Presentation at Morgan-Manning House April 18
The public is invited to a presentation at the Morgan-Manning House entitled “An Inventor, a Businessman, and the Creation of the Mechanical Reaper.” The event on Tuesday, April 18, begins at 7 p.m. in the historic home at 151 Main Street in Brockport. The presenter will be Charles Cowling, a librarian at Drake Library and archivist for the College at Brockport.
Inventor William Seymour and businessman Dayton Morgan were partners in the Globe Iron Works in the 1840s, when they met Cyrus McCormick who had developed a reaping machine. They built 100 reapers for him and eventually developed a reaper of their own. Their manufacturing site was on the canal on what is now called “Harvester Park,” where Fazools restaurant is located. Their business ran from the 1840s to the 1880s, and they shipped machines around the country, as well as to Europe.
Morgan’s home is today’s Morgan Manning House, and Seymour lived in the home that today houses the Brockport Village office and the Emily L. Knapp Museum. Cowling’s talk will include how these two historical figures would shape big business in Brockport.
The event is free and sponsored by the Western Monroe Historical Society which maintains the Morgan-Manning House with Society offices on the second floor. Free refreshments will be served at the conclusion of the program.
For information, call 637-3654.
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