Mccormick
Mccormick
C. M'h.^^ru^'^^
in 1847 and 1858. He employed a firm to manu-
facture the reapers in Cincinnati, Ohio; and in
1847 his brother Leander superintended their con-
struction. They established a manufactory in
Chicago, 111., in 1848, and in 1851 he took his per-
fected reaper to the
World's Fair in Lon-
don, where the Lon-
don Times acknowl-
edged it to be worth
more than the entire
cost of the exposition
to the farmers of
England. He exhi-
bited it in Paris in
1855 and at Hamburg
in 1863. The U.S.
patent office refused
to extend the patent
in 1859, and during
an argument be-
fore the commission
of patents, Reverdy Johnson declared that the
McCorraick reaper was worth $55,000,000 a year
to the United States, a statement never disputed.
Secretary Seward also declared that its introduc-
tion in the harvest fields of the United States
moved the line of civilization westward thirty
miles every year, and in 1897 it was estimated
that it saved in labor alone to the farmers of the
United States more than $100,000,000 yearly.
Mr. McCormick received numerous prizes, di-
plomas and medals at home, and in 1878 re-
ceived for the third time one of the grand prizes
from the Paris exposition, and' the rank of officer
of the Legion of Honor. He was also elected a
member of the French Academy of Science in
that year, •' as having done more for agriculture
than any other living man." He gave $100,- 000 to found . the Presbyte- rian seminary of the North- west in Chica- go, 111., in 1850, which became the McCormick Theological seminary, and his gifts to the institution during his lifetime aggre- gated $300,000. He gave to Washington and Lee university, Lexington, Va., $10,000 soon after the close of the war, to which he added $10,000 more during his lifetime, and his trustees under the provisions of his will added $20,000, making his gift, known as the Cyrus H. McCormick fund, amount to $40,000 in real-estate mortgages. Upon this foundation the trustees of the univer- sity established the McCormick professorship of
TMft riNST PMA<Tl<Ak lUAPBR
natural philosophy. He aided Union Theological
seminary in Virginia to the amount of $30,000,
and was also a generous benefactor of Hastings
college, Neb. He gave his support to the In-
terior, a religious paper in 1872, which became^
the organ of the Presbyterian church in the north-
western states. After the great fire of 1871 he
rebuilt his business on a much larger scale and
also built several business blocks in the city. He
was married in 1858 to Nettie, daughter of Melzar
Fowler, of Jefferson county, N.Y., and their son,
Cyrus Hall McCormick, Jr., succeeded as presi-
dent of the McCormick Harvesting Machine com-
pany on the death of his father. In the selection
of names for a place in the Hall of Fame for
Great Americans, New York university, in Oc-
tober, 1900, his name in Class D, inventors, re-
ceived twenty-six votes, Fulton, Howe, Morse and
Whitney only exceeding. He died in Chicago,
111., May 13, 1884.
McCormick, Henry Clay, representative, was born in Washington township, Lycoming county, Pa., June 30, 1844 ; son of Seth T. and Ellen (Miller) McCormick ; grandson of Seth McCormick, and of William and Sarah (Moore) Miller, and a descend- ant of Hugh McCormick who immigrated ta America about 1754 and resided in Cumberland county, and of James McCormick of Londonderry, Ireland, prominent in the famous siege in that city. He attended the common schools and Dick- inson seminary, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1866, and practised his profession in Wil- liamsport. Pa. He was a Republican represent- ative in the 50th and 51st congresses, 1887-91, and attorney-general of Pennsylvania, 1895-99. In 1899 he resumed the practice of law at Wil- liamsport.
McCORMICK, James Robinson, representa- tive, was born in Washington county, Mo.^ Aug. 1, 1824 ; third son of Joseph and Jane (Robinson) McCormick, and grandson of Andrew and Cath- erine (Adams) McCormick. Andrew McCormick came from the north of Ireland about 1776, served in the Revolutionary war, and married the daughter of Jolm Adams, who with his sister Catherine, fled from Germany to escape persecu- tion from the Papists. He was graduated at the Memphis Medical college in 1849, and settled in practice in Ironton, Mo. He married in 1852 Berchette C. Nance, who died in 1866, and sec- ondly Susan E. Garner. Emmet Curran McCor- mick, M.D., his son by his first marriage, and. James Edward McCormick, M.D., by his second marriage, survived him. He was a delegate to- the state constitutional convention of 1861 ; a mem- ber of the state senate, 1862, but resigned to serve in the Federal army, where he attained the rank of brigadier-general, and served to the close of the. war. In 1866 he was again elected a state sena
