Reflections: When Kendall County, northern Illinois were a hotbed of invention

We like to think of our own times as the most inventive and the most productive in history. And I suppose there are some pretty solid reasons for believing that’s so, despite the recent pandemic unpleasantness.

After all, it was during our lifetimes that the transistor was invented, then replaced by the silicon chip, and “computer” became a machine instead of an occupation.

But while spectacular inventions have made our lives what they are today (whether better or worse depends on your outlook), striving by average people to invent things seems to have slowed considerably. Today, most major breakthrough inventions are produced by employees of giant corporations with the patents held by the companies for their own enrichment.

By comparison, the last half of the 19th century was one of the most creative times in terms of local inventors, ever. From Alexander Graham Bell and his buddy Mr. Watson inventing the telephone to the Wright Brothers tinkering with flying machines in their bicycle shop to Tom Edison at his Menlo Park, N.J., invention factory, the creative juices of the late 1800s fairly gushed.

Kendall County was no exception to the creativity that flourished at the time. Not surprisingly, the problems of farmers were the subject of many local inventors in our then-overwhelmingly rural county.

In 1855, Jacob Zimmerman of Oswego was issued a patent for an improved horse-drawn row crop cultivator, and in 1859 Parley Freeland of Newark got a patent on his cultivator. The Misners of Millington patented a double cultivator in 1860 that was designed to work both sides of a row at the same time instead of the previous method of plowing down each side of the row in two separate passes.

Nelson Messinger of Newark patented his famed Messinger Gopher cultivator, which was manufactured at Messinger’s factory in Newark. Messinger later moved south to Ottawa and manufactured his Gopher at a factory there. Ezra McEwen of Lisbon invented an improved riding gopher, and about 60 of those machines were manufactured in Lisbon.

Farmers claimed in the 1870s that using a gopher on their cornfields increased yields by 10 bushels or more an acre.

Reapers were very popular machines with inventors, given the labor savings they represented. Reapers in those days consisted of a sickle bar that cut the stalks of small grains, such as oats and wheat, and laid them on a wide moving belt to allow them to easily be gathered into bundles to be stacked into shocks.

Cyrus McCormick traveled through Kendall County in 1845, selling his reapers. Two county farmers bought them. In 1846, Ezra McEwen built an improved version at Lisbon, followed by Keith & Stevens a year later. Daniel J. Townsend, who lived south of Oswego, built McCormick reapers under license starting in 1847. In 1848, more locally invented reapers were built southeast of Long Grove. Messenger and Preshur built 20 Green patent reapers at Newark in 1853.

John Steward of Plano invented a better mower with a sickle bar that tilted the edge of the cutter forward while going over uneven ground. And in 1848, McEwen built headers, machines that cut just the heads off grain, of his own design at his Lisbon shop.

Both reapers and headers were displaced by harvesters that not only cut the grain but also allowed a man to bundle it so it could be easily stacked into shocks after it left the machine. The Marsh Harvester was manufactured at Plano in 1860. The machines eventually incorporated a number of improvements, five of which were patented by Kendall County residents. The harvester itself was, in turn, replaced by the binder, which mechanically cut and bound bundles of grain. County residents held at least 10 patents on various segments of the binder’s mechanical works.

The Ament family apparently was fascinated with rotary rakes used to rake hay into rows so it could be stacked. Sylvester Ament made four patented rake improvements in 1864 and another in 1867. Then in 1875, Edward Ament invented yet another improved rake. For good measure, he also invented a barnyard scraper in 1876 to clean out livestock yards without gouging the dirt surface.

Over in DeKalb, the Gliddens were inventing barbed wire, but so was almost every other farmer in the U.S. with a mechanical bent. Here in Kendall County, A.V. Wormley of Oswego invented a unique barbed wire in 1873, of which the Rev. E.W. Hicks reported in his 1877 history of Kendall County that “considerable quantities are manufactured.” Wormley’s actions were followed by Hamilton Cherry and Sheldon Wheeler of NaAuSay Township in 1877, and George G. Hunt of Bristol in 1877. Hunt also patented five improvements for cook and heating stoves.

Farmers weren’t the only folks working on improving life in the 19th century. David Haight, an Oswego storekeeper, invented an improved kerosene dispenser in 1876 and a rope reel for retail stores in 1877, while Marcius Richards, another Oswegoan, invented an improved oil pump and measure for stores. And Aurelius Steward of the inventive Plano family invented an improved showcase for displaying and dispensing spools of thread that placed rows of thread spools on inclined shelves so that as spools were taken front the front by customers, others rolled forward and filled their places. It was a simple invention, and one that is still in use.

Oswego’s Richards Brothers even established a sort of miniature Menlo Park in their hardware store, where they came up with an improved system for hanging sliding barn doors, patenting the idea in 1881. They first manufactured their door hanger in the small commercial building (now a private residence) on North Adams Street in Oswego on the north bank of Waubonsie Creek. They moved the operation to Ottawa and then to Aurora, where they partnered with a man by the name of Wilcox to establish Richards-Wilcox. The factory still is in business today on South Lake Street – and they still make the Richards’ door hanger.

Other local 19th century inventions ranged from an improved carriage spring to a honey extractor for beekeepers. It was a time when everyone believed anyone could invent something and do well. And many did.

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