“Persevere, persevere, persevere.” Those words summarize the philosophy A.H. Patch adopted early in life and what likely led to his invention of the Black Hawk corn sheller, a hand-held implement that found an enthusiastic market worldwide.
Asahel Huntington Patch was born in Hamilton, Massachusetts, on Nov. 11, 1825. He was the first of nine surviving children of Capt. Daniel and Lisabeth Gould Patch, Puritans who named their son after a kindly minister of the Congregational Church (a Puritan offshoot), Asahel Huntington. Patch would come to be known as A.H. Patch.
Asahel’s great-grandson, Elwyn Patch of Clarksville, Tennessee, never knew his great-grandfather personally, but a speech that Asahel gave at a 1940s local Rotary Club meeting came to the attention of Elwyn’s late wife, Rubye, who shared those comments through the Montgomery County Historical Society website.
“She wrote nearly word-for-word what A.H. said at that meeting,” Elwyn says. “She always had a passion for history. As a child, she grew up about 14 miles outside of Clarksville. One of her chores on the farm was taking care of the chickens, shelling corn for them. She was fascinated by how the Black Hawk sheller worked, and once she found out I was related to A.H., it gave me a real advantage in our courtship.”
