Samuel Hewitt was a small-town inventor from
Allensville,
Indiana
Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...
. He invented the "
Mormon haypress", which was patented in 1843.
The hay press revolutionized the industry, and the county's economy began to focus on hay production. 200 machines were made, but only 4 remain.
One of these haypresses resides in a museum in
Lawrenceburg, Indiana.
in
Switzerland County, Indiana was a site that shipped out hundreds of haybales to the rest of the country along
Ohio
Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...
and
Mississippi rivers. For this reason, Samuel Hewitt came up with a faster way to cut and package haybales in the Mormon Haypress.
The haypress was 3 stories tall, and was powered usually by farm animals, such as horses or mules.
The haypresses themselves also were used in other states, most notably in
Kentucky
Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...
.
Hewitt submitted the patent on December 30, 1843, along with a detailed image of the build and function of the machine.
References
{{reflist
Inventors from Indiana
19th-century American inventors
Year of birth missing
Year of death missing