends herewith a model of 
 the due form and proportion of each, as a just 
 exhibition of his principle and of its applica- 
 tion to the construction and improvement of 
 the Plough, requesting that the same may be 
 kept in the Patent Office, as a perpetual me- 
 morial of the invention and its use. 
 
 In the first place, the said Jethro Wood 
 claims an exclusive privilege for constructing 
 the part of the Plough, heretofore, and to this 
 day, generally called the mould-board, in the 
 manner hereinafter mentioned. This mould- 
 board may be termed a piano-curvilinear 
 figure, not defined nor described in any of the 
 elementary books of geometry or mathematics. 
 But an idea may be conceived of it thus : 
 
 "The land-side of the Plough, measuring 
 from the point of the mould-board, is two feet 
 and two inches long. It is a strait-lined sur- 
 face, from four to five and one-half inches 
 
INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 23 
 
 wide, and half an inch thick. Its more partic- 
 ular description will be hereinafterwards given. 
 It is sufficient to observe here, that of the 
 twenty-six inches of length on the land-side, 
 eighteen inches belong to the part of the 
 Plough strictly called the land-side, and eight 
 inches to the mould-board. The part of the 
 mould-board comprehended by this space of 
 eight inches is very important, affording 
 weight and strength and substance to the 
 Plough ; enabling it the better to sustain the 
 cutting-edge for separating and elevating the 
 soil or sward, and likewise the standard for 
 connecting the mould-board with the beam, 
 as will hereinafter be described more at 
 large. 
 
 "The figure of the mould-board, as observed 
 from the furrow-side, is a sort of irregular 
 pentagon, or five-sided plane, though curved 
 and inclined in a peculiar manner. Its two 
 lower sides touch the ground, or are intended 
 
24: JETHRO WOOD; 
 
 to do so, while the three other sides enter into 
 the composition of the oblique, or slanting 
 mould-board, over-hanging behind, vertical 
 midway, and projecting forward. The angle 
 of the mould-board, as it departs from the 
 foremost point of, or at, the land-side, is about 
 forty-two degrees, and the length of it, or, in 
 other words, of the first side, is eleven inches. 
 The line of the next, or the second side, is 
 nearly, but not exactly parallel with the before- 
 mentioned right-lined land-side, for it widens 
 or diverges from the angle at which the first 
 and second sides join towards its posterior or 
 hindermost point, as much as one inch. 
 Hence, the distance from the hindermost point 
 of the mould-board, at the angle of the second 
 and third sides, directly across to the land- 
 side, is one inch more than it is from the angle of 
 the first and second sides, directly across. The 
 length of this, the second side, is eight inches. 
 The next side, or what is here denominated 
 
INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 25 
 
 the third side, leaves the ground or furrow in 
 a slanting direction backward, arid with an over- 
 hanging curve, exceeding the perpendicular 
 outwards from three to six inches, according to 
 the size of the Plough. The length of this 
 third side is fourteen inches and one-half. 
 The fourth side of this mould-board is horizon- 
 tal, or nearly so, extending from the upper- 
 most point of the third side, to the fore part, 
 or pitch, eighteen inches. The fifth, or last 
 side, descends or slopes from the last mentioned 
 mark, spot, or pitch, to the place of beginning 
 at the low and fore point of the mould-board, 
 where it joins the land side, 
 thirteen inches. //\^' 
 
 "Besides these properties and pr6pOFtiSip^oJj *p y N 
 his mould-board, the said Jetriro Wood f ncn$> ^. 
 explains other properties which it possei^sES^ 
 and by which it may be and is distinguished 
 from every other invented thing. The pecu- 
 liar curve has been compared to that of the 
 
26 JETHRO WOOD; 
 
 screw auger ; and it has been likened to the 
 prow of a ship. Neither of these similitudes 
 conveys the fair and proper notion of the inven- 
 tion. 
 
 " The mould-board, which the said Jethro 
 Wood claims as his own, and which is the 
 result of profound reflection and of numberless 
 experiments, is a sort of piano-curvilinear sur- 
 face, as herein-before stated, having the follow- 
 ing bearings and relations : A right line, 
 drawn by a chalked string or cord, or by a 
 straight rule, diagonally or obliquely upwards 
 and backwards from a point two inches and a 
 half inch above the tip or extremity of the 
 mould-board to the angle where the third and 
 fourth sides of the mould-board join, touches 
 the surface the whole distance, in an even and 
 uniform application, and leaves no sinking, 
 depression, hole, cavity, rising, lump, or pro- 
 tuberance, in any part of the distance. So, at 
 a distance half way between the diagonal line 
 
INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 27 
 
 just described, and the angle between the first 
 and second sides, a line drawn parallel to the 
 diagonal line already mentioned will receive 
 the chalked string or cord, or the straight rule, 
 as on an uniform and even surface without the 
 smallest bend, sinuosity, or bunch, whereby 
 earth might adhere to the mould-board, and 
 impede the motion and progress of the Plough, 
 under, through and along the soil. 
 
