The game was designed to demonstrate to players the negative effects of land monopolies and land value taxes. Influenced by George, Elizabeth Magie went on to create the board game The Landlord's Game and filed a legal claim for it in 1903. In the early 1900s, she would work a brief stint as a news reporter. She received a patent for an invention that made it easier for paper to slide through typewriters. A multi-talented woman, she was also a writer, comedian and actress. In the early 1880s, Elizabeth Magie worked as a stenographer. George believed that while people should own all of anything they make or create, nature - including land - belonged to everyone. Postmaster in Macomb in 1865.Īfter her father handed her a copy of the book 'Progress & Poverty' that was written by the economist Henry George in 1879, Elizabeth Magie became a supporter of what at the time was called a single-tax system (Georgism). Magie served in the Civil War for three years and went on to be appointed as the U.S. It was at James Magie's urging that Lincoln had his picture taken in Macomb. Her 783-square-foot childhood home and barn, now private property, are still standing in the northeast part of Macomb.Įlizabeth's father, James Magie, was a proprietor of the Macomb Journal Newspaper and an abolitionist who accompanied Abraham Lincoln in the late 1850s during the Lincoln-Douglas debates. However, the concept for the game was actually derived from the board game The Landlord's Game, created by Macomb native Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Magie more than three decades before Parker Brothers began manufacturing Monopoly.Įlizabeth Magie was born in Macomb on May 9, 1866, to James K. MACOMB - The property-collecting board game Monopoly is a staple in many American homes today.

Original monopoly board layout