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Inventor and early settler born in Norway
On this day in 1843, Ole Ringness was born in Norway. He and his parents
arrived in Texas in 1852 and eventually settled in a Bosque County
Norwegian community. As the community's first mail carrier, Ole made a
regular four-day round trip between Norman Hills, seven miles west of
Clifton, and Fort Worth. In his work on the family farm, he observed a
wheel of his wagon cup on the axle. As the wheel became more cupped, it
moved larger amounts of mud. Thus he conceived the idea of a disc plow
and disc harrow and made models of them in his father's blacksmith shop.
On July 26, 1872, as he journeyed to Washington, D.C., to present his
case for a patent on his inventions, he died under mysterious
circumstances. The family never pursued a patent for his inventions, and
similar farm equipment was patented by a plow company. A model of one of
Ringness's three original disc plows is in the Texas Memorial Museum in
Austin.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- RINGNESS, OLE
- NORWEGIANS
- TEXAS MEMORIAL MUSEUM
- Links to other Web sites (will be opened in new browser window)
- Texas Memorial Museum
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Future general and president born in Denison (1890)
- Frustrated ex-ranger killed when he smashes his malfunctioning rifle against rock (1867)
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