The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-12-07

gathered in the highways of the neighbor-
hood and had been open for years to those
who had been unsuccessful in their fight
with the monopoly. And 1t was conclusive
testimony. After the decision had been
rendered, Judge Shiras told me that he
had no doubt the case would be carried to
the supreme court OF the United States,
but that he believed the appeal would be
fruitless, that at last the Washburn q
Moen Company was beaten At every point
and that the defeat was o perfect rout.
Scattered through these almost inter-
minable pages of testimony was written
history OF the life of Alvin Morley, whose
descendants. If there are any. ought te be
milIionaires. Morley was once resident
of Pennsylvania, and for q. least year
had been an inmate of an asylum for the
insane. His wits returned TO him in some
degree, If he was not entirely cured, and
he was discharged by the authorities be
did not remain long at home, but left his
wife and came to Iowa. He settled on
charming spot on the banks OF the Maquo-
keta river and unaided built mis- somewhat
rude home. Then he but { mill with MS
own hands and placed in II machinery
largely homemade, grinding grist on
small scale for his neighbors. He wasn't
popular character. He was too eccentric,
something of a miser, and TO everyone an
inscrulab.e mystery. The buxom lasses
sat alone in the wagons as their fathers
watched the rude burrs, and shivered
little as they recalled the rumors that
Cd Nick himself occasionally gave
an extra turn to Alvin Nor
Iey's water wheel. The youngsters did
not care to go near the mill after nightfali
and even the elders did not take pains to
cultivate the friendship of the uncouth mil
Ter. Miller Morley seemed not to care
what the gossips had to say. He acted as
sang the old miller of the Dee, Il care for
no one; no, not /, and nobody cares for
me-" He took his honest toll, and was sat
listed, and no one complained that the
load he took home was too light. Quietly,
and seldom appearing in any OF the neigh
boring towns, Alvin Morley kept on his
course for years. At last his wits went
woolga;hering again, and the gosslps had
more and more to say about the COLLINS
that held nightly orgies in the old mill.
Morley was finally made captive. taken to
an asylum, and there he died in 1867, I'M
mourned and unthought of as public
benefactor Yet he was the inventor OF
barbed wire fence. Men learned in thelaw
declared that no hair-brained idiot could
have fathered such an idea, and that any
one who would contend that such was
fact could be little better than q fit occu-
pant OF Morleys death chamber. Yet the
character of the testimony and the char
acter Of the witnesses were unimpeach-
able.
Morley never applied for patent for his
greatest invention. He was just crazy
enough to let an untold fortune slip
through his fingers, and dream OF millions
from some ridiculous source In 1866 let
tiers patent were issued to him for what he
termed travelling COW pen." This was
fence describing q triangle, with wheel at
each angle. Two of the wheels travelled in
parallel lines, and the third, or steering
Wheel" at any given angle with the other
two. Morley's claim was that COW placed
within the Enclosure would push her fence
about with her as she was feeding. and, in
doing so, travel in circle, large or small,
according to the angle at which the 'steer-
ing wheel" was placed. instead Of roaming
over the trackless prairies. 1t was cor
rect principle of mechanics, and, though
the compliments attorneys introduced
this bit OF evidence to cast ridicule on the
claimed inventor, the evidence was a
boomerang In his specifications. Morley
had mentioned that the fence might be
made of wire, showing his knowledge that
wire had been used as o fencing material.
II was not until the next year. 1867. seven
years prior to the issue of the Glldden pat
ents, that the first patent was issued to a
man named Kelly for any kind of barbed
wire fence. Morley didn't make financial
success of his travelling COW pen." and it
may have been that which sent him to the
asylum, where he died.
In 1859 a county fair was held at Delhi,
then the seat of Delaware county. There
was The regulation Punch and Judy, the
regulation dust covered gingerbread, the
regulation vender of small wares, the regu-
Iation big pumpkin, fat hog and sleek
steer. and the regulation "hoss trot."
There was likewise the original exhibit of
barbed wire fencing. made by Alvin Nor
ley. There can be but little question about
the date, for by the time of the beginning
of the civil war, Manchester had become
1.-The town" of the county and county fairs
were held at that place. Thirty years is
not in an old settled community such a
period as is described in law books, as
'time whereof the memory of man run
meth not To the contrary" and there are
many living witnesses of the product of
Alvin Morley's crazy head. One of the
witnesses was the man who had been the
deputy sheriff of Delaware county at the
time of the fair. He testified that on the
evening previous TO the opening of the fair
Morley drove into town and left in the
sheriff7s Office a bundle which he said con.
tanned wire fence which he intended to
exhibit at the far. The witness remem-
bered seeing the fence on the fair grounds
| the next day. Another witness was a man
named Robinson, who was a deputy mar
| shat or policeman at the Delhi fair He
| testified that having occasion 10 visit por-
| ton of the grounds on foot, he tied his
| horse TO a fence without Doticing the nature
| OF his hitching post. When ne retured, he
| saw that his horses nose and chest were
| spotted with blood, and found that the
wounds had been occasioned by the new
| fashioned fence which was made of strands
| of wire having twisted about them. short
! barhs.
Robinson's horse was not the only suf-
ferer from this exhibit. Another of the
two or three hundred witnesses who ap-
| peared in the case was a 9-year- old at the
| time of the fair. In the midst OF his boy
| ish play he was thrown violently by one of
his companions against the fence, anu the
| bsrbs cut deep into his face. The scars he
bears to this day, and those same scars
were used to confound the great monop-
olists.
Morley had no intricate machinery with
| which IN Manufacture his fencs HE orl,-