Among the numerous American inventors there is not one who has done more to extend the area of the intelligent culture of the soil, or who has added so greatly to the wealth of the country, as Cyrus H. McCormick. The immeasurable difference between the ancient emblem of the reaper—the simple sickle—and the wonderful machine that now makes the “great bonanza farms” possible, typifies the immense progress of a full and free civilization over the half-savage hand-labor of the feudal ages. More fortunate than many authors, Mr. McCormick still lives to enjoy not only the fame but the solid rewards of his mechanical genius.
Cyrus Hall McCormick is a native of Virginia, though for many years a resident of Chicago; his ancestors were of that ScotchIrish stock, which has sent forth so many able men, prosperous and thrifty workers in all the practical walks of life. Mr. Robert McCormick, the father of Cyrus, was also a native of Virginia, being born in Rockbridge in that State, and his wife was a native of the neighboring county of Augusta; her name was Mary Ann Hall, of the same original stock as the McCormicks ; both of these families were farmers in comfortable circumstances: Robert owning several farms with grist-mills and blacksmith and carpentering shops on his land, with every convenience, and machinery for farm-work which had then been invented. Their eldest son, Cyrus, was born on the I5th of February, 1809. At that time in Virginia the facilities for education were very limited ; there were no public schools, and, with the farming populations, private tutors were not in fashion; but with bright, intelligent parents the boy learned enough to help himself by reading; and later in life no marked deficiencies indicated the lack of early school-training.
He was not overworked as poorer boys often are on farms, but was taught to be industrious and careful, and he took a real interest in all the pperations of the farm. His father had tried to make various improvements in agricultural implements, but had not succeeded in bringing any to great financial profit. His son paid much attention to the best mode of performing all the manual labor on the place, and very early realized that there was great need of better agricultural ploughs, reapers, threshers, and so forth. When only fifteen he invented a grain-cradle, which he successfully used on the farm. Cyrus had evidently inherited his father's inventive genius; the latter was the patentee of several valuable machines, though of none which attained so wide a celebrity as those of his son; yet from these the latter obtained many hints which he utilized in his own machines. The elder McCormick had invented a threshing-machine, and one for hempbreaking, using the hydraulic principle for his motor.
Young Cyrus having found his cradle a practical success, next turned his attention to the construction of a hill-side plough; this was patented in 1831, when the future hero of the wheat crops of the land was only twenty-two years of age; this plough could be used either as a right or left-hand implement, and threw alternate furrows on the lower side of the slope; but, though a great improvement upon the ploughs then in general use, it did not satisfy the inventor, and he soon set to work to improve upon himself, and two years later he was enabled to patent a very superior article known as the “ self-sharpening horizontal plough.” This was a very excellent invention, suitable for hilly or level ground.
In the same year (1831) the famous “reaper” was completed, though not with all the improvements now utilized. On the first trial of the completed reaper several acres of oats were harvested with it; the next year it cut fifty acres of wheat. Slight defects were observed which were remedied, and in 1834 he applied for and obtained his first patent on his reaper. Removing to Cincinnati he, two years later, obtained a second patent for certain improvements, and then commenced to manufacture for the market. From 1846 to 1848 his reaper was manufactured in Brockport, Monroe county, New York, the manufacturers paying the inventor a royalty on every reaper sold. Still additional improvements called for other patents ; and it was not until the close of 1848 that the McCormick reaper attained the perfection which enabled it to take the lead of all other reapers in this country or Europe. In 1847 this successful inventor had removed to Chicago, realizing at that early day that the location of this incipient railroad centre was destined in the near future to take the lead in the commerce of the great Northwest. In 1848 only seven hundred of the reapers had been made and sold, but in 1849 fifteen hundred were called for and produced, and orders flowing in. But just as the farmers of the country were waking up to a perception of the boon which this machine was conferring upon the country, Mr. McCormick was destined to lose the protection of his patent, and was forced to enter into competition with a flood of rivals, not all of whom were either honest or honorable. Several of his patents had been procured in the very incipiency of the invention, and these had run out by lapse of time, and the later patents only protected a portion of the machine, and the Patent Office officials refused to renew any of the patents for the curious but very interesting reason, that the machine was of such great value to the public, that its protection was against the public interest! Hence, from a very early period after the final perfectioning of the reaper, a whole flood of competitors was let loose to prey upon the property of the inventor. But Mr. McCormick was not dismayed: he only set himself the more resolutely to make the very best machines, and having the start of his unscrupulous rivals was enabled to keep it, and does keep it to-day. In 1882 over 40,000 reapers were made and scattered over both hemispheres. Many of these harvesting machines being supplemented with mowers, droppers, wire-binders, and twine-binders, which grasp and tie up a sheaf with a neatness, precision and despatch that almost looks like magic. As long ago as 1859 the Hon. Reverdy Johnson, in an argument before the Commissioner of Patents, stated that from reliable statistics Mr. McCormick's invention had already contributed to the country an increased value of $55,000,000.
