During that time, local farmers gathered wheat by hand. The grain fell into disorderly clumps scattered across the field. Then some stalks were gathered into a bunch, also known as a sheaf, and tied with string. Several sheaves were leaned against each other and left in the field. This allowed the grain to dry.
In 1794, a Scottish farmer invented a long-handled scythe with an attached cradle. The cut grain fell into the cradle and then was dropped into an orderly pile on the ground. Even with this invention, though, harvesting grain was labor intensive. A mechanical reaper would be a welcome tool.
A group of local farmers gathered to watch Sanders test his invention. As the horses pulled the machine around the field, the grain was drawn into the reaper, and a strip of cut wheat was left behind, ready to be bound into sheaves.
Among the group of bystanders was a stranger, a peddler who had come to the village tavern the night before. He was very interested in the machine, asked questions about its operation, and offered suggestions for improvement.
After the demonstration, Sanders decided to refine his design before applying for a patent. He was delayed in doing so because of a lack of funds.
In 1847, when Cyrus McCormick of Chicago began to mass produce a reaper similar to Sanders’ design, Greene County friends suspected the stranger had stolen Sanders’ idea.
This story is recorded in Robinson’s History of Greene County and also is mentioned in Broadstone’s History of Greene County Ohio: Its People, Industries and Institutions.
Robinson’s writes of the success of McCormick’s reaper, “... thus robbing Bellbrook and Jesse Sanders of fame and fortune.”
“Sanders never realized anything for his labors and died a poor man after giving to the world one of the greatest inventions of the age,” Broadstone writes.
But, Sanders’ friends and the books were wrong.
McCormick of Walnut Grove, Va., invented a mechanical reaper in 1831. His son, Cyrus, patented it in 1834, six years before Sanders began his work.
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