I posted this back in 2009 but came across a photograph of a real one which I’ll include above along with the original post.
William Harvey Beal (1866-1958), my great grandfather, had tried farming but was going broke. He became a traveling bible salesman and went around with a barbed wire salesman and soon added that to his line. William came up with an idea for a tool to tighten the wire easily and with his cousin Robert McKibben staking him $500 and half the profits he got it patented in 1894. The Beal Wire Fence Tightener became well known and he traveled over the western half of the United States selling it directly and to distributors. After eight years he was able to pay off all his debts and save some. He settled down by starting a soap factory and buying a big house in the town of Wichita, Kansas making his wife Anna very happy.
I have one of the Beal Fence Tightners in my home office and several relatives have searched for others without success. Maybe it’s just because I’m a male, but I love tools and can really appreciate how things like this one made life easier for our early pioneers. I wish more had survived.
