The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1870-04-08
cELEBRATED PARMREs.
BY Z. W. STEWART.
THOMAS JEFFERSON.

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a critical moment-eXtricated people
from political thralIdom-forgotten sell
in the general good-are seldom associ-
ated in the minds of the people with
their common business of life. How
few, even of that special calling, have
ever thought of Jefferson as q farmer
When his name is mentioned, the i'm
age of a great political leader-the au-
thor of our immortal Declaration OF
, Freedom-looms up before their imag-
ination. but no trace of the farmer is
seen about his garments. Yet, when
we come to view him in his plain I'M
dress, at home, pursuing the simple
pleasures that attracted him TO the coun-
try, we shall find him, not only good
farmer, but bringing his philOsophic
mind to bear upon the primary princi-
pies of agriculture, and solving most
important problems that four thousand
years before him had failed to solve.
Agriculture to his mind was the grand
pursuit of man, and required q knowl-
edge of all the natural sciences to de.
velop and illustrate.
Thus, when the cares of State were
thrown of, he studied nature on his
own domain, and strove 10 turn every
thing to the account of his fellow men.
Thomas Jefferson was born April 2,
Albermarle, Va. His family is suppos-
ed to be of Welsh origin, but has been
traced back no further than his great
grandfather; so the great apostle of
Democracy in the New World sprang
directly from the people, whom he
spent his life to elevate.
He was put at private school at the
age of five, and sent to William & Mary
College at the age of seventeen. DIR.
| William Small, Professor of Mathemat-
les at this College, forming strong at
tachment to young Jefferson, took much
pains in assisting him, as well in gener-
| al literature as in mathematics. His
| friendship had q strong influence on his
after life, and is supposed to have assist
ed him in the perfection of that style
which eliminated i'll the production of
| that wOrld-renowned paper, the Dec
laratiOn of Independence.
Like many other young cOllegians, he
was captivatcd by a beautiful and ac-
complished young lady at Williams
burgh but though his correspondence
informs us of the beginning of this af-
fair of his life, it does not finish it, which
leaves us to infer that it ended in dis
appointment.
He was by no means regarded hand
some when young tall, thin and raw
bones, with a freckled face, pointed
features, and red hair. Still, his suavity
of manner and chivalrOus bearing made
him a favorite with the ladies, and he
improved so much in appearance toward
middle age that he was esteemed a very
good-loOking man. His early
ADJUSTMENTS
were horseback riding, in which he
was very accomplished, and playing the
violin, for which he had a passionate
fondness and much skill. An anec-
dote illustrating this is related, connect
ed with the burning of his house in
Shadwell. 1t occurred while he and
his mother were visiting neighbor,
and through the confusion of the slaves
nearly everything was destroyed.
While one of the slaves, breathless with
excitement, was relating to him the loss
he suddenly exclaimed: "But, massa,
we save de fiddle!"
He afterward built house on the
summit of Monticello, which continued
his residence through life. He read law
with the celebrated Chancellor Wythe,
and commenced a successful practice of
his profession, but soon abandoned it
for the more congenial field of politics.
On the lst of January, 1772, he mar
ried Mrs. Martha Shelton, an amiable
and accomplished young widow of %.
This union proved to be very harmo-
NOUS and happy one. She lived but
ten years to bless his active and exciting
life, and left him inconsolable. 1t is a
little remarkable that Washington, JEFF
ferson and Madison each suffered dis
appointment in yOuth-each married q
widow, found cOngeniality and happy
domestic life.
He IMPROVES THE PLOw.
piled to the construction of the plow
shows as much the great scope of his
mind as any State paper he ever drew.
The world, ever since the days of the
Patriarch Job, had been forming its
plows on the practical, or cut-and-try
system, but had never used mathemati-
| cal or geometrical principles in its con-
| struction.
From the crooked stick of the ancients
to the famous Rutherham pillow of the
Eighteenth Century, all had been con-
structed according to the fancy of each
maker, and he knew not how to describe
his process SO that another mechanic
could copy it; even he, himself, could
not make two Just alike.
This difficulty became apparent to the
practical mind of Jefferson, who, while
American Minister to France, made
tour through parts of France and Ger
many in 1888, and examined the plows
at work i'll the fields by the wayside,
and according to his ablest biographer,
the Hon. III. S. Randall, made the fol-
lowing entry in his journal: "Oxen
pillow here with collar and names. The
awkward figure of their mold-boards
leads one to consider what should be its
form. The offices ofthe mold board are
to receive the sod after the share has
cut under it, to raise it gradually and to
reverse it. The fore-end of it, there
| fore, should be horizontal to enter I'M
der the sod, and the hind end perpen-
dicular, to throw it over, the intermedi-
ate surface changing gradually from the
horizontal to the perpendicular. 1t
should be as wide as the furrow, and of
a length suited to the construction of
diagrams with q full mathematical ex-
PLANTATION, showing how any good me-
chanic may construct mold-board on
his principles. He communicated his
discovery to the French Academy of
Sciences, who passed a resolution eulo-
CYSTIC of his invention. In 1903 he re-
ceived a gold medal from the Agricul-
turai Society of Paris for his '5mold-
board of least resistance This pillow
was in possession of this society in
1853.
| MI. SttNS he DiOWS con-
structed after his pillow in 1893, and put
at work on his estate. 1t appears that NJ.
Strickland of the British Board of Ag-
riculture, saw these plows at work on
Mr.. Jefferson's plantations-took draw
ings of them with him to England. and
exhibited them to the Board and the
invention was regarded as so important
that the President ofthe Board request
ed Mr.. Jefferson to forward n model
with an accurate description of his in
vention. This he complied with, and
his letter is published in the Edinburgh
Encyclopedia.
He stated also that he proposes thereai
ter, to have his mold-6oards made oil
cast-iron, which is thought to be the first
mention, by any American, of the use
of east-iron for the pillow.
Mr.. j. S. Gould, in his learned and
exhaustive history of the pillow, after
summing up all evidence, Justly says
''There can be no doubt whatever that
: Mr.. Jefferson is solely entitled to the
honor of inventing the first mold-board
made upon mathematical principles,
: This invention of Mr.. Jefferson's can,
! not be over-estimated in its effects up.
on agriculture, as it took this, the mos
important farm implement, out of tho
. empirical and uncertain. and placed i