Robert McCormick (Virginia)

Robert McCormick
Born	June 8, 1780(1780 -06-08) Rockbridge County, Virginia
Died	July 4, 1846 (1846 -07-04) (aged 66)
Children	Cyrus McCormick William Sanderson McCormick Leander J. McCormick (+others)

Robert McCormick (1780–1846) was an American inventor, who invented numerous devices including a version of the reaper which his eldest son Cyrus McCormick patented in 1834. Although he lived his life in rural Virginia, he was patriarch of the McCormick family that became influential in large cities such as Chicago and New York.

Life

McCormick was born June 8, 1780 on the family estate of Walnut Grove in Rockbridge County, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley on the western side of the Blue Ridge Mountains. McCormick's paternal grandfather, Thomas McCormick (1702–1762), migrated to Pennsylvania from Ulster in 1735 and married Elizabeth Carruth in 1728. His father, also named Robert McCormick, was born around 1738, was a private in the American Revolutionary War, married his mother Martha Sanderson (1747–1804) in 1770, and died in 1818. He married Mary Ann Hall (1780–1853), known as "Polly", in 1808 and was granted ownership of Walnut Grove in 1810. Robert and Mary Ann raised their eight children on the farm who grew up helping in the shop and the mill. Robert frequently busied himself with small gadgets and inventions around the farm.

By 1809, McCormick 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 "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. By 1831, he had completed a reaper. He was encouraged by Polly to give it to their assertive and business-minded son Cyrus, who was able to improve and patent it in 1834. He died on July 4, 1846. He and his wife were buried in the cemetery of the Old Providence Stone Church just north of the estate.

Their children were:

1. Cyrus Hall McCormick (1809–1884) moved to Chicago and established the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company.
2. Robert Hall McCormick was born May 24, 1810 and died June 29, 1826.
3. Susan J. McCormick was born August 1, 1813 and died June 27, 1826.
4. William Sanderson McCormick (1815–1865) joined Cyrus in Chicago.
5. Mary Caroline McCormick was born April 18, 1817, married Reverend James Shields on May 11, 1847, and died on March 18, 1888.
6. Leander James McCormick (1819–1900) also joined Cyrus in Chicago.
7. John Prestly McCormick was born November 8, 1820 and died September 4, 1849.
8. Amanda Joanna McCormick was born September 17, 1822, married Hugh Adams on May 8, 1845, and died October 12, 1891.

In 2002, Robert and his three sons had a variety of wheat named after them, for "inventing, perfecting, manufacturing, and marketing of the mechanical grain reaper [which] ushered in the era of modern agriculture and wrought one of the greatest advancements in agricultural history." McCormick is a soft red winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) developed and released in May 2002 by the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station.

Family tree

Robert McCormick (1780–1846)

Mary Ann Hall (1780–1853)

Nancy Fowler McCormick (1835–1923)

Cyrus McCormick (1809–1884)

Mary Ann Grigsby (1828–1878)

William Sanderson McCormick (1815–1865)

Leander J. McCormick (1819–1900)

Cyrus McCormick Jr. (1859–1936)

Harold Fowler McCormick (1872–1941)

Joseph Medill (1823–1899)

L. Hamilton McCormick (1859–1934)

Robert Sanderson McCormick (1849–1919)

Kate Medill (1853–1932)

William Grigsby McCormick (1851–1941)

Ruby McCormick (1860–1882)

Joseph Medill McCormick (1877–1925)

Ruth Hanna McCormick (1880–1944)

Robert R. McCormick (1880–1955)

Chauncey Brooks McCormick (1884–1954)

William McCormick Blair (1884–1982)

Brooks McCormick (1917–2006)

William McCormick Blair, Jr. (born 1916)