Last week marked the 100th anniversary of a revolution.

Before you start trying to guess where this revolution took place, here’s a hint: it started in New York City, swept across the world, and was led by a man who lived in Mathews County.

Give up? The man was Herman Hollerith and his revolution sparked the computer age. On June 16, 1911, the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company was founded. People know it today as IBM and that business changed the way everyone across the globe lives.

It was Hollerith, an inventor, who built the Hollerith Tabulator and Sorter Box, something that looks more like an old-fashioned roll-top desk than a piece of cutting-edge technology. But, as antiquated as it now is, that first "tabulator" became the basis for the IBM Punched Card System and basically every computer that followed.

Flush with the success of his invention, he purchased Brighton-Mobjack Farm and eventually retired to the life of a country gentleman in Mathews.

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