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May 9, 2024 · Cyrus McCormick (born February 15, 1809, Rockbridge county, Virginia, U.S.—died May 13, 1884, Chicago, Illinois) was an American industrialist and inventor who is generally credited with the development (from 1831) of the mechanical reaper. McCormick was the eldest son of Robert McCormick—a farmer, blacksmith, and inventor.
- Mitchell Wilson
- Early Life
- Seeds of The Reaper
- Moves to Chicago
- Death and Tragedy
- Legacy
- Sources
McCormick was born in 1809 in Rockbridge County, Virginia, to Robert McCormick and Mary Ann Hall McCormick, who had migrated from Great Britain. He was the eldest of eight children in a family that was influential in the area. His father was a farmer but also a blacksmith and an inventor. Young McCormick had little formal education, spending his ti...
McCormick's invention would make him prosperous and famous, but he was a religious young man who believed his mission was to help feed the world. For farmers in the early 19th century, harvesting required a large number of laborers. He set out to reduce the number of hands needed for the harvest. He drew on the work of many other people in developi...
A visit to the Midwest convinced McCormick that the future of his reaper was in that sprawling, fertile land instead of the rocky soil in the East. Following more improvements, he and his brother Leander opened a factory in Chicago in 1847 and sold 800 machines that first year. The new venture, the McCormick Harvesting Machine Co., eventually becam...
McCormick died in 1884, and his eldest son, Cyrus Jr., took over as president at only 25 years old. Two years later, though, the business was marked by tragedy. A workers' strike in 1886 that involved the McCormick Harvesting Machine Co. eventually turned into one of the worst labor-related riots in American history. By the time the Haymarket Riote...
Cyrus McCormick is remembered as “The Father of Modern Agriculture" because he made it possible for farmers to expand their small, personal farms into much larger operations. His reaping machine brought an end to hours of tedious fieldwork and encouraged the invention and manufacture of other labor-saving farm implements and machinery. McCormick an...
"Cyrus McCormick." InventionWare.com."McCormick, Cyrus Hall." American National Biography."Cyrus McCormick: American Industrialist and Inventor." Encyclopedia Brittanica."Nancy Fowler McCormick." Revolvy.- Mary Bellis
Cyrus Hall McCormick was born on February 15, 1809, in Raphine, Virginia. He was the eldest of eight children born to inventor Robert McCormick Jr. (1780–1846) and Mary Ann "Polly" Hall (1780–1853). As Cyrus's father saw the potential of the design for a mechanical reaper, he applied for a patent to claim it as his own invention.
Jun 21, 2019 · Learn how Cyrus McCormick, a blacksmith in Virginia, developed the first practical mechanical reaper to harvest grain in 1831. Discover how his invention revolutionized farming in the United States and around the world.
Born Feb. 15, 1809 - Died May 13, 1884. Cyrus Hall McCormick invented the mechanical reaper, which combined all the steps that earlier harvesting machines had performed separately. His time-saving invention allowed farmers to more than double their crop size and spurred innovations in farm machinery. Born in Rockbridge County, Virginia ...
Feb 28, 2024 · Cyrus McCormick, an American inventor, revolutionized agriculture in the 19th century by inventing the mechanical reaper, a device that dramatically increased the efficiency of harvesting crops. This innovation marked a significant turning point in agricultural practices, paving the way for the modernization of farming. By mechanizing the labor-intensive process of cutting down wheat ...
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Beginning in 1841, the mechanical reaper finally caught on, so much so that McCormick was later forced to move production out of his family farm's blacksmith shop and into a factory in Chicago (1847). McCormick's machine meant that the prairies of the Midwest could now become the "breadbasket" of the nation.
