RECOLLECTIONS OF JOEL AND HULDAH HEACOCK

Pages 161-162

"The first that I can remember of grandfather was when he came to live with us in the middle eighties. He used to saw the wood and do the chores and he sawed the wood in winter with a hand saw. He invented and had patented while in Brighton, the railroad skate. He made these, but I don't think he ever sold any. The skate had a cast iron frame and wooden rollers with flanges to keep them on the rail. The action was the same as the roller skate used in the rinks--sliding along on one foot and then lifting the other over in front and using it a stretch. Equilibrium was kept by holding a staff with two small cams on one end that ran on the opposite rail.

"Grandfather was a good mechanic and had lots of good tools that he kept in good shape. He used to whittle out his patterns with his jack knife that he kept as sharp nearly as a razor.

"Another thing grandfather made was a lathe. He hewed the frame out of oak and built a big wheel, connecting it to a heavy wooden treadle with a wooden shaft. This was belted to a pulley that ran the lathe. With this he turned out the rollers for the railroad skates. He also made us a croquet set, turning out the balls and mallets on this machine. I think it was about 1884 or 1885 that he lived with us. He was there when Uncle Nate was married."^(*)--Guy R. Heacock.

Probably the most practical and successful of the inventions of Joel Heacock was nothing more nor less than a fence. Like the unknown inventor of the common pin, the man who improves a simple everyday thing like a fence benefits many. Joel's fence was a rail fence, but it was an improvement over the common "snake" fence, with its rails crossing back and forth, because it could be built in a straight line, saving both rails and land. Joel's son, Charles Clement Heacock, travelled to sell this fence. Rights to build it in a specified ferritory were sold to an agent, who sold them in turn to the farmers. About the time of his marriage (1874) Charles Clement Heacock left Ohio on one of his last selling trips, having nothing but the patents. After a trip through the south he arrived in Brighton, Iowa, the owner of a fine buggy and driving team and $200 in cash.

Joel Heacock also invented a bee hive, which he manufactured in Marlborough. Presumably the washing machine mentioned in his obituary as one of his products was also his own invention.

Besides being an inventor and a mechanic, Joel Heacock was a writer and preacher. Of his preaching trips nothing is remembered, except that he once borrowed $200 from his brother John to finance such an excursion, which he never repaid. Probably he considered the sum as a good and reasonable contribution on the part of his brother to a worthy cause.

(*)Nathan Heacock, son of Joel and Huldah, was married to Florence Rhodes at Brighton, Iowa, on May 12, 1887.

 

He loved to argue, but his self assurance approached bigotry. "He never said: I think such and such is right. Mother used to argue with him, and this was always a part of his argument, 'Thee is wrong. I'll tell thee just how it is. It comes to me directly from God.'

"After he went blind, he decided that he had misinterpreted many parts of the Bible. After he had studied it over for many months he began to write it all out. He left tablet after tablet full of his revised belief . . ."--Pauline Heacock Pallady.

Huldah Gaskill was born in Stark County Ohio on March 8, 1829. She had a mind of her own, something probably less frequent in her generation than now, a well developed sense of humor and a sharp tongue. With these attributes and a husband like Joel, marital difficulties must have been unavoidable. After the children had reached manhood, sometime about 1884, Joel and Huldah separated, and remained apart without divorce for the rest of their lives. Huldah was in Iowa in 1885, visiting with her sons in Brighton and West Branch. "After grandfather left, Grandmother Heacock came. I do not remember her so well, as she did not saw the wood, nor do any of the chores . . . Aunt Sadie (wife of Leona Silas Heacock) thought grandmother had been at her house long enough. She was afraid to ask her to go, as Grandmother Heacock had a sharp tongue. So she wrote a note along the line of her thoughts and put it under her plate at dinner. What grandmother told her then sure squelched her . . ."--Guy R. Heacock.

Some years later, Huldah became interested in the ideas of a Jeremiah Hacker, publisher of the Boston Pleasure Boat during the first half of the nineteenth century. Hacker was a fearless crusader against evil, and an opponent of slavery during the years when abolitionists were unpopular even in the North. His ideas were advanced for the time, but were not confined as closely to the religious field as were those of Joel. Huldah joined the Hackers in Vineland, New Jersey, and remained as housekeeper for Jeremiah after his wife died. She died in Vineland on September 3, 1904.