Cyrus Hall McCormick

1809-1884

American Inventor

Cyrus McCormick developed an agricultural reaper that mechanically cut crops. Farmers needed to harvest wheat soon after it ripened, and McCormick's reaper enabled them to cut the same amount of wheat in a day that required one person two weeks using hand tools. The mechanical reaper inspired the improvement of other farm machinery, encouraged farmers to migrate to unsettled western land, and allowed workers to shift from agricultural to business or industrial employment. Most significantly, the reaper helped farmers produce enough food to meet population demands.

A native of Rockbridge County, Virginia, McCormick was the son of Robert and Mary Ann (Hall) McCormick. His father was an inventor who patented blacksmith and farm tools. Attending school infrequently, McCormick worked with his father. The elder McCormick's unfulfilled goal was to develop a reaping machine. Other inventors were striving to accomplish this too. Reapers needed devices to isolate grains on stalks, position them for cutting with a blade, and collect the pieces.

Cyrus McCormick introduced a horse-drawn reaper for wheat harvesting in July 1831 and received a patent three years later. A year prior to McCormick's legal claim, Obed Hussey, a Maine inventor, patented a reaper. Competition with Hussey and other inventors resulted in McCormick seeking patent rights, although he did not market his reaper immediately because he wanted to refine its design and was distracted by duties at the McCormick's iron works. Technical aspects of McCormick's reaper outlined in the patent not only modernized American agriculture but also were incorporated in all reapers afterwards.

Beginning in 1837 when an economic panic threatened his financial stability, McCormick assembled reapers at the family's blacksmith shop at Walnut Grove, Virginia, for local consumers. By 1843 he sold rights to manufacturers in New York and Ohio to make reapers. These producers, however, did not create machines of the quality upon which McCormick insisted. To increase production while maintaining standards, he established a factory in Chicago in 1847. When his first patent expired the next year, McCormick sued competitors that threatened his business. Some of his revisions to the reaper were protected by patents, but his original design entered the public domain and could be copied.

McCormick's reaper was the first of its type that was commercially viable. He promoted his reaper at exhibitions. His reapers also were sold by salesmen who convinced farmers to purchase McCormick's machinery by traveling through rural neighborhoods and sharing testimonials. They also demonstrated the benefits of other farm tools such as cultivators. McCormick encouraged payment plans to assist farmers to buy machinery. All customers received performance guarantees.

The company became the country's largest manufacturer of agricultural technology. McCormick began selling his reaper in Europe in 1851, displaying it at the Crystal Palace in London. During the American Civil War, the reaper had a significant impact in that it freed men from farm labor to fight in the war. Although the foundation structure of the reaper was retained, McCormick constantly sought design enhancements such as adding the twine binder. McCormick overcame such obstacles as the 1871 Chicago fire and hostile farm organizations protesting equipment prices. He was elected to the French Academy of Sciences in 1879. In the 1880s McCormick sold 50,000 reapers annually and hired 1,400 employees.

At the time of McCormick's death, six million harvesters had been manufactured by his company. Wealthy from profits, McCormick invested in railroad and mining stock. He donated funds to the Presbyterian church and schools. A Democrat, McCormick unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 1864. Merging with five farm implement producers in 1902, McCormick's business became the International Harvester Company. McCormick had married Nettie Fowler in 1858, and they had six children, some of whom directed the company and participated in reaper centennial celebrations.

ELIZABETH D. SCHAFER