 "In like manner, if a point be taken one 
 inch behind the angle connecting the second 
 and third sides, and a perpendicular be raised 
 upon it, that perpendicular will coincide with 
 the vertical portion of the mould-board in 
 that place ; or, in other words, if a plumb line 
 be let fall so as to reach a point one inch be- 
 hind the last mentioned angle, then such a 
 plumb line will hang parallel with the mould- 
 board the whole way ; the line of the mould- 
 board there, neither projecting nor receding 
 but being both a right line and a perpendicu- 
 lar line. 
 
28 JETHRO WOOD; 
 
 " Moreover, if a right line be drawn from 
 a point on the just described perpendicu- 
 lar, an inch, or thereabouts, above the upper 
 margin of the fourth side, and from the 
 point to which the said perpendicular, if 
 continued, would reach ; if, the said Jelhro 
 Wood repeats, a right line be drawn down- 
 ward and forward, not exactly parallel to the 
 diagonal herein already described, but so di- 
 verging from the same that it is one inch more 
 distant or further apart, at its termination on 
 the fifth side of the mould-board, than at its 
 origin or place of beginning ; such line, so 
 beginning, continued, and ended, is a right 
 line parallel to the mould-board along its whole 
 course and direction, and the space over which 
 it passes has no inequality, hill, or hollow 
 thereabout. 
 
 " Furthermore, an additional property of his 
 mould-board is, that, if it be measured and 
 proved various ways, vertically and obliquely, 
 
INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 29 
 
 by the saw in fashioning it, by the rule in 
 meeting it, and by the chalk-line in determin- 
 ing it, the capital and distinguishing character 
 of right lines existing on, over and along the 
 peculiar curve which his mould-board de- 
 scribes, is always and inseparably present. 
 This grand and discriminating feature of his 
 mould-board, he considers as of the utmost 
 importance. 
 
 " He therefore craves the aid and elucidation 
 of his drawing, and of his model, in their 
 totality and in their several parts, to render 
 plain and sure whatever there may be, from 
 the abstruse and recondite nature of the 
 subject, uncertain or dubious in the language 
 of his specification. 
 
 " In the second place, the said Jethro Wood 
 claims an exclusive right and privilege in the 
 construction of a standard of cast iron, like 
 the rest of the work already described, for 
 
 connecting the mould-board with the beam. 
 3 
 
30 JETHRO WOOD; 
 
 This standard is broad, stout, strong ; and 
 rises from the fore and upper part of the 
 mould-board, being east with if, and being a 
 projection or continuation of the same from 
 where the fourth and fifth sides meet. Its 
 figure, strength, and arrangement are such 
 as best to secure the connexion, and to enable 
 the standard thus associated with the beam, to 
 bear the pull, tug, and brunt of service. 
 By a screw bolt and nut properly adjusted 
 above the top of the standard and acting 
 along its side, assisted, if need require, 
 by a wedge for tightening and loosening, 
 the beam may be raised and lowered ; and the 
 mould-board, with its cutting edge, enabled to 
 make a furrow of greater or smaller depth, as 
 the ploughman may desire, and a latch and 
 key fixed to the beam, and capable of 
 being turned into notches, grooves, or depres- 
 sions on one edge or narrow side of the stand- 
 ard, serves to keep the beam from settling or 
 
INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 31 
 
 descending. By means of these screw bolts, 
 wedges, latches, and keys, with their appro- 
 priate notches, teeth, and joggles, the Plough 
 may be deepened or shallowed most exactly. 
 
 " In the third place, the said Jethro Wood 
 claims an exclusive privilege in the inventions 
 and improvements made by him in the con- 
 struction of the cutting edge of the mould-board, 
 or what may be called, in plain language, the 
 plough-share. The cutting edge consists 
 of cast iron, as do the mould-board and 
 land-side themselves. It is about twelve 
 inches and one half of one inch long, 
 four inches and one half of one inch broad, 
 and in the thickest part three quarters of an 
 inch thick. It is so fashioned and cast, that 
 it fits snugly and nicely into a corresponding 
 excavation or depression at the low and fore 
 edge of the mould- board, along the side here- 
 inbefore termed the first side. When properly 
 adapted, the cutting edge seems, by its uni- 
 
32 JETHRO WOOD; 
 
 formity of surface and evenness of connextion, 
 to be an elongation of the mould -board, or, as 
 it were, an extension or continuation of the 
 same. To give the cutting edge firm coher- 
 ence and connexion, it is secured to the mould- 
 board by one or more knobs, pins or heads in 
 the inner and higher side, which are received 
 into one or more holes in the fore and lower 
 part of the mould-board. By this mechanism, 
 the edge is lapped on and kept fast and true, 
 without the employment of screws. That the 
 cutting edge may be the more securely and 
 immovably kept in its place, it has a groove, 
 or ship-lap of one inch in length, below, or at 
 its under side, near the angle between the first 
 and second sides, for the purpose of holding it, 
 and for the further accomplishment of the 
 same object, another groove or ship-lap, 
 stouter and stronger than the preceding, is 
 also cast in the iron, at or near the point of 
 the mould-board, so as to cover, encase, and 
 
INVENTOR -.OF THE MODERN PLOW. 33 
 
 protect it effectually, on the upper and lower 
 sides, but not on the land side. 
 
