Cyrus Hall McCormick: His Life and Work

Name: Cyrus Hall McCormick: His Life and Work
Author: Casson, Herbert Newton

Casson, Herbert Newton

Harvesting machinery; McCormick, Cyrus Hall, 1809-1884

As the master builder of the modern business of manufacturing farm
machinery, McCormick set in motion so many forces of human betterment
that the fruitfulness of his life can never be fully told. There are
to-day in all countries more than one hundred thousand patents for
inventions that were meant to lighten the labor of the farmer. And the
cereal crop of the world has risen with incredible gains, until this
year its value will be not far from ten thousand millions of
dollars,--very nearly the equivalent of all the gold in coin and jewelry
and bullion.

So, if there is not power and fascination in this story, it will be the
fault of the story-teller, and not of his theme. The story itself is
destined to be told and retold. It cannot be forgotten, because it is
one of those rare life-histories that blazon out the peculiar genius of
the nation under the stress of a new experience. As it is passed on from
generation to generation, it may finally be polished into an Epic of the
Wheat,--the tale of Man's long wrestle with Famine, and how he won at
last by creating a world-wide system for the production and distribution
of the Bread.

    H. N. C.

CHICAGO, _September 1, 1909_.

CONTENTS

    CHAPTER                                      PAGE
       I. THE WORLD'S NEED OF A REAPER              1

      II. THE McCORMICK HOME                       13

     III. THE INVENTION OF THE REAPER              26

      IV. SIXTEEN YEARS OF PIONEERING              48

       V. THE BUILDING OF THE REAPER BUSINESS      68

      VI. THE STRUGGLE TO PROTECT PATENTS          91

     VII. THE EVOLUTION OF THE REAPER             105

    VIII. THE CONQUEST OF EUROPE                  123

      IX. McCORMICK AS A MANUFACTURER             139

       X. CYRUS H. McCORMICK AS A MAN             154

      XI. THE REAPER AND THE NATION               188

     XII. THE REAPER AND THE WORLD                203

    XIII. GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD        234

          INDEX                                   249

ILLUSTRATIONS

                                                                    PAGE
    PORTRAIT OF CYRUS HALL McCORMICK                      _Frontispiece_

    OLD BLACKSMITH SHOP ON WALNUT GROVE FARM, VIRGINIA                14

    THE OLD McCORMICK HOMESTEAD, WALNUT GROVE FARM, ROCKBRIDGE
        COUNTY, VIRGINIA                                              18

    PORTRAIT OF ROBERT McCORMICK                                      22

    PORTRAIT OF MRS. MARY ANN HALL McCORMICK                          24

    NEW PROVIDENCE CHURCH, ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA                28

    FACSIMILES FROM MANUSCRIPT BY MR. McCORMICK, GIVING HIS OWN
        ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN OF THE REAPER                           30

    FIRST PRACTICAL REAPING MACHINE                                   34

    THE FIELD ON WHICH THE FIRST McCORMICK REAPER WAS TRIED,
        WALNUT GROVE FARM, VIRGINIA                                   38

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Cyrus Hall McCormick: His Life and Work

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