Cyrus Hall McCormick, Sr. (1809–1884) was an American inventor and founder of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, which became part of International Harvester Company in 1902. From the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, he and many members of his family became prominent residents of Chicago.
McCormick proved an emancipator of a different sort. The reaper, invented by his father, liberated hundreds of thousands of Americans from agrarian drudgery. The process of industrialization, which turned the nation’s economy into the world’s most productive force, could not have been complete without the mechanization of farming.
Although McCormick is credited as the “inventor” of the mechanical reaper, he based his work on that of many others, including Scottish and American men, more than two decades of work by his father, and the aid of Jo Anderson, a slave held by his family. Cyrus McCormick filed patents for the invention, and his achievements were chiefly in the development of a company, marketing and sales force to market his products.
Born in 1809, McCormick proved an emancipator of a different sort. The reaper, invented by his father, liberated hundreds of thousands of Americans from agrarian drudgery. The process of industrialization, which turned the nation’s economy into the world’s most productive force, could not have been complete without the mechanization of farming.