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46-414: The Cyrus McCormick Farm and Workshop is on the family farm of inventor Cyrus Hall McCormick known as Walnut Grove . Cyrus Hall McCormick improved and patented the mechanical reaper , which eventually led to the creation of the combine harvester . The farm is near Steele's Tavern and Raphine , close to the northern border of Rockbridge and Augusta counties in the U.S. state of Virginia , and

92-438: A blacksmith/metal smelting business. The panic of 1837 almost caused the family to go into bankruptcy when a partner pulled out. In 1839 McCormick started doing more public demonstrations of the reaper, but local farmers still thought the machine was unreliable. He did sell one in 1840, but none for 1841. Using the endorsement of his father's first customer for a machine built by McPhetrich, Cyrus continually attempted to improve

138-594: A devout Presbyterian , as well as advocate of Christian unity. He also valued and demonstrated in his life the Calvinist traits of self-denial, sobriety, thriftiness, efficiency, and morality. He believed feeding the world, made easier by the reaper, was part of his religious mission in life. A lifelong Democrat, before the American Civil War , McCormick had published editorials in his newspapers, The Chicago Times and Herald , calling for reconciliation between

184-450: A factory in Brockport, New York , where he contracted to have the machines mass-produced. He also licensed several others across the country to build the reaper, but their quality often proved poor, which hurt the product's reputation. In 1847, after their father's death, Cyrus and his brother Leander (1819–1900) moved to Chicago, where they established a factory to build their machines. At

230-464: A family to toil all day to harvest crops. Instead, a single farmer could operate the machine and the reaper would do the rest of the work. McCormick's work in mechanical reapers and harvesting techniques enabled family farmers to cultivate plots of land much larger than thought possible for single farmers. In 1902, the company was merged with competitor Deering Harvester Company and (smaller ones) to form International Harvester . The farm remained in

276-674: A field of green wheat while the Hussey machine failed, he won a gold medal and was admitted to the Legion of Honor. His celebration was short-lived after he learned that he had lost a court challenge to Hussey's patent. Another McCormick Company competitor was John Henry Manny of Rockford, Illinois . After the Manny Reaper beat the McCormick version at the Paris Exposition of 1855, McCormick filed

322-455: A greater role in the family's business as well as philanthropic affairs. In 1879, brother Leander changed the company's name from "Cyrus H. McCormick and Brothers" to "McCormick Harvesting Machine Company". He wanted to acknowledge the contributions of others in the family to the reaper "invention" and company, especially their father. On January 26, 1858, 49-year-old Cyrus McCormick married his secretary Nancy "Nettie" Fowler (1835–1923). She

368-471: A lawsuit against Manny for patent infringement. McCormick demanded that Manny stop producing reapers, and pay McCormick $ 400,000. The trial, originally scheduled for Chicago in September 1855, featured prominent lawyers on both sides. McCormick hired the former U.S. Attorney General Reverdy Johnson and New York patent attorney Edward Nicholl Dickerson. Manny hired George Harding and Edwin M. Stanton . Because

414-779: A peace plan to include a Board of Arbitration. After the war, McCormick helped found the Mississippi Valley Society, with a mission to promote New Orleans and Mississippi ports for European trade. He also supported efforts to annex the Dominican Republic as a territory of the United States. Beginning in 1872, McCormick served a four-year term on the Illinois Democratic Party's Central Committee. McCormick later proposed an international mechanism to control food production and distribution. McCormick also became

460-567: A religious newspaper, the Interior , which he renamed the Continent and became a leading Presbyterian periodical. For the last 20 years of his life, McCormick was a benefactor and member of the board of trustees at Washington and Lee University in his native Virginia. His brother Leander also donated funds to build an observatory on Mount Jefferson , operated by the University of Virginia and named

506-486: Is currently a museum run by the Virginia Agricultural Experimental Station of Virginia Tech . The museum has free admission and covers 5 acres (2.0 ha) of the initial 532-acre (215.3 ha) farm. The farm originally covered 532 acres, with buildings centered on a total of 5 acres. On the farm eight of the nine original buildings are still standing. Many have been renovated since the farm

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552-844: The Historic American Buildings Survey amassed information about culturally and architecturally significant properties in a program known as the Historic Sites Survey. Most of the designations made under this legislation became National Historic Sites , although the first designation, made December 20, 1935, was for a National Memorial , the Gateway Arch National Park (then known as the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial) in St. Louis , Missouri. The first National Historic Site designation