 "After the cutting edge is thus adapted and 
 adjusted to the mould-board by means of the 
 indentations, pins, holes, ship-laps, and fasten- 
 ings, it is fixed to its place and prevented from 
 slipping back, or working off, by wedges or 
 pins of wood, or other material, driven into 
 the holes from the inner and under side, and 
 forced tight home by a hammer. 
 
 " In the fourth place, the said Jethro Wood 
 claims the exclusive right of securing the han- 
 dles of his plough to the mould-board and 
 land-side of the plough by means of notches, 
 ears, loops, or holders, cast with the mould- 
 board and land-side respectively, and serving 
 to receive and contain the handles, without the 
 use of nuts and screws. For this purpose one 
 or more ears or loops, or one or more pairs of 
 notches or holders are cast on the inner side 
 of the mould-board and land side, toward their 
 
3-t JETHRO WOOD; 
 
 hinder or back parts, or near their after mar- 
 gins, for the reception of the handles of the 
 Plough. And these, when duly entered and 
 fitted, are wedged in, instead of being fastened 
 by screws. 
 
 " In the fifth place, the said Jethro Wood 
 claims an exclusive right to his invention and 
 improvement in the mode of fitting, adapting 
 and adjusting the cast iron landside to the cast 
 iron mourld-board. Their junction is after the 
 manner of tenon and mortice ; the tenon being 
 at the fore end of the land-side and the mor- 
 tice being at the inside of the mould-board and 
 near its point. The tenon and mortice are 
 joggled, or dove-tailed together in the casting 
 operation, so as to make them hold fast. The 
 fore end of the tendon is additionly secured by 
 a cast projection from the inside of the mould- 
 board for its reception ; and if any other tight- 
 ening or bracing should be requisite, a wooden 
 wedge, well driven in, will bind every part 
 
INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 35 
 
 effectually, and all this is accomplished with- 
 out the assistance or instrumentality of screws. 
 
 " The said inventor and petitioner wishes it 
 to be understood, that the principal metallic 
 material of his Plough is cast iron. He has 
 very little use for wrought iron, and by adapt- 
 ing the former to the extent he has done, and 
 by discontinuing the latter, he is enabled to 
 make the Plough stronger and better, as well 
 as more lasting and cheap. 
 
 " He also claims, and hereby asserts the right, 
 of varying the dimensions and proportions of 
 his Plough, and of its several sections and 
 parts, in the relations of somewhat more and 
 somewhat less of length, breadth, thickness, 
 and composition, according to his judgment or 
 fancy, so that all the while he adheres to his 
 principle and departs not from it. 
 
 " Regarding each and every of the matters 
 submitted as very conducive to the reputation 
 
30 JETHRO WOOD; 
 
 and emolument of the said Jethro Wood, he 
 relies confidently upon a benign and favorable 
 construction of his petition and specification, 
 by the constituted authorities of his country. 
 " Given under his hand, at the city of New 
 York, this fourteenth day of August, one 
 thousand eight hundred and nineteen (1819), 
 in the presence of two witnesses, to wit : 
 
 } JETHRO WOOD." 
 
 This patent expired by its own limitation in 
 fourteen years, when it was renewed or con- 
 tinued for another term of fourteen years. In 
 view of the comparative ease and speediness 
 with which the inventors of the present day, 
 or their assigns, utilize really valuable patents, 
 it would be inferred, in the absence of specific 
 knowledge to the contrary, that twenty-eight 
 years constituted a sufficiently long period for 
 the enjoyment by Mr. Wood, of "the full and 
 exclusive right and liberty of making, con- 
 
INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 37 
 
 structing, using and vending to others to be 
 used," the plow which he had invented. No 
 doubt some members of Congress in refusing 
 to continue the patent for a third term, acted 
 from conscientious motives. But in point of 
 fact, the period was occupied in a series of 
 struggles calamitous to the inventor, to the 
 history of which we must now turn. These 
 struggles were unlike those in the lives of some 
 other great inventors, notably, Goodyear and 
 Howe. It was not a warfare for existence, the 
 wolf of poverty staring him in the face. The 
 broad fields which he had inherited from his 
 father were adequate immunity from the sad 
 fate too frequently allotted to inventors. 
 But no benefactor of mankind in the domain 
 of mechanism ever experienced more iniquitous 
 treatment than Jethro Wood did. 
 
 Before the year 1819 closed, his mission as 
 an inventor was an accomplished fact. The 
 popular name given his implement, " The Cast 
 
38 JETHRO WOOD; 
 
 Iron Plow," from its entire abandonment of 
 wrought iron in its construction, needed no 
 change to be the noblest gift ever made to 
 agriculture. In the ideal, hope had ripened 
 into full fruition. And now, at this day, 
 looking at the matter in the light of the past, 
 seeing the absolutely incalculable benefits 
 of the invention, it seems almost incredible 
 that the American people, then even more 
 than now, a nation of farmers, should not 
 have hailed the new plow as an unspeakable 
 boon, especially the community in which he 
 dwelt, for Cayuga county then, as now, 
 under a high state of cultivation, was and is 
 peopled by a population of much more than 
 average intelligence. But an in ventor, like " a 
 prophet, is not without honor save in his own 
 country." His neighbors gravely shook their 
 heads at " Jethro's folly." With almost en- 
 tire unanimity they agreed that the new con- 
 trivance would never work. His trials and 
 
INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 39 
 
 difficulties at this stage of progress are told as 
 follows, by one who wrote largely from per- 
 sonal recollection : 
 
 " He immediately began to nicnnufacture his 
 plows, and introduce them to the farmers in 
 his neighborhood. The difficulties which he 
 now encountered would have daunted any man 
 without extraordinary perseverance and a firm 
 belief in the inestimable benefit to agriculture 
 sure to result from his invention. He was 
 obliged to manufacture all the patterns, and to 
 have the plow cast under the disadvantages 
 usual with new machinery. The nearest fur- 
 nace was thirty miles from his home, and, baf- 
 fled by obstacles which unskillful and disoblig- 
 ing workmen threw in his way, he visited it, 
 day after day, directing the making of his 
 patterns, standing by the furnaces while the 
 metal was melting, and often with his own 
 hands aiding in the casting. 
 
 " When, at length, samples of his plow were 
 
40 JETHRO WOOD; 
 
 ready for use, he met with another difficulty 
 in the unwillingness of the farmers to accept 
 them. ' What/ they cried, in contempt, ' a 
 plow made of pot metal ? You might as well 
 attempt to turn up the earth with a glass plow- 
 share. It would hardly be more brittle.' 
 
 u One day he induced one of the most skep- 
 tical neighbors to make a public trial of the 
 plow. A large concourse gathered to see how 
 it would work. The field selected for the test 
 was thickly strewn with stones, many of them 
 firmly imbedded in the soil, and jutting up 
 from the surface. All predicted that the plow 
 would break at the outset. To their astonish- 
 ment and Wood's satisfaction, it went around 
 the field, running easily and smoothly, and 
 turning up the most perfect furrow which had 
 ever been seen. The small stones agmnst 
 which the farmer maliciously guided it, to test 
 the ' brittle ' metal, moved out of the way as 
 if they were grains of sand, and it slid around 
 
INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 41 
 
 the immovable rocks as if they were icebergs. 
 "Incensed at the non-fulfillment of his proph- 
 ecy, the farmer finally drove the plow with 
 all force upon a large bowlder, and found to 
 h's amazement that it was uninjured by the 
 collision. It proved a day of triumph for 
 Jetliro Wood, and from that time he heard few 
 taunts about the pot-metal. 
 
 "It was soon discovered that his plow turned 
 up the soil with so much ease that two horses 
 could do the work for which a yoke of oxen 
 and a span of horses had sometimes been in- 
 sufficient before ; that it made a better furrow, 
 and that it could be bought for seven or eight 
 dollars ; no more running to the blacksmith, 
 either, to have it sharpened. It was proved a 
 thorough and valuable success. Thomas Jef- 
 ferson, from his retirement at Monticello, wrote 
 "Wood a letter of congratulation, and although 
 his theory of the construction of mould-boards 
 had differed entirely from the inventor's, gave 
 
42 JETHRO WOOD; 
 
 his most hearty appreciation to the merits of 
 the new plow." 
 
 In this connection may be told a curious 
 episode, one in itself worthy of record, and 
 strikingly illustrative of the perversities of 
 fortune to Mr. Wood in those gloomy days. 
 It is the story of a Czar and a Citizen. 
 
 All uncertainty as to the feasibility of the 
 new plow having been removed, and actuated 
 by that broad philanthropy which was one of 
 the peculiar charms in the character of Mr. 
 Wood, he desired to extend as widely as pos- 
 sible the area of his usefulness, and concluded 
 to make the Czar of Russia, so long the chief 
 grain exporting country of the world, the 
 present of one of his plows. During the 
 Revolutionary war, then fresh in the American 
 mind, that great sovereign, Catherine of Rus- 
 sia, had been the staunch friend of this coun- 
 try, and that, too, without being impelled by 
 jealousy of Great Britain. It seems to be a 
 
I' V 
 INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 43 
 
 peculiar trait in the Romanoff family to ad- 
 mire liberty in the abstract, however absolute 
 in practice. Sharing the prevailing good 
 will toward Russia, Mr. Wood conceived this 
 happy thought of making a truly substantial 
 contribution to Cossack civilization, a civiliza- 
 tion ever ready, with all its crudeness, to adopt 
 foreign improvements. That gift, in one 
 point of view slight, proved of great benefit 
 to Russian agriculture. It is impossible to 
 state the extent of actual advantage derived by 
 Russia from that truly imperial gift. It was 
 in effect giving to that country, second only 
 to the United States in area of tillage, in pro- 
 portion to population, the free use of the per- 
 fected plow. In an old copy of the New 
 York Tribune, in its palmy days of Horace 
 Greeley and Solon Robinson, the tale of the 
 Plow and the Ring is unfolded. It runs thus : 
 "During the year, 1820, Jethro Wood 
 sent one of his plows to Alexander I, 
 
44 JETHRO WOOD; 
 
 Emperor of Russia, and the peculiar circum- 
 stances attending the gift and its reception 
 formed a large part of the newspaper gossip 
 of the day. Wood, though a man of cultiva- 
 tion, intellectually as well as agriculturally, 
 was not familiar with French, which was then 
 as now the diplomatic language. So he re- 
 quested his personal friend, Dr. Samuel 
 Mitchill, President of the New York Society 
 of Natural History arid Sciences, to write a 
 letter in French to accompany the gift. 
 
