Obed Hussey

Obed Hussey (October 7, 1792 – August 4, 1860) was an American inventor, born in Hallowell, Maine to Quaker parents, of a farm machine called a reaper. In his youth, he was a sailor on a whaling ship, but eventually he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. He tested and patented a reaper in 1833, which placed him in fierce competition with inventor Cyrus McCormick of Chicago, Illinois. Both men made several patented innovations to the reaper, until Hussey was finally driven out of business. He sold the rights to McCormick in 1858. Two years later, attempting to board a train in Exeter, NH, he fell beneath the cars and died.