598-785: The McCormick Observatory . During the last four years of his life, McCormick became an invalid, after a stroke paralyzed his legs; he was unable to walk during his final two years. He died at home in Chicago on May 13, 1884. He was buried in Graceland Cemetery . He was survived by his widow, Nettie, who continued his Christian and charitable activities, within the United States and abroad, between 1890 and her death in 1923, donating $ 8 million (over $ 160 million in modern equivalents) to hospitals, disaster and relief agencies, churches, youth activities and educational institutions, and becoming

644-547: The McCormick family continued involvement with the corporation until Brooks McCormick , who died in 2006. Numerous prizes and medals were awarded McCormick for his reaper, which reduced human labor on farms while increasing productivity. Thus, it contributed to the industrialization of agriculture as well as migration of labor to cities in numerous wheat-growing countries (36 by McCormick's death). The French government named McCormick an Officier de la Légion d'honneur in 1851, and he

690-495: The U.S. Patent Office noted that a similar machine had already been patented by Obed Hussey a few months earlier. McCormick claimed he had invented his machine in 1831, but the renewal was denied. William Manning of Plainfield, New Jersey had also received a patent for his reaper in May 1831, but at the time, Manning was evidently not defending his patent. McCormick's brother William (1815–1865) moved to Chicago in 1849, and joined

736-606: The United States Congress . In 1935, Congress passed the Historic Sites Act , which authorized the interior secretary authority to formally record and organize historic properties, and to designate properties as having "national historical significance", and gave the National Park Service authority to administer historically significant federally owned properties. Over the following decades, surveys such as

782-447: The 1830s. His efforts built on more than two decades of work by his father Robert McCormick Jr. , with the aid of Jo Anderson, an enslaved African-American man held by the family. He also successfully developed a modern company , with manufacturing , marketing , and a sales force to market his products. Cyrus Hall McCormick was born on February 15, 1809, in Raphine, Virginia . He was

828-819: The 50 states. New York City alone has more NHLs than all but five states: Virginia , California , Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New York, the latter of which has the most NHLs of all 50 states. There are 74 NHLs in the District of Columbia . Some NHLs are in U.S. commonwealths and territories, associated states, and foreign states . There are 15 in Puerto Rico , the Virgin Islands , and other U.S. commonwealths and territories ; five in U.S.-associated states such as Micronesia ; and one in Morocco . Over 100 ships or shipwrecks have been designated as NHLs. Approximately half of

874-584: The McCormick family up to 1954. It was donated to Virginia Polytechnic Institute as an agricultural center and Farm Memorial. The schoolroom is stocked with vintage textbooks, toys, and other school supplies dating from the 1830s. The property was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1964. The farm is less than 5 miles (8 km) from the interchange of Raphine Road and Interstate 81 , halfway between Lexington, Virginia and Staunton, Virginia . Cyrus Hall McCormick He was, however, one of several designing engineers who produced successful models in

920-634: The National Historic Landmarks are privately owned . The National Historic Landmarks Program relies on suggestions for new designations from the National Park Service, which also assists in maintaining the landmarks . A friends' group of owners and managers, the National Historic Landmark Stewards Association, works to preserve, protect and promote National Historic Landmarks. If not already listed on

966-608: The National Register, or as an NHL) often triggered local preservation laws, legislation in 1980 amended the listing procedures to require owner agreement to the designations. On October 9, 1960, 92 places, properties, or districts were announced as eligible to be designated NHLs by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton . Agreements of owners or responsible parties were subsequently obtained, but all 92 have since been considered listed on that 1960 date. The origins of

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1012-485: The United States secretary of the interior because they are: More than 2,500 NHLs have been designated. Most, but not all, are in the United States. There are NHLs in all 50 states and the national capital of Washington, D.C. Three states ( Pennsylvania , Massachusetts , and New York ) account for nearly 25 percent of the nation's NHLs. Three cities within these states, Philadelphia , Boston , and New York City , respectively, all separately have more NHLs than 40 of

1058-431: The company Cyrus H. McCormick and Brothers. By the end of the 19th century, McCormick's company had built a primitive combine, which could harvest grain even faster and cheaper than older reapers. Prior to the invention of the reaper, farmers could harvest only 0.5-acre (0.20 ha) a day; using this machine, farmers could harvest 12 acres (4.9 ha) a day, with less manual labor. The mechanical reaper did not require

