Jethro Wood, a pioneer inventor, storekeeper and farmer, moved with his family to Cayuga County in 1799 and completed his home on Poplar Ridge Road by 1805. Wood invented a cast iron plow in 1813, which became the model for the “modern” plow. Frank Gilbert in his book on Wood wrote, “Jethro Wood was a model man - although a consistent member of the Society of Friends; he was extremely liberal in his religious views, and did not conform to the peculiar dress of the sect. He had that truly Catholic spirit of the great Quaker poet John G. Whittier. Not even the cruel wrongs he sustained at the hands of dishonest (patent) infringers could turn the sweetness of his kindly temper - Physically; his was the highest type of manly beauty, six feet two inches in height.”

Emily Howland noted of her uncle that “unlike the ways of his sober sect, he did not repress the unfailing humor which provoked many an unwilling smile.”

Wood goes international with his plow

In 1820, Wood decided to promote international acceptance of his plow. He sent one of his plows as a gift to the Alexander I, Czar of Russia. That country at the time was known as a chief grain exporting country. An article about the gift appeared in the New York Tribune. According to James Wright of Moravia, the peculiar circumstances attending the gift and its reception formed a large part of the newspaper gossip of the day. Wright wrote, “Wood, though a man of cultivation, intellectually as well as agriculturally, was not familiar with French, which was the diplomatic language of the time. So, he requested his personal friend, Dr. Samuel Mitchell, President of the New York Society of National History and Sciences, to write a letter in French to accompany the gift.”

“The Autocrat of all the Russias received the plow and letter, and sent back a diamond ring - what 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. Mitchell instantly appropriated it to his own use. Wood appealed to the Russian Minister at Washington for redress. The Minister wrote 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 Mitchell. But there were no steamships or telegraphs in those days, and Mitchell 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 newspaper of that time said that Mitchell#'s course was 'an ingenious mode of quartering on the enemy,' and the inventor's friends seem to believe that the ring had been sold for his benefit. At all events it never came to light again and Wood, a peaceful man, a Quaker, did not push the matter further.”

Cyrenus Wheeler, another county inventor, wrote that the gift of the plow “proved to be of great benefit to Russian agriculture.”

Wood hospitality

A story about Jethro Wood, as reported by the Old Dartmouth Historical Society, revolves around a very supercilious Englishman who was visiting the United States. The Englishman compared everything he saw to the glory of the “tight little island” and to the disparagement of the great American continent. Jethro Wood endured it patiently for a time, then he went to a farmer's wife, who was noted for her super excellent cooking, gave her five dollars, and told her to prepare a breakfast fit for a king, to be served at eight o'clock the next morning.

Wood then took his English guest for an early morning drive and after the usual bragging statements on England and the English, Jethro Wood said, “You must be getting hungry, let us go into one of these farm houses and get some breakfast. There is one down there by the lake shore, suppose we try that?” The Englishman gasped and said, “But can we eat the food?” “If we can't, we can have breakfast when we get home,” said Jethro. They went in. The hostess asked them to “set by and have a bite.”

“Such a meal that was not often seen on a nobleman's table was spread before them. The Englishman stared and ate, and ate, and stared, and when he could stare and eat no longer they went home, and he sat down and wrote a letter which was the means of bringing in a stream of emigrants from England to Cayuga County, who, it is feared, #“ound it did not rain larks every day.'”

Wood and family

Jethro and Sylvia Howland Wood had six children - two sons who were born before the couple moved to Cayuga County, John born in 1795 and Benjamin born in 1797. After their arrival in this county, Maria was born in 1801, twin girls Phebe and Sarah were born in 1804 and Sylvia Ann was born in 1810.

Wood's chief interest was his invention and distribution of the improved plow but he had other interests as well. He had a large 250 acre farm operation. In 1823, he became postmaster of the newly created Poplar Ridge Post Office which operated from his home. In 1827, he was appointed by Governor Clinton, along with his brother-in-law Humphrey Howland, to work at draining the marshes in northern Cayuga County. He also had a sleigh- making business and a large maple syrup operation.

Wood was destined never to benefit financially from his plow invention nor for many years did he receive the credit for this invention. Patent laws at the time lacked the teeth necessary to protect lawful inventors.

Other plow manufacturers, copying the Wood plow, sprang up all over the country once the superiority of his invention became known. By 1833, when he succeeded in getting a renewal of an 1819 patent, he had spent a large portion of his private fortune trying to defend his patent. In 1834, he died at his Ledyard home at the age of 60 of a “paralytic affection” with a large debt. William H. Seward said of Wood, “No person has benefitted his country pecuniarily more, and no man has been as inadequately rewarded.” Wood was buried in the Howland family plot in Ledyard.

In the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich. is a plaque honoring Jethro Wood. The Scientific American magazine ranked Jethro Wood, with such pre-eminent inventors as Benjamin Franklin, Eli Whitney, and Cyrus McCormick. The New York State Museum has a Wood plow in its collection.

In 1848, two of Jethro Wood's daughters - Phebe and Sylvia Ann, who were impoverished, traveled to Washington seeking a bill that would provide for their financial relief based on their father's contribution to agriculture. They were befriended by Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and the venerable John Quincy Adams. On one memorable day, while they were in the House gallery, Mr. Adams, at his desk on the floor, wrote them briefly in about their case. A few minutes later he was struck with a fatal attack under which he exclaimed, “This is the last of the earth; I am content,” and was borne dying to the Speaker#'s room. The tremulous lines, the last his hands ever traced, were found on his desk and delivered to the Wood sisters. Adams wrote, “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.” Eventually, a bill was passed in Congress awarding $2,000 for their financial relief.

Editor's note: The Jethro Wood house is one of seven sites being featured on a southern Cayuga County tour on June 7 and 8. For additional information about the tour, call 497-3906 or 364-8202.