 " The autocrat of all the Russias received 
 the plow and the letter, and sent back a dia- 
 mond ring which the newspapers declared 
 to be worth from $7 ,000 to $15,000 in token 
 of his appreciation. 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 
 
INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 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 de- 
 manded 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. A news- 
 paper of the time calls MitchillV course " an 
 ingenious mode of quartering on the enemy," 
 and the inventor's friends seem to have be- 
 lieved that the ring had been privately sold 
 for his benefit. 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 rea- 
 son why Friend Wood did not follow up this 
 
46 JETHRO WOOD; 
 
 matter was that weightier affairs demanded his 
 immediate and entire attention. One diffi- 
 culty 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. " Uneasy rests the head 
 that wears a crown " of genius. 
 
 The patent laws of that day were very im- 
 perfect, and there was a strong prejudice 
 against their enforcement. The cry of " no 
 monopoly " was raised. Mr. Wood had ex- 
 pended many thousands of dollars in perfect- 
 ing 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 
 
INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 47 
 
 in their manufacture. His patent had four- 
 teen 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 prop- 
 erty in unavailing endeavors to establish 
 through the courts his rights as inventor and 
 patentee. 
 
 In 1833, 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 edu- 
 cation, and had fortune smiled upon him it is 
 
48 JETHRO WOOD; 
 
 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 in- 
 stitution of learning. 
 
 In private life Jethro Wood was a model 
 man. If he had faults it is impossible to as- 
 certain them, for it would seem, from the con- 
 current testimony of all who were acquainted 
 with him, that 
 
 " None knew him but to love him, 
 None name him but to praise." 
 
 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 characteris- 
 tic of the great Quaker-poet, John G. Whit- 
 tier. Not even the cruel wrongs he sustained 
 at the hands of dishonest infringers could 
 turn the sweetness of his kindly temper. Na- 
 
INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 49 
 
 ture bad 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 pro- 
 portion, 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 oc- 
 curred 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 un- 
 earth the record from its musty file, and by 
 transcribing it to these pages, give it a kind 
 of resurrection worthy its importance. 
 
 "After the death of Jethro Wood, his son 
 
50 JETHRO WOOD; 
 
 Benjamin, who received the invention as a 
 legacy, continued his efforts to wrest justice 
 from the unwilling hand of the law. Nearly 
 all his father's failures had proceeded from the 
 inadequacy of the patent laws, which were 
 almost worthless to protect the rights of the 
 inventor. Even now a patent is worth little 
 until it it has been fought through the Supreme 
 Court of the United States. In those days so 
 many obstacles were thrown in the way of in- 
 ventors, and the combinations against them 
 were so formidable, that Eli Whitney, in try- 
 ing to establish his right to the cotton-gin in 
 a Georgia court, while his machine was doub- 
 ling 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 
 
INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 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. 
 
 " Similar difficulties had met Jetliro Wood in 
 Ais suits; so his son resolved to strike at the 
 root of the evil by securing a reform in the 
 laws. 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. 
 
 " Then he returned to New York, and com- 
 menced suit to resist encroachments on his 
 right, and the wholesale manufacture of his 
 plow by those who refused to pay the premium 
 to the inventor. The " Cast-Iron Plow " was 
 now used all over the country, and formidable 
 combinations of its manufacturers united their 
 
52 JETHRO WOOD; 
 
 capital and influence against Benjamin Wood. 
 William H. Seward, then practicing- law, was 
 retained as Wood's counsel, and the plow- 
 makers engaged all the talent they could mus- 
 ter to oppose him. 
 
 "Heretofore it had never been contradicted 
 that Jethro Wood was the originator of the 
 plow in use, but now his right to the invention 
 was denied, and it was alleged that his im- 
 provements had been forestalled by other 
 makers. Again and again the case was ad- 
 journed, and Europe and America were ran- 
 sacked for specimens of the different plows 
 which were declared to include his patent. 
 
 "Mr. Wood also obtained from England 
 samples of the plows of James Small and 
 Robert Ransom. He searched New-Jersey to 
 find the Peacock plow which was said to have 
 a cast-iron mould-board of exactly similar 
 shape to his father's. Everywhere in that 
 State he found ' Wood's plow ' in use, but he 
 
INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 53 
 
 could hear nothing of the one he sought. At 
 length riding near a farm-house he discovered 
 one of the old ' Newbold-Peacock plows ' 
 ]ying under a fence, dilapidated and rust- 
 eaten. c We don't use it any more, 7 the farmer 
 replied to his inquiries, ' we've got one a good 
 deal better.' 'Will you sell this?' asked 
 Wood. ' Well, yes.' And Wood, glad to get 
 it at almost any price, paid the keen farmer, 
 who took advantage of his evident anxiety, 
 two or three times the price of a new plow, 
 and added the old one to his specimens. 
 
