|
|
|
|
Cyrus McCormick
|
| |
|
| |
Cyrus Hall McCormick, Sr. (February 15 1809 – May 13 1884) of Rockbridge County, Virginia was an American inventor and founder of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, which became part of International Harvester Company in 1902.
He was born at "Woodbridge", the McCormick family farm in Rockbridge County, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley on the western side of the Blue Ridge Mountains. His parents were, Mary Ann Hall; and Robert Hall McCormick. His siblings included: Leander J. McCormick and William Sanderson McCormick. He was influenced by his father, who patented early versions of the reaper, which were unsuccessful.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Cyrus McCormick' Start a new discussion about 'Cyrus McCormick' Answer questions from other users |
Encyclopedia
Cyrus Hall McCormick, Sr. (February 15 1809 – May 13 1884) of Rockbridge County, Virginia was an American inventor and founder of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, which became part of International Harvester Company in 1902.
He was born at "Woodbridge", the McCormick family farm in Rockbridge County, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley on the western side of the Blue Ridge Mountains. His parents were, Mary Ann Hall; and Robert Hall McCormick. His siblings included: Leander J. McCormick and William Sanderson McCormick. He was influenced by his father, who patented early versions of the reaper, which were unsuccessful. His father passed the invention on to him and he perfected it soon after.
Reaper
His father, the inventor Robert Hall McCormick, worked for 28 years on a horse-drawn reaper. However, he was not able to finish his project and stopped developing it. Cyrus was given the project, and developed a final version of the reaper in 18 months. The reaper was demonstrated in tests in 1831 and was patented by Cyrus in 1834.
In 1839 he and his brother moved to Chicago, where they established large centralized works for manufacturing agricultural implements; they were joined by their brother William in 1849. The McCormick reaper sold well, partially as a result of savvy and innovative business practices. Their products came onto the market just as the development of railroads offered wide distribution to distant market areas. He developed marketing and sales techniques, developing a vast network of trained salesmen able to demonstrate operation of the machines in the field. William H. Seward said of McCormick's invention that owing to it "the line of civilization moves westward thirty miles each year." One of the company's most famous advertisement featured an epic painting by Emanuel Leutze with the slogan, “Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way with McCormick Reapers in the Van."
Awards
Numerous prizes and medals were awarded for his reaper, and he was elected a corresponding member of the French Academy of Sciences, "as having done more for the cause of agriculture than any other living man." The invention of the reaper made farming far more efficient, and resulted in a global shift of labor from farmlands to cities. In 1851, the reaper won the highest award of the day, the Gold Medal at London's Crystal Palace Exhibition. A statue of McCormick is on the front campus of Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia. He has also made the famous horse drawn reaper.
Death
McCormick died in Chicago in 1884; he had been an invalid for the last three or four years of his life. His last words were "work, work, work." The company passed on to his grandson, Cyrus Hall McCormick III. The McCormick factories were later the site of urban labor strikes that led to the Haymarket Square riot in 1886. One of the reasons the employees were striking was because they were earning only $9 a week.
Cyrus McCormick's papers are held by the Wisconsin Historical Society.
External links
|
| |
|
|
