Manny, John H.

Born: 1825-11-28 New York

Died: 1856-01-31 Rockford, Illinois

Flourished: Illinois

John H. Manny, inventor, settled with his family in Stephenson County, Illinois about 1837. Manny worked with his father on improving farm implements, and by 1852 was producing a reaper of his own design. He moved to Rockford in 1853 to manufacture his reaper, and partnered to this end with Sylvester Talcott and Wait Talcott as J. H. Manny & Company in 1854. The following year, the firm became Manny & Company with the addition of Jesse Blinn and Ralph Emerson, Jr. as partners. Manny continued to refine his reaper and received several patents for improvements to agricultural implements between 1851 and 1856. In 1855, Cyrus H. McCormick sued Manny & Co. for patent infringement. Abraham Lincoln was retained as a defense attorney on the case, but his fellow defense attorneys Edwin M. Stanton and George Harding blocked his participation in the trial. The case was decided in favor of Manny & Co. in the U.S. Circuit Court for the Northern District of Illinois in January 1856. Manny died very shortly thereafter, before McCormick appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Manny married Mary Dorr in 1853; following his death she was listed in the 1860 census as owning real estate valued at $150,000 and possessing $220,000 in personal property.

Charles A. Church, History of Rockford and Winnebago County Illinois (Rockford, IL: W. P. Lamb, 1900), 321-24; Portrait and Biographical Record of Winnebago and Boone Counties, Illinois (Chicago: Biographical, 1892), 1015-17; U.S. Census Office, Sixth Census of the United States (1840), Stephenson County, IL, 233; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Stephenson County, IL, 319; Reuben H. Walworth, Hyde Genealogy; or the Descendants, in the Female as Well as in the Male Lines, from William Hyde, of Norwich (Albany: J. Munsell, 1864), 2:977; M. D. Leggett, comp., Subject-Matter Index of Patents for Inventions Issued by the United States Patent Office from 1790 to 1873, Inclusive (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1874), 2:669, 678, 681, 951; 3:1775, 1778, 1779, 1781, 1801, 1916, 1918; McCormick v. Talcott et al., Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=137741; McCormick v. Talcott et al., Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=137742; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Rockford, Winnebago County, IL, 262; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 7 February 1856, 3:1; The Salem Weekly Advocate (IL), 28 February 1856, 1:3; Gravestone, Greenwood Cemetery, Rockford, IL.