The McCormick Family of Chicago, IL and Virginia rose to prominence in their agricultural, real estate, and investment ventures. Their rise to wealth and ties to Virginia were instrumental in the donation of the observatory to the University of Virginia.

This is a very brief overview of the family and their relationship to UVA. More detailed genealogical information can be found in various sources compiled by the McCormick family and others.

Who invented the mechanical reaper is still a point of contention between members of the McCormick family descending from the family of Robert Hall McCormick of Walnut Grove in Rockbridge, Virginia. Perhaps the debate lies more between members of the family and the popular history that has come down through the years. Though it has become common knowledge that Cyrus H. McCormick invented and manufactured the reaper, it may have actually been his father's genius as a simple inventor that led to the family's riches and renown.

Robert Hall McCormick (seen left) was born on the family estate of Walnut Grove on June 8, 1780. He married Mary Ann McCormick February 11, 1808 and was granted ownership of Walnut Grove in 1810. Robert and Polly, as Mary Ann was known to friends and family, raised their eight children on the farm there and the kids grew up helping in the shop and the mill. Robert frequently busied himself with small gadgets and inventions around the farm. By 1809, Robert had constructed a partially completed reaper.  He eventually decided to formalize some of his work when he applied for a patent in 1830 for a device he called a "hemp-break", a device for breaking hemp and flax. He also produced a threshing machine, a clover sheller of stone, a blacksmith's bellows and a hill-side plow.

In 1831 Robert H. McCormick produced what became known as the reaper. According to research compiled by Norbert Lyons, Polly encouraged Robert to give Cyrus his inventions as a gift and allow Cyrus, the assertive and most business minded member of the family, to make the most of it. According to multiple account from members of the family and close friends, Robert had already invented the reaper after years of working on it, ran initial test trials in 1831 and gave it to his son Cyrus as a gift which Cyrus patented in 1834.

In order for Cyrus to patent the reaper himself as inventor, he made improvements to his father's original design. The debate lies in the fact that shortly after his father's death July 4, 1846, Cyrus began advertising himself as the inventor of the reaper. With the patent registered in his name, few outside the family had any reason to contest his claims. Cyrus had done most of the advertising and publicizing of the reaper and he made the first steps to set up a manufacturing effort in Chicago. The first McCormick factory opened in 1847.

A striking piece of evidence against Cyrus McCormick's claims came from the time frame in which he supposedly invented the reaper. His father spent twenty years developing the reaper which Cyrus claims failed in a test at the beginning of the summer in 1831. The successful trial which followed in July where Cyrus claimed to demonstrate his own reaper occurred only six weeks later. Cyrus, lacking his father's reputation as an inventor, managed to construct a new machine of his own invention in six short weeks, while it took his inventive father twenty years and he had yet to succeed. It seemed like a fantastic claim, but few people outside the family realized the implausibility of Cyrus's claims.

The first person to contest him was his brother, Leander James McCormick. As far as most of the family was concerned, the reaper was a family affair. Leander had also allowed his brother to patent most of the improvements that he had developed for his father's reaper. When his father gave him the reaper, Cyrus promised that any wealth or other benefits that came to him because of the reaper would be shared with all of his brothers and sisters. Brothers Leander and William worked for Cyrus on a salary basis, but Leander decided that they deserved a bigger portion of the business, so in 1859 Leander and William each received one-fourth of the business and it became Cyrus H. McCormick and Brothers.

Over the next twenty years, the business boomed and Leander's son Robert became very involved in the business. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed the entire factory and the McCormicks' homes, but the business quickly recovered.  After several short term contracts splitting the business between the McCormick brothers, in 1879 they formed the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company (a predecessor of International Harvester Inc. and the Case Corporation), with Cyrus as president, Leander as vice-president and superintendent of manufacturing, with Robert serving as Leander's assistant. Despite the contract decisions, the split between the two brothers was severe and Leander essentially retired from active participation in the business in 1879.

