Leander J. McCormick

Leander James McCormick (1819–1900) was an American farmer, inventor, manufacturer, and businessman. Although born in rural Virginia, he later owned vast amounts of real estate in downtown Chicago.

Life

Leander James McCormick was born February 8, 1819 in Rockbridge County, Virginia on February 8, 1819 to an Irish American family. His father was Robert McCormick (1780–1846), and his mother was Mary Anne Hall McCormick. He was raised at the family homestead known as Walnut Grove, near Raphine in Rockbridge County, in the Shenandoah Valley on the western side of the Blue Ridge Mountains. His father invented agricultural machines including the mechanical reaper, for which Leander's older brother Cyrus McCormick received the patent in 1834. Leander eventually developed multiple improvements to the reaper and received patents for two of them, with the remainder being patented by his brother Cyrus. At age 26, McCormick married Henrietta Hamilton on her parents' homestead, Locust Hill, in Rockbridge County on October 22, 1845. The following year their father Robert McCormick died. Leander had a third share of the reaper business, which amounted to 75 machines in 1846.^[1]

In 1847 Leander helped Cyrus set up a factory in Cincinnati, Ohio that produced 100 machines. In fall 1848 he moved to Chicago with his wife and infant son to join Cyrus in setting up an even larger factory. Another older brother William Sanderson McCormick joined in 1850 in a business in run by Cyrus to manufacture reapers and sell them across the midwestern United States. They created what eventually became the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, with Leander taking over management of the manufacturing department, which he controlled for the next 30 years. By 1870, the McCormicks were one of the wealthiest families in the United States.

In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed much of the Reaper Works and other buildings, as well as the Leander McCormick family residence at the corner of Rush Street and Ohio Street, . Leander, his wife and children fled their burning home in the early morning hours. They moved to the west side of the city for the next several years. The McCormicks, under Leander's direction, quickly rebuilt and recovered. By 1879, the business had fully recovered and was merged into a corporation. Leander stayed active in the management of the business until 1889 when he retired and sold his shares to his nephew, Cyrus H. McCormick, Jr.^[2]:320 After retiring from the business, McCormick then invested heavily in real estate.

McCormick donated funds for a refracting telescope to the University of Virginia. The telescope and building are known as McCormick Observatory and opened in 1885; the telescope was the largest in the U.S. and second largest in the world when completed.^[3]

In his later years, McCormick remained in Chicago and began to research the McCormick genealogy. He eventually produced and published a book on the McCormick family.^[2] In 1889 he funded construction of the Virginia Hotel at Rush and Ohio, where McCormick spent the rest of his life. The 400-room hotel was advertised as "an absolutely fire-proof building and a finished hotel second to no other."^[4] The hotel featured ornate granite interiors decorated with marble statues, separate "gentlemen's smoking room" and "ladies dining room", and a room of boilers and dynamos to offer the latest technology: electric lights. It was ready in time for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.^[4] His wife died in November 1899, and he died on February 20, 1900 at the Virginia Hotel.^[1] At the time of his death, he had extensive holdings in downtown Chicago, and a stock farm in Lake Forest, Illinois.

Legacy

His children were:

1. Robert Hall McCormick was born September 6, 1847, married Sarah Lord Day on June 1, 1871, became executor of the estate, and died in 1917.
2. Elizabeth Maria McCormick was born on May 2, 1850 but died young on March 31, 1953.^[2]:322
3. Henrietta Laura McCormick was born April 22, 1857, married British barrister Frederick E. McCormick-Goodhart (1854–1924) on November 14, 1883, established a 540-acre (2.2 km²) estate northeast of Washington D.C. known as Langley Park, and died in 1932.^[5] She published a memoir titled Hands across the sea^[6] and, with her son McCormick-Goodhart, a book on her maternal grandfather John Hamilton (1789–1825).^[7]
4. Leander Hamilton McCormick was born May 27, 1859, married Constance Plummer on February 14, 1887, and died on February 2, 1934.

Family tree

References