1104-406: The company to take care of financial affairs. The McCormick reaper sold well, partially as a result of savvy and innovative business practices. Their products came onto the market just as the development of railroads offered wide distribution to distant markets. McCormick developed marketing and sales techniques, developing a wide network of salesmen trained to demonstrate operation of the machines in

1150-561: The country's National Register of Historic Places are recognized as National Historic Landmarks. A National Historic Landmark District sometimes called a National Historical Park may include more than one National Historic Landmark and contributing properties that are buildings, structures, sites or objects, and it may include non-contributing properties. Contributing properties may or may not also be separately listed or registered. Prior to 1935, efforts to preserve cultural heritage of national importance were made by piecemeal efforts of

1196-473: The design. He finally sold seven reapers in 1842, 29 in 1843, and 50 in 1844. They were all built manually in the family farm shop. He received a second patent for reaper improvements on January 31, 1845. As word spread about the reaper, McCormick noticed orders arriving from farther west, where farms tended to be larger and the land flatter. While he was in Washington, D.C. to get his 1845 patent, he heard about

1242-434: The drawing board to revise and improve his basic design. He created new models almost every decade. After his father's death, Cyrus McCormick moved his base of operations from Rockbridge County, Virginia to Chicago, Illinois in 1847 because of the vast acreage of fertile prairie soil in the midwestern United States . In 1859, Cyrus was joined by his brothers Leander James McCormick and William Sanderson McCormick to form

1288-443: 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. He worked for 28 years on a horse-drawn mechanical reaper to harvest grain, but was never able to produce a reliable version. Building on his father's years of development, Cyrus took up

1334-404: The farm, is centrally located and was constructed of brick in 1822. Behind the brick manor house was the smoke house, where meat was dried and smoked to preserve it through the winter. Refrigeration was not introduced until the late 19th century. The McCormick family also maintained a school on their property for neighboring children. The McCormick Farm at Walnut Grove is known as the birthplace of

1380-659: The field, as well as to get parts quickly and repair machines in the field if necessary during crucial times in the farm year. A company advertisement was a take-off of the Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way mural by Emanuel Leutze ; it added to the title: "with McCormick Reapers in the Van." In 1851, McCormick traveled to London to display a reaper at the Crystal Palace Exhibition . After his machine successfully harvested

1426-578: The first National Historic Landmark was a simple cedar post, placed by the Lewis and Clark Expedition on their 1804 outbound trek to the Pacific in commemoration of the death from natural causes of Sergeant Charles Floyd . The cedar plank was later replaced by a 100 ft (30 m) marble obelisk. The Sergeant Floyd Monument in Sioux City, Iowa , was officially designated on June 30, 1960. NHLs are designated by

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1472-563: The first chairman of the Moody Bible Institute . McCormick and later his widow, Nettie Day McCormick, also donated significant sums to Tusculum College , a Presbyterian institution in Tennessee, as well as to establish churches and Sunday Schools in the South after the war, even though that region was slow to adopt his farm machinery and improved practices. Also, in 1872, McCormick purchased

1518-662: The leading benefactress of Presbyterian Church activities in that era. Official leadership of the company passed to his eldest son Cyrus Hall McCormick Jr. , but his grandson Cyrus McCormick III ran the company. Four years later, the company's labor practices (paying workers $ 9 per week) led to the Haymarket riots . Ultimately Cyrus Jr. teamed with J.P. Morgan to create the International Harvester Corporation in 1902. After Cyrus Hall McCormick Jr., Harold Fowler McCormick ran International Harvester. Various members of

1564-488: The mechanical reaper , the predecessor to the combine harvester . Cyrus McCormick reportedly designed, built, and tested his reaper all within six weeks at Walnut Grove, although the design may have been an improvement upon the similar device developed by his father and his brother Leander over a period of 20 years. Shortly after constructing his first reaper, Cyrus harvested his first crop with it later that year. After building his first reaper, Cyrus repeatedly went back to

1610-570: The national sections. His views, however, were unpopular in his adopted home town. Although his invention helped feed Union troops, McCormick believed the Confederacy would not be defeated and he and his wife traveled extensively in Europe during the war. McCormick unsuccessfully ran for Congress as a Democrat for Illinois's 2nd congressional district with a peace-now platform in 1864, and was soundly defeated by Republican John Wentworth . He also proposed

