I had been of the same thought about Singer, and regularly mention that they're a lot like Microsoft - not a lot of innovation on their own. A great deal of what they have they bought or... liberated (and often opted to pay royalties on or were forced to). But about.com said that he was responsible for that up down sewing motion,...
http://inventors.about.com/od/sstart...ng_machine.htm
According to that article, technically Hunt first developed the pointed end eye, but didn't patent it. Howe patented it first, which is how he managed to win the litigation against Singer.
That said, I guess it depends on how good the sources for the article were.
For instance, I don't know if I agree that electric sewing machines were in wide use by 1905... not out here in the "wild west" anyway
I like sewalot for some of the info as well.