Inventor:
Theophilus Brown: Inventor of Agricultural Implements including John Deere “manure spreader” and hydraulic lift for tractors.
Born in Worcester, on April 19th, 1879, Brown made his home in Princeton, Massachusetts with his wife, Elsie. Brown’s sense of creative adventure and intellectual endeavor are traceable to his rich ancestral history. Through his maternal line, he is a descendant of Ephraim Curtis, the first white man to have lived in Worcester. While his paternal grandfather, also named Theophilus Brown (1811-1879), was a famous literary tailor and an intimate and friend of Thoreau and Emerson. His grandfather and wife, Sarah Ann Brown opened their home and intellects to the leading thinkers of their day, Thoreau, Alcott and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who praised Brown as “the freshest and most original mind in Worcester” (1)
Princeton’s Theophilus Brown went to Classical High School and to Worcester Polytechnic Institute where he graduated in 1901. For nine years he worked for the old Richardson Manufacturing Company, a manufacturer of agricultural machinery, which was located on Prescott and Garden Streets. His first invention was a tailboard for a manure spreader which seemingly unromantic, was a vital addition to general agriculture.
The Deere Company, inventor of the first American steel plow bought Brown’s patents from the Richardson Company. Brown preferred his home in Princeton, but Deere offered him a job he “couldn’t refuse” and he therefore moved to their headquarters in Moline, Illinois becoming the head of the experimental department. Brown was a director for 30 years of John Deere and Co. and personally held at least 159 patents.
Probably his best known invention is the power lift for tractors. This raises any implements used on the tractor through a hydraulic system. Other inventions were in the field of mowers, plowers, cultivators and early forms of cultivating tractors.
Brown’s enthusiasm and ingenuity was even recognized by Deere’s competitor, International Harvester. After having lost the race to the patent office for a new invention, taking advantage of his unique name, they dubbed him “The Awfullest Brown”
Brown’s diary, which he kept daily for over 69 years, reflects on his own contribution as an inventor:
“It is quite a source of satisfaction to have bridged the gap from the old time New England farm implement factory to the large full line company and to have had a small part in the transition from animal power to the power of the gasoline motor.”
The line of creativity in the Brown family continued through Theophilus Brown’s son, William Theophilus Brown, an established artist in San Francisco.
Source: Worcester Telegram Oct. 1960
1. www.alcott.net/alcott/home/champions/Brown.html