The gigantic factory where these reapers are made in Chicago, is in the southwestern part of the city, near where the railroad lines converge, occupying the whole block on the lake shore, bounded by Randolph and Dearborn streets, the Western avenue and Blue Island. The main buildings are 400 by 450 feet and four stories high, and are arranged with more consideration for the workmen than is usual in such structures. These works employ about 1,500 men, while in the sale and delivery more than 5,000 persons are continually occupied, and still the demand is on the increase. The wide dispersion of these reapers may be said to form an endless chain of American agricultural implements around the world, in every portion of which, wherever there is an intelligent farmer, there is also a “ McCormick Reaper.” Practical tests and competitions have decided the supremacy of these machines over all others. From the very first trial Mr. McCormick has never found a successful rival. Other people have made reaping-machines, and some of them are very useful and creditable articles, but when placed in competition with the “ McCormick,” each and all have had to take second place. The first competitive trial occurred in 1843, when Mr. Obed Hussay's machine was brought forward with great confidence at Richmond, Virginia. From among the spectators a jury of judges was selected by the people, to decide upon the merits of the two reapers. Without hesitation, and to the entire: satisfaction of the witnesses, the superiority was awarded to the “McCormick.” Since that time, prizes of all kinds have poured in a continual stream into the hands of the fortunate inventor.
During Mr. McCormick's early experiences, amusing incidents often occurred with people who had little or no faith in the “ newfangled machine.” On one occasion, a trial of his reaper was arranged to take place on what is known as the Genesee Flats. Two neighboring farmers, who thought that the cradles they were using were the acme of harvesting machines, hearing that the new cutter was in the lot, and having the utmost confidence that they could reap quicker and cleaner than any new-fashioned machine, came “ to see the failure,” bringing their own cradles with them, intending to show the ambitious stranger what they could do; but as they reached the fence, and saw the rapid pace with which the McCormick Reaper was travelling over the ground, and doing its work in a far more complete style than they had ever witnessed before, they quietly hid their cradles in the crook of the fence, and slipped away, saddened but wiser men.
Of Mr. McCormick's two brothers, who entered into business with him in 1850, William S. died in 1865 ; Leander J. is the VicePresident of the McCormick Harvesting-Machine Company, of Chicago. In 1838 Mr. Cyrus H. McCormick married a daughter of the late Melzer Fowler, of Detroit. Mr. McCormick's family consists of three sons and two daughters. The eldest son now (1884) in his twenty-fifth year is engaged in his father's business, and promises to prove a worthy successor to the great inventor. The family residence is for the greater part of the year in Chicago, but Mr. McCormick has a country-seat at Richfield Springs, New York, where the summer is usually spent. Like his Scotch ancestors, Mr. McCormick is an adherent of the Presbyterian faith, and is a liberal giver to that denomination, and to many unsectarian charities. He is large-minded and liberal in his hospitalities—the very magnitude of his business operations would almost, indeed, preclude the possibility of his cultivating any narrow or petty views in any sphere of his numerous charities. Fortunate beyond most men in his grand success, and particularly fortunate as an inventor in securing the full fruitage of his genius, he knows how to appreciate the inventive faculty in other men, and is always ready to help young inventors in their struggles with fortune. Mr. McCormick is fairly entitled to the appellation, “ benefactor of his race,” and his life has been one of great usefulness.