In the over thirty years of business since their father's death, Cyrus's patent on the reaper had expired, despite legal efforts to extend it, but his claim as its inventor had stood firm. Leander's objections about his brother's claims had helped to precipitate the change in the company's name in 1879. In 1878, Cyrus hired William Hanna to return to Virginia and collect information to contend that Cyrus had invented the reaper and performed most of the trials known to Virginia in the 1830's. Unfortunately for Cyrus, large portions of Hanna's work attribute more to his father than they do to him, but there were a couple accounts giving Cyrus considerable credit for the success of the reaper. In 1885, the year after Cyrus's death, Leander and Cyrus McCormick Jr. collected sworn statements and accounts from family members, friends and old neighbors, all claiming that Robert H. McCormick had given the already invented reaper to his son Cyrus.  In 1910, Robert Hall McCormick (Leander's son) and James Hall Shields (Leander's nephew) republished Leander's collected statements along with additional testimonies and a brief biography of their grandfather, Robert H. McCormick

In the end, the publicity behind the name Cyrus H. McCormick was more than Leander's efforts could overcome, but the documentation for a different story was quite complete. Beyond the collection of statements that Leander produced and letters written by neighbors of the time, the only account of Robert McCormick as inventor of the reaper is found in Norbert Lyons' The McCormick Reaper Legend, published in 1955 in cooperation with the McCormick family.

Cyrus McCormick

The eldest son of Robert and Maryann, Cyrus McCormick is credited as the inventor of the mechanical reaper. His father worked on creating a reaper machine for twenty years before giving up. Cyrus reconfigured his father's work and produced a working reaper in 1831. He patented the machine in 1834 and sold units on his family's plantation in Raphine, VA. However, sales were low.

In 1847, he moved to Chicago and sales skyrocketed. This was due in part to farmers purchasing the machine on credit and his dedication to advertising and demonstrations. He promised his customers his machine could process "15 acres a day." By 1860, he was selling over 4,000 reapers per year.

In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed his factory. He quickly rebuilt and continued to profit. 

After his death, the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company merged with the International Harvester Company.

William McCormick

A producer of agricultural equipment like his father and brothers, William McCormick made most of his fortune in Chicago. He started by assisting his brother Cyrus in his business in 1850. He mainly handled day-to-day operations while Cyrus was away. Later in life, he invested in real estate and moved to Europe. 

Leander McCormick

Leander James McCormick was born to Robert Hall and Maryann (Polly) Grigsby McCormick on February 8, 1819 in Rockbridge County, Virginia.  He was raised at the family homestead Walnut Grove, located near Steele's Tavern.  Robert Hall McCormick invented the mechanical reaper, for which his son Cyrus later received the patent. Leander eventually developed multiple improvements to the reaper and received patents for two of them, with the remainder being patented by his brother Cyrus.  At age 26, Leander married Henrietta Hamilton on her parents' homestead, Locust Hill, in Rockbridge County on October 22, 1845. The following year Robert McCormick died and his three living sons--Leander, Cyrus and William--established themselves in a business run by Cyrus to manufacture the reaper and sell it across the mid-west. This led the McCormick family, including Leander's wife and infant son, Robert Hall, to move to Chicago in November 1848. There they created what eventually became the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company with Leander taking over management of the manufacturing department, which he controlled for the next 30 years. By 1870, the McCormicks were one of the wealthiest families in the U.S.

In 1871, the great fire in Chicago destroyed much of the Reaper Works and other buildings, as well as the Leander McCormick family residence at the corner of Rush and Ohio streets, including pictures and ancestral souvenirs. Leander, his wife and children fled their burning home in early morning hours, moving to the west side of the city for the next several years. The McCormicks, under Leander's direction, quickly rebuilt and recovered. By 1879, the business had fully recovered and was merged into a corporation. Leander stayed active in the management of the business until 1889 when he retired and sold his shares to his nephew, Cyrus H. McCormick.

In his later years, Leander McCormick remained in Chicago and began to research the McCormick genealogy. He eventually produced and published works on the McCormick family.

The Cyrus McCormick Farm and Workshop

(NHLs) Virginia's National Historic Landmarks, Rockbridge (County)

The Cyrus McCormick Farm and Workshop property is now owned by Virginia Tech, which operates the farm as the Shenandoah Valley Research Station. The log workshop where the first reaper was built and the adjacent log mill are exhibited to the public.

Learn more here.