It Happened Here -- The Man Behind the 

Cast Iron Plow  

On rural roads across New York State a sure sign of spring, more certain than the appearance of Robins or the northward flight of Canada Geese, will be the appearance of tractors of all sizes towing plows of from three to umpteen blades.  Normally, we rural but non-farming residents don't give them much thought except to grumble about how slow they are going and how much of the road they are taking up.  Certainly they don't inspire the wonder and respect that the huge and complicated harvesters and other technological wonders of the farming industry. But for the first half of the nineteenth century farmer/inventors spent a lot of time thinking about ways to improve the plow. (Thomas Jefferson, in his retirement was one of these, and in fact, our inventor would correspond with him.)  Early wooden plows basically cut the soil and produced a furrow to plant in.  What was needed was a plow capable of cutting the soil and turning it over to allow plant residues to compost, to bring nutrients stored in plant roots to the surface where they would nourish young plants, to aerate the soil and to allow rain water to soak in.

In 1730 Joseph Foljambe of Rotherham England designed a  wooden plow with an iron coulter to split the soil and a moldboard sheathed in iron to turn it. Wrought iron plows  began to replace wooden plows. But wrought iron, being soft, regularly needed to be taken to the blacksmith to be sharpened and frequently needed to be welded (re-forged and hammered) when pieces broke. Conservative farm communities harbored fears that iron plows tended to poison the earth as well!
In 1780 Charles Newbold of Chesterfield, New Jersey produced the first cast iron plow in America. Cast iron was much harder than wrought iron, and did not need frequent sharpening but if it broke, it could not be welded and had to be recast. Significant improvements were made in 1803 when Robert Ransdom of Ipswich England produced a cast iron plow cast in three parts with a separate coulter, moldboard and plowshare (cutting edge).

Growing up in White Creek, south of Cambridge New York was young Jethro Wood.  Far removed from the improvements others were making, young Jethro was nevertheless obsessed with designing a better plow.  The story (perhaps apocryphal) was passed down of Jethro melting down a pewter cup and casting it into the form of a plow, then cutting buckles off a set of braces and with some scraps of leather fashioning a harness. The family cat was then pressed into service. The results of his experiment were not recorded but given his rather dubious choice of a draft animal his experiment
was probably not an unqualified success!  As a young man, Jethro Wood was often seen in his free moments with a knife and a block of wood cutting out patterns for prototypes for moldboards that would turn the soil without it sticking fast. Often he would use the soft but firm flesh of new potatoes for his carvings. His Dutch neighbors called him the "whittling Yankee".

Washington Co. Rte 68, Martindale Cors.

In 1799 the family moved to the town of Scipio in Cayuga County and the following year Jethro built a general store and went into business, but the dream of building a better plow was never far from his mind. In Scipio there was a great deal of interest in making a better plow. Three residents, of Scipio--Roswell Toulsby, Horace Pease and John Swan patented minor improvements to the plow.  In 1814 Wood joined them, obtaining his first patent.

Cayuga Co., Long Hill Rd, Poplar Ridge

 By 1819 he was in production, making his own plows and obtaining a second patent that described his moldboard design. The first pieces were cast in a foundry in Montville, on the outskirts of Moravia. Wood's cast iron plows were cast in four pieces. With a replaceable plowshare and moldboard, if part of the plow became dull or damaged it could be repaired in the field. Held together with interlocking pieces, key-ways and wedges, the components could be tapped apart with a hammer, then tapped back together again, unlike more complicated designs which used threaded bolts and nuts that could more easily rust and freeze together in heavy wet soil.  He began production of plows and soon his plows (and his competitors copies of his plows) came to dominate the field.  Wood made a great deal of money, but, over time, much of it was spent in futile court battles to defend his patents. Like Robert Fulton who discovered patent laws in the first quarter of the 19th century were inadequate to protect him from competitors copying his steamboat, Wood faced most of his competition from patent infringing imitators. In 1834 he died impoverished.

Cayuga Co. Rte 38A, Moravia*

In 1833, another former Yankee,  John Deere of Grand Detour, Illinois created the first polished steel plow, having observed that the steel tines of a hay fork tended to shed hay or manure cleanly. His steel, "self scouring" plows were a tremendous success, just when the Great Plains, with its tough prairie grasses were coming under cultivation. Deere became very wealthy,  creating a farm equipment company known world-wide.

Wood's Home, Long Hill Rd., Poplar Ridge

Jethro Wood marker, with a Wood-type plow

* Wood, himself, for many years believed he had made the first cast iron plow, but others had preceded him




Apologies to my regular followers of this Blog who have come to expect a post every 7 to 10 days. My internet connection has been down and I haven't taken the initiative to bestir myself from stove-side to go write at the nearest library or McDonalds to use their wi-fi.