Cyrus McCormick

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Cyrus Hall McCormick (February 15, 1809 - May 13, 1884) of Virginia was an Irish American farmer, inventor, businessman, marketer and newspaper editor. He became famous as the inventor of the mechanical reaper in 1831. He moved to Chicago, and was the founder, with his brothers Leander and William, of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company which became part of International Harvester Corporation in 1902.

He was born at Walnut Grove, his family farm in Rockbridge County, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley on the western side of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The McCormick family farm near Raphine became a test farm for the school known as Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (better known as "Virginia Tech").

Cyrus McCormick's father, Robert Hall McCormick, invented numerous labor-saving devices for agricultural use, and by 1831 had produced what would become known as the reaper. Robert's wife, Polly, encouraged Robert to give his inventions as a gift to their assertive and business-minded son, Cyrus, and encourage him to make the most of it. The reaper was demonstrated in tests in 1831 and was patented by Cyrus in 1834.

In 1847 the inventor, now also a skilled businessman, moved to Chicago, where he established large centralized works for manufacturing his agricultural implements. The McCormick reaper sold well as a result of savvy and innovative business practices. He offered no-haggle pricing, credit and financing, money-back guarantees on performance, and interchangeable replacement parts. His 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." 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”.

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.

The McCormick factories were later the site of urban labor strikes that led to the Haymarket Square riot in 1886. One of the reason the employees were striking was because he was paying them $9.00 a week. McCormick edited the Chicago Times until 1861, when he sold the paper to Wilbur F. Storey. He died in Chicago, with his company passing on to his son, Cyrus McCormick, Jr.. Under the son's leadership, the company, McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, became part of International Harvester Corporation in 1902.

His son Stanley McCormick (-1947) worked for the firm, but developed schizophrenia and retired early in 1906. His wife Katharine, a suffragette, funded research into the birth control pill by Gregory Pincus with part of her share of the McCormick estate. His son Harold Fowler McCormick married Edith Rockefeller, youngest daughter of John D. Rockefeller. He was a very active member of The Commercial Club of Chicago.

[edit] References

• Casson, Herbert N. Cyrus Hall McCormick: His Life and Work. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1909.
• Lyons, Norbert. The McCormick Reaper Legend: the True Story of a Great Invention. New York: Exposition Press, 1955.
• Sobel, Robert. The Entrepreneurs: Explorations Within the American Business Tradition. New York: Weybright & Talley, 1974, ch. 2.
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.