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Patent holder profile

George Washington Murray and the field-machinery recovery trail

Murray's furrow-opener and stalk-knocker record is also a Baker/Murray public-memory story about recovering Black patent holders from a data-poor federal archive.

Why this belongs on CultureUp

Murray is a public-record memory story.

This belongs on CultureUp because the patent record connects invention to place, public institutions, work systems, laboratories, employers, federal or corporate assignment, and the limits of public records.

Sprint 7 priority 6 / not final rankStatus: source_reviewedSource grade: A-

Patent: 517960: Combined Furrow-Opener and Stalk-Knocker
Issue date: 1894-04-10
Place: Sumter, South Carolina
Record strength: Patent-record facts are attached with at least one public context source. CultureUp still separates patent proof from biography, adoption, commercialization, and identity claims.
Identity evidence: Public context source attached where available; CultureUp does not use the patent row alone as race, ancestry, lineage, or Indigenous Black identity proof.
Sprint priority: 6 / not final rank
Cluster: Black enterprise and patent commerce
Needed before promotion: Promotion language should remain limited until source-led context, assignment, co-inventor, and commercialization review is complete.
Why this record matters: Murray matters as both inventor and public-memory actor: a patent holder tied to field machinery and to the Congressional Record recovery trail that Baker later used.

What the public record supports

U.S. Patent No. 517960, issued April 10, 1894.
Sumter, South Carolina, as recorded place.
Baker/Murray recovery context for Black patent-memory reconstruction.

What remains open

Additional Murray patent-family and agriculture context.
Congressional Record quotation and route-level cross-linking.
Commercial use or field-adoption evidence.

Article profile

Read the person, place, invention, and record separately.

CultureUp keeps each layer visible so a patent record does not get stretched into claims the source trail cannot support.

The patent record

517960 was issued on 1894-04-10 for Combined Furrow-Opener and Stalk-Knocker.

The person in the record

The attached public context sources support a reader-facing profile frame. Any deeper life history, family record, school record, employment file, or community memory needs its own source trail.

Place attached to the claim

Sumter, South Carolina is the public place anchor used for this route. CultureUp does not infer local family continuity from the patent row alone.

The invention

The invention is summarized from the public patent title and source trail. Technical, market, institutional, and adoption claims stay limited to what the attached sources can support.

Business, labor, and use

Modern patent records often separate inventor, employer, assignee, licensee, and beneficiary. CultureUp keeps those categories apart instead of treating a patent as proof of ownership, wealth, adoption, or public impact.

What the record cannot prove

The patent record does not by itself prove full biography, race, ancestry, Indigenous Black identity, commercialization, institutional adoption, economic benefit, modern product lineage, or community memory.

Identity and correction note

CultureUp treats this as Black American patent memory only through public, reviewable sources. The page does not certify ancestry, descent, tribe, nationality, family history, or private identity.

Send stronger patent images, assignment records, employer records, licensing documents, public biographies, or source corrections through CultureUp's correction path.

Patent records do not prove final rank, private identity, solo credit when co-inventors appear, employment ownership, commercialization, adoption, or later public impact.

Indexable as a source-led Sprint 7 profile with visible source limits.

Employer, assignee, and inventor status are not interchangeable. CultureUp names assignees when the patent record does.

Do not make Murray only an agriculture profile; the Baker/Murray recovery trail is part of why this route belongs in CultureUp.

Patent records

Grant trail

Grant rank and unique-holder rank are shown separately so repeat patentees do not distort the chronological sequence.

backfill_candidateSprint priority 6Not public rankutility patenthigh

517960: Combined Furrow-Opener and Stalk-Knocker

George Washington Murray / 1894-04-10

Sprint 7 backfill record. Murray is both a patent holder and a public-memory actor in the Baker/Murray recovery trail.

Residence: Sumter, South Carolina
Category: agricultural machinery / field preparation
Source status: high
Chronology handling: backfill_candidate
Cluster: Black enterprise and patent commerce
Primary sources: 2 mapped

Source trail

Claims stay tied to source limits.

Black enterprise and patent commerce

Sources for patents tied to business, assignments, recovery work, or professional enterprise where inventorship, ownership, and commercialization remain distinct.

patent text mirrorpatent text

US517960A - Combined Furrow-Opener and Stalk-Knocker

Google Patents / 1894 patent record

Supports: Shows George W. Murray of Sumter, South Carolina, connected to a combined furrow-opener and stalk-knocker patent issued April 10, 1894.
Limit: Patent records verify invention data, patent number, date, title, and recorded place. They do not by themselves prove full race/identity, ancestry, biography, commercialization, public memory, economic benefit, sole inventorship, or personal ownership.
Last checked: 2026-06-10
Source URL: https://patents.google.com/patent/US517960A/en

Identity evidence

Institutional profiles, Baker/Murray recovery context, or public source trails that support careful Black patentee language without private proof.

official historical essayrecovery-project context

Found on Baker's list

United States Patent and Trademark Office / 2022

Supports: Connects Henry E. Baker's recovery project, George Washington Murray's Congressional Record list, and the problem that the Patent Office did not and still does not collect demographic data.
Limit: Baker's list is a recovery starting point, not a complete census of Black inventors.
Last checked: 2026-06-08
Source URL: https://www.uspto.gov/learning-and-resources/journeys-innovation/historical-stories/found-bakers-list

Public memory

Objects, museums, and public interpretation records that help readers see how an invention remains visible.

official historical essaypublic-memory recovery context

Baker, Murray, and the Congressional Record recovery trail