Jethro Wood

[5] His family was from relative wealth, his father being an early settler to the area and having established himself as one of the community's leaders,[5] he was afforded a generous education accompanied with a library and workshop with which to feed his passion.

[6] According to one account of Wood's childhood: Once, while still very young, he had shaped a small plow out of metal, not dissimilar to the model which was later to form the basis for modern agriculture.

But not satisfied with the mere making of it, and wishing to see it in operation, he fashioned a harness of corresponding size and fastened the family cat to his plow.

The protests of the cat attracted the immediate attention of paternal authority, and the future inventor was soundly thrashed for his precocity.

[1] It was in his youth when Wood would first begin his correspondence with Thomas Jefferson regarding their innovations, designs, and progress in new plows.

[11] In 1815, Wood contacted Moses Brown, an Early American Industrialist, to assist in promoting the plow in Rhode Island.

[17][18] It was highly successful in the eastern United States, but less effective against the clay soils and sod of the Midwest.

[16] After the invention of the plow, much of Wood's time and money were consumed by pursuing patent infringement suits against small manufacturers around the country who had copied his design.