 " This motley collection of implements was 
 brought into court and exhibited to the judges. 
 At last, after the case had dragged its slow 
 length along, through many terms, and the 
 plaintiff was nearly worn out with the law's 
 delay, the time for final trial and decision ar- 
 rived. The combination of plow-makers 
 feared that the case would go in Wood's favor, 
 and made every effort to keep him out of court, 
 
54: JETHRO WOOD; 
 
 that he might lose it by default. During his 
 long entanglement in the law, he had con- 
 tracted many debts, and one of his opponents 
 had managed to purchase several of these ac- 
 counts. Just before the case was to be heard 
 for the last time, this worthy plow manufac- 
 turer, 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 pro- 
 cured a horse and started for Albany, 150 
 miles distant, hearing every moment in fancy 
 the clattering of hoofs at his heels. 
 
 "As if fortune could not be sufficiently ill- 
 natured, his horse proved vicious and unman- 
 ageable, and thrice in the tedious journey 
 threw the rider from his saddle upon the 
 frozen earth, so injuring him, that he was 
 barely able to go on. 
 
INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 55 
 
 " On arriving at Albany he found himself 
 not a moment too soon. The ease had an im- 
 mediate hearing, and after three days' trial 
 the Circuit Court decided unequivocally that 
 the plow now in general use over the country 
 was unlike any other which had been pro- 
 duced ; that the improvements which rendered 
 it so effective were due to Jethro Wood, and 
 that all manufacturers must pay his heirs for 
 the .privilege of making it. 
 
 " This was a great triumph; but it was now the 
 late autumn of 1845, and the last grant of 
 the patent had little more than a year to run. 
 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. 
 
56 JETHRO WOOD; 
 
 " The last male heir to the invention was no 
 more. On settling the estate, it was found 
 that while not a vestige remained of the large 
 fortune owned by Jethro Wood when he be- 
 gan his career, less than Jive hundred and 
 fifty dollars had ever been received from his 
 invention. 
 
 '- The after history of the case is a brief one. 
 Four daughters of Jethro Wood alone re- 
 mained to represent the family. In the win- 
 ter of 1848 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 agri- 
 cultural interests of the country. Webster de- 
 clared that he regarded their father as a 
 ' public benefactor/ and gave them his most 
 efficient aid ; Clay warmly espoused their 
 cause, and the venerable John Quincy Adams, 
 with his trembling hand then so enfeebled 
 by age that he rarely used the pen wrote 
 them kind notes, heartily sympathizing with 
 
INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 57 
 
 them. On one memorable day, while they 
 were in the House gallery, Mr. Adams, at his 
 desk on the floor, wrote them briefly in rela- 
 tion to their case. A few minutes later he 
 was struck with the fatal attack under which 
 he exclaimed, ' This is the last of earth; I am 
 content,' and was borne dying to the Speaker's 
 room. The tremulous lines, the last his hand 
 ever traced, were found on his desk and de- 
 livered to Miss Wood. 
 
 " A bill providing that in these four heirs 
 should rest for seven years the exclusive 
 right of making and vending the improve- 
 ments in the construction of the cast-iron 
 plow ; and that twenty-five cents on each plow 
 might be exacted from all who manufactured it, 
 passed the Senate unanimously. But Wash- 
 ington already swarmed with plow manufac- 
 turers. The city of Pittsburgh alone sent five 
 to look after their interests. Money was free- 
 ly used, and the members of the House Corn- 
 
58 JETHRO WOOD; 
 
 mittee who were to report on the bill were as- 
 sured that during the 28 years of the patent, 
 Wood's family had reaped immense wealth, 
 and wished to keep up a monopoly. 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 Com- 
 mittee 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. 
 
 " When they were about to leave Washing- 
 ton, some friendly members of Congress ad- 
 vised them to deposit the valuable documents 
 which had been used in their suit, including 
 
INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 59 
 
 the letter from Thomas Jefferson to Jethro 
 Wood, in the archives of the House, where 
 they could only be withdrawn on the mo- 
 tion of some member. 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. Especially by the somewhat volu- 
 minous pamphlet entitled " Documents relat- 
 ing to the improvements of Jethro Wood in 
 the Construction of the Plough." A careful 
 examination of the testimony therein embodied, 
 and of the Congressional Reports on the sub- 
 ject, warrant the foregoing statements. 
 
 It is not strange that in an early annual 
 report of the United States Commissioner of 
 
60 JETHRO WOOD; 
 
 Agriculture, that official should have remarked 
 with some bitterness that " Although Wood 
 was one of the greatest benefactors to mankind 
 by this admirable invention, he never received, 
 for all his thought, anxiety and expense, a 
 sum of money sufficient to defray the expenses 
 of his decent burial." The time long since 
 passed forever to seek pecuniary indemnity; 
 but a debt of gratitude never outlaws, and it 
 is due to the great inventor that his country- 
 men should gratefully cherish his memory. 
 Every year adds to the debt we all owe him. 
 As the area of cultivation widens, the obliga- 
 tion deepens. Already America is the fore- 
 most 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 
 
INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 61 
 
 tillage. American prosperity is the monu- 
 mental glory of Jethro Wood and his plow. 
 
