Dewey K. Hickok

Dewey K. Hickok (1824-1890) of Morrisville was an inventor and dealer of patent rights who received a patent on July 19, 1887, for a washing machine and also patented other inventions, including a clothes dryer. A distant cousin of Wild Bill Hickok, he had an adventurous spirit that took him on two long whaling voyages in the Pacific Ocean, and those journeys were documented in a log now in the collection of the Morrisville Historical Society. In his patent application filed in October 1886, Hickok said his improvements in washing machines were intended to aid the operator and relieve him of the tiresome labor of operating the machine.

Morrisville, Vermont · United States