1656-406: The nearby village of Steeles Tavern, Virginia in 1831. He claimed to have developed a final version of the reaper in 18 months. The young McCormick was granted a patent on the reaper on June 21, 1834, two years after having been granted a patent for a self-sharpening plow. None was sold, however, because the machine could not handle varying conditions. The McCormick family also worked together in

1702-719: The principal benefactor and a trustee of what had been the Theological Seminary of the Northwest, which moved to Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood in 1859, a year in which he endowed four professorships. The institution was renamed McCormick Theological Seminary in 1886, after his death, although it moved to Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood in 1975 and began sharing facilities with the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago . In 1869, McCormick donated $ 10,000 to help Dwight L. Moody start YMCA , and his son Cyrus Jr. would become

1748-451: The project aided by Jo Anderson, an enslaved African-American man held on the McCormick plantation. A few machines based on a design of Patrick Bell of Scotland (which had not been patented) were available in the United States in these years. The Bell machine was pushed by horses. The McCormick design was pulled by horses and cut the grain to one side of the team. Cyrus McCormick held one of his first demonstrations of mechanical reaping at

1794-509: The time, other cities in the midwestern United States , such as Cleveland, Ohio ; St. Louis, Missouri ; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin were more established and prosperous. Chicago had no paved streets at the time, but the city had the best water transportation from the east over the Great Lakes for his raw materials, as well as railroad connections to the farther west where his customers would be. When McCormick tried to renew his patent in 1848,

1840-690: The trial was set to take place in Illinois, Harding hired the local Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln . The trial was moved to Cincinnati, Ohio , however. Manny won the case, with an opinion by the State Supreme Court Judge John McLean . Lincoln did not contribute to the defense. Stanton had objected to Lincoln's presence, referring to him as "that damned long armed ape." After being elected president five years later, Lincoln selected Stanton to be his Secretary of War where he became one of Lincoln's key advisers. In 1856, McCormick's factory

1886-687: Was an orphan from New York who had graduated from the Troy Female Seminary and moved to Chicago. They had met two years earlier and shared views about business, religion and Democratic party politics. They had seven children: Mary and Stanley both had schizophrenia . Stanley McCormick's life inspired the 1998 novel Riven Rock by T. Coraghessan Boyle . Cyrus McCormick was an uncle of Robert Sanderson McCormick (son-in-law of Joseph Medill ); granduncle of Joseph Medill McCormick and Robert Rutherford McCormick ; and great-granduncle of William McCormick Blair Jr. McCormick had always been

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1932-516: Was created in 1822 by Robert McCormick (1780–1846). The eight existing buildings include a grist mill, blacksmith shop, slave quarters, carriage house, manor house, smoke house, schoolroom, and housekeeper's quarters. The original outbuildings of the farm included an ice house, which was demolished in the 1960s. Each of these buildings played a specific role in the daily routine of the Cyrus McCormick farm. The grist mill, built prior to 1800,

1978-717: Was elected a corresponding member of the French Academy of Sciences in 1878 "as having done more for the cause of agriculture than any other living man." The Wisconsin Historical Society holds Cyrus McCormick's papers. National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark ( NHL ) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500, or roughly three percent, of over 90,000 places listed on

2024-716: Was made for the Salem Maritime National Historic Site on March 17, 1938. In 1960, the National Park Service took on the administration of the survey data gathered under this legislation, and the National Historic Landmark program began to take more formal shape. When the National Register of Historic Places was established in 1966, the National Historic Landmark program was encompassed within it, and rules and procedures for inclusion and designation were formalized. Because listings (either on

2070-645: Was producing more than 4000 reapers each year, mostly sold in the Midwest and West. In 1861, however, Hussey's patent was extended but McCormick's was not. McCormick's outspoken opposition to Lincoln and the anti-slavery Republican party may not have helped his cause. McCormick decided to seek help from the U.S. Congress to protect his patent. In 1871, the factory burned down in the Great Chicago Fire , but McCormick heeded his wife's advice to rebuild, and it reopened in 1873 even as McCormick's health declined, so she took

2116-411: Was used to grind wheat for flour. The blacksmith shop was used to build and repair all the farm implements needed by the McCormick family and was where Cyrus McCormick engineered his reaper. Slave quarters served as the homes for the forty-one slaves that the McCormick family owned. The carriage house was used as shelter for the carriages and other wheeled vehicles. The manor house, the first building on

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