MARTHA JONES of Amelia County, Virginia (free? enslaved? we don't know) emerged from the Civil War with an idea, one which may have taken form even before the war. She knew automated corn husking and shelling could be better, that the machinery and process could be improved. And she did it. Three years after the war, on May 5, 1868, Ms. Jones received confirmation: concept number 77,494 stamped "granted". Ms. Jones seems the first African American woman to receive a U.S. patent. The device peeled corn husks and harvested the kernels in one pass; time was saved, decay decreased, yield increased, nutrition expanded for humans and animals. Her props are long overdue.