In 1874 he set up a factory in Chicago, founding what eventually became one of the greatest industrial establishments in the United States.Īn astute businessman, McCormick increased his sales with door-to-door canvassing and written guarantees for his ready-to-assemble machinery.
#MECHANICAL REAPER. LICENSE#
Six years later he began to license its manufacture in other parts of the country. Patenting his invention in 1834, after Obed Hussey had announced in 1833 the construction of a reaper of his own, McCormick started to manufacture the machine on the family estate in 1837.
In July 1831, McCormick succeeded where his father had failed, producing a model reaper with all the essential components of later commercial machines.
His time-saving invention allowed farmers to more than double their crop size and spurred innovations in farm machinery.īorn in Rockbridge County, Virginia, McCormick derived his interest in invention from his father, a Virginia landowner who patented several improved farming implements and worked without success for many years to perfect a mechanical reaper. and Harold Fowler McCormick, presided over the new company during its first 40 years.įor more information on the McCormick family, see the selected bibliography.Cyrus Hall McCormick invented the mechanical reaper, which combined all the steps that earlier harvesting machines had performed separately. Three other rivals joined the merger: the Plano Manufacturing Company, the Milwaukee Harvester Company, and Warder, Bushnell and Glessner. Cyrus McCormick's sons, Cyrus, Jr. In 1902 the two companies merged to form the International Harvester Company. By 1900 McCormick and Deering were nearly equal in sales. The company's chief rival was the Deering Harvester Company. Throughout the 1880s and 1890s the company retained its position as the leading agricultural equipment manufacturer, however it found itself increasingly challenged by competitors in a somewhat depressed market. His son, Cyrus Jr., went on to become president of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company. By the early 1880s, the company had expanded into markets as far away as Russia and New Zealand.Ĭyrus Hall McCormick died on May 13, 1884. McCormick built a new factory with increased capacity and began to pursue overseas markets in earnest. In 1871 the company's factory was completely destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire. William handled the company's finances, and Leander oversaw manufacturing. In 1859 he formed a partnership with his brothers William and Leander to form C.H. He also became more active in Presbyterian causes and Democratic politics. In January 1858 McCormick married Nettie Fowler and began to spend more time away from Chicago. By 1858 the company was the largest farm equipment manufacturer in the United States, with assets totaling more than $1 million dollars. He also benefited from the growth of Chicago as an industrial center and rail hub. There, McCormick developed innovative marketing and distribution techniques that helped make his company a success. As in the urban and industrial spheres, technological advances in agriculture occurred gradually, sometimes leading workers to. In 1847 he moved to Chicago and formed what eventually became known as the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company. By the end of 1846, however, he had sold fewer than 100 machines. Cyrus also made several trips to the Midwest, demonstrating his reaper and attempting to contract with local manufacturers. After a few additional modifications, he patented the invention in 1834.ĭuring the 1840s Cyrus and his family manufactured and sold reapers out the blacksmith shop at Walnut Grove. Cyrus made several changes to his father's design and successfully demonstrated his reaper at Steele's Tavern, Virginia, in July 1831. In 1831 he abandoned the idea and turned the work over to his son. His father, Robert McCormick, experimented with a design for a mechanical reaper from around the time of Cyrus' birth. He was born at the family farm called Walnut Grove in Rockbridge County, Virginia, on February 15, 1809. McCormick (1809-1884) was an industrialist and inventor of the first commercially successful reaper, a horse-drawn machine to harvest wheat. Cyrus Hall McCormick View the original source document: WHI 8499Ĭyrus H.
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