 " The Balance Sheet of the World " shows 
 that the United States can boast more acres 
 of tillage, in proportion to population, than 
 any other country on the globe ; and in grain 
 production, outstrips all competitors. Of such 
 a record every American citizen may well be 
 proud, and it should be remembered that with- 
 out the genius of Wood such a record could 
 not have been made, even approximately. But 
 in order to a just appreciation of the impor- 
 tance of the modern plow and the usefulness 
 of the inventor of it, one should take a retro- 
 spective glance, tracing, as best we may with- 
 out tedious details, the steps which led from 
 the use of a forked stick to the present imple- 
 ment for fallowing the ground. The Scien- 
 tific American, which ought to be good author- 
 ity on such a subject, in speaking of the Wood 
 patent, says : " Previously the plow was a 
 
62 JETHRO WOOD; 
 
 stick of wood plated with iron." If this does 
 sound like an exaggeration, but is really a 
 plain statement of fact, consider for a moment 
 what the plow really is in its relation to civil- 
 ization. 
 
 The savage lives by the chase and up- 
 on the bounty of untilled nature. The first 
 steps toward civilization are to domesticate an- 
 imals, and cultivate the soil with a rude kind 
 of hoe. Both are alike primitive. The next 
 step is to press the beast into service by sup- 
 plementing the hoe with a plow. In that 
 implement we see what might be called the 
 original strand in the mighty cord which binds 
 in co-operation man, brute and earth. By 
 means of this agency of agriculture the beast 
 of the field is made to toil, and purchases the 
 benefits of human kindness at the expense of 
 idleness and industry. It is not too much, then, 
 to say that the plow is at once " the tie that 
 binds," and the tap-root which nourishes the 
 
INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 63 
 
 the world. If by some miraculous calamity 
 this one implement were forever swept away, 
 universal and unappeasable famine would be 
 inevitable. And that occasional famines of a 
 local character are disappearing from the civ- 
 ilized world, is very largely, if not chiefly, due 
 to the improved tillage resulting from im- 
 proved plows. 
 
 We might well say, in paraphrase of a fa- 
 miliar saying attributed to Napoleon : Let 
 me make the plows of a nation, and I care 
 not who makes their laws. 
 
 The primitive plow was and is (for the bar- 
 barian of to-day is substantially the same in 
 his agricultural methods as the barbarian of 
 antiquity) simply a forked stick, to which is 
 attached by a strip of rawhide or a wisp of 
 grass, a beast, often the patient cow. As the 
 prong passes over the ground, held down by 
 the bowed form of the poor tiller, it barely 
 scratches the face of the earth. 
 
64: 
 
 JETHRO WOOD; 
 
 The first improvement was to reverse the 
 stick and notch the forward end. By that 
 means the animal could be more securely fas- 
 tened to the plow, the thong being tied around 
 the crotch of the stick. The shorter limb ran 
 along the surface of the ground, the notch in 
 front being the only reliance for stirring the 
 soil. In the absence of a compact turf, such 
 plowing would do a little good in rendering 
 the ground fallow, and would at least have the 
 merit of not being so difficult to operate as its 
 predecessor. 
 
 The third plow had three parts. It con- 
 sisted of a beam, a handle and a share, all con- 
 structed by simply trimming the natural wood 
 selected for that purpose. In the first plow 
 the prong which served as a share was slanting, 
 while in the third it rested flatly upon the 
 ground, projecting forward, instead of back- 
 ward, as in the second plow. It could have 
 required no very difficult search to have found 
 
INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 65 
 
 small trees and broken limbs, needing no 
 mechanical skill in fashioning, to render them 
 serviceable for such crude uses. They may 
 be termed nature's contribution to the art of 
 plow-making. 
 
 Without going further into details, it 
 may be stated that a standard authority 
 on the history of mechanism asserts that 
 "the ancient Egyptian, Etruscan, Syrian, 
 and Greek plows, were equal to the modern 
 plows of the south of France, part of Austria, 
 Poland, Sweden, Spain, Turkey, Persia, 
 Arabia, India, Ceylon and China) ; at least 
 such was the case until the middle of the pres- 
 ent century." The Roman and Gallic plows 
 were better than those of the modern countries 
 named. The Gauls had mould-board plows. 
 Pliny is our authority for this statement. That 
 eminent Latin author of eighteen centuries 
 ago, in speaking on the general subject, says: 
 
 "Plows are of various kinds. The colter is 
 
66 JETHRO WOOD; 
 
 the iron part which cuts the thick sod before 
 it is broken into pieces and traces beforehand 
 by its incision the future furrows, which the 
 share, reversed, is to open with its teeth. 
 Another kind, the common plowshare, is 
 nothing more than a lever furnished with a 
 pointed beak ; while another variety, which is 
 used in light, easy soils, does not present an 
 edge projecting from the share-beam through- 
 out, but only a small point at the extremity, 
 In a fourth kind, again, this point is larger 
 and formed with a cutting edge by the agency 
 of which it cleaves the ground, and by the 
 sharp edges at the side cuts up the weeds by 
 the roots." 
 
 Pliny adds that the broader the plowshare 
 the better it is for turning up the soil. These 
 excerpts from the great Roman may serve to 
 show the utmost reach of invention in that 
 line, until a new impulse, begun in the Nether- 
 lands in the eighteenth century, was brought 
 
INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 67 
 
 to perfect development in the next century by 
 an American citizen who died the poorer for 
 his invention. 
 
 The highest of all authorities upon this 
 and cognate subjects is " Knight's American 
 Mechanical Dictionary," and Knight says of 
 Jethro Wood, " He made the best plows up 
 to date. " He adds, " He met with great op- 
 position, and then with much injustice, losing 
 a competency in introducing his plow and 
 fighting infringers." The same writer defines 
 the peculiarities of the Wood plow with re- 
 markable clearness and brevity : " It con- 
 sisted in the mode of securing the cast-iron 
 portions together by lugs and locking pieces, 
 doing away with screw-bolts, and much weight, 
 complexity and expense. It was the first 
 plow in which the parts most exposed to wear 
 could be renewed in the field by the substitu- 
 tion of cast pieces." Considering the source 
 of this passage, it may be said that literature 
 
68 JETHRO WOOD; 
 
 could hardly pay a nobler tribute to the 
 memory of Jethro Wood than this. It is 
 doubly significant, from the fact that Knight's 
 publishers, Houghton, Osgood & Co., are also 
 the publishers of the Atlantic Monthly, in 
 the May number of which magazine a habitue 
 of the National Capital tried to belittle the 
 invention of Jethro Wood, and malign as in- 
 iquitous the attempt of his daughters, cham- 
 pioned by John Quincy Adams, to secure for 
 that invention proper recognition. It would 
 be quite superfluous to follow this maligner in 
 the details of this, and a subsequent attack in 
 an agricultural journal. He disclaims any 
 design to defame the claimants, but insists 
 that other and earlier inventors deserve the 
 credit for the modern plow. The opinion of 
 Knight's Dictionary upon the Wood patent 
 has just been given, and the following extract 
 from the same great work sets forth in their 
 proper relations to the modern plow the in- 
 
INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 69 
 
 ventions of those for whom this habitue makes 
 preposterous claims : 
 
 " The modern plow," says Knight, " origi- 
 nated in the low countries, so-called. Flan- 
 ders and Holland gave to England much of 
 her husbandry and gardening knowledge, 
 field, kitchen and ornamental. Blythe's 'Im- 
 prover Improved,' published in 1652, has al- 
 lusions to the subject. Lummis, in 1720, im- 
 ported plows from Holland. James Small, of 
 Berwickshire, Scotland, made plows and wrote 
 treatises on the subject, 1784. He made cast- 
 iron mold- boards and wrought-iron shares, 
 and introduced the draft-chain. He made 
 shares of cast-iron in 1785. The importation 
 of what was known as the l Rotherham ' 
 plow was the immediate cause of the im- 
 provement in plows which dates from the 
 middle of the last century. Whether the 
 name is derived from Rotterdam cannot be 
 determined. 
 
TO JETHRO WOOD 
 
 " The American plow, during the colonial 
 period, was of wood, the mold-board being 
 covered with sheet-iron, or plates made by 
 hammering out old horseshoes. Jefferson 
 studied and wrote on the subject, to determine 
 the proper shape of the mold-board. He 
 treated it as consisting of a lifting and an up- 
 setting wedge, with an easy connecting curve. 
 Newbold, of New Jersey, in 1797, patented 
 a plow with a mold-board, share and land side 
 all cast together. Peaccok, in his patent of 
 1807, cast his plow in three pieces, the point 
 of the colter entering a notch in the breast of 
 the share." 
 
 It will be observed that the credit given 
 these improvers of the plow is very considera- 
 ble, without at all trenching upon the excep- 
 tional credit due to Jethro Wood. With 
 such an authoritative refutation, the slander 
 may well be dismissed as beneath further 
 notice. 
 
INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 71 
 
 111 no way more appropriately can final 
 leave be taken of the subject in hand than 
 by presenting the apostrophe to Jethro Wood 
 from the pen of Edward Webster, formerly 
 associated editor of the Sura( 
 
 * y> 
 
 No jeweled diadem or crown / [ J> Jv J ^T p p ~ N 
 E'er glittered on thy manly H^<6v-^ . . f - , 
 
 No slave would tremble at thy 
 Nor at thy footstool bow; 
 
 For thou wert pure in heart and mind, 
 
 And strove to raise not crush mankind! 
 
 As famed Prometheus of yore, 
 
 In aid of our lost, wretched sires, 
 Stole from the flaming sun, and bore 
 
 Down to the earth those fires 
 That fill with light and life all space, 
 And mark the Day God's glorious race- 
 So thy inventive genius found 
 
 For man the bright and polished share, 
 That bids the willing fields abound 
 
 With fruits beyond compare; 
 And from the seed that falls like rain 
 Crowds full our barns with bearded grain ! 
 
JET HBO WOOD. 
 
 Eternal may the honors shine, 
 
 We yield with grateful hearts to thee; 
 
 May children's children round thy shrine 
 Sons of the brave and free 
 
 With reverent lips pronounce thy name, 
 And build for thee a deathless fame! 
 
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