Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 53

SEE INTERNATIONAL HARVESTERS
PHOTO CREDIT: WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY WHI8775. USED WITH PERMISSION.

ATTEND AN AG FAIR THIS FALL

The Chicago gamble proved wildly successful. Its
central location and growing infrastructure allowed
McCormick to tap into the hordes of new farmers
streaming into the Midwest.
Cyrus and Leander McCormick developed what
became known as the McCormick Harvesting
Machine Company. They constructed the business
using a series of innovations that have since become
part of the boilerplate for customer-driven
enterprises:
*They built a national network of trained agents
to both act as salesmen and service reapers.
* Instead of haggling, they offered a fixed price for
the reaper, which allowed farmers to build it into
their budget more easily.
* They gave a written guarantee on the reaper,
unheard-of for similar products at the time.
* They used publicity, buying large advertisements
in newspapers and setting up public trials of the
reaper that drew huge crowds.
* They relied on testimonials. The most commonly repeated: "My Reaper has more than paid for
itself in one harvest."
Horses eventually were replaced by steam engines,
which was replaced by gasoline power. The
McCormick corporation continued to grow.
Leander McCormick handled the business, which
included the manufacture and sales of the reaper.
Cyrus McCormick, on the other hand, spent
much of his later life in court, pressing suit against
competitors. "He was a very very litigious person,"
Gilliam says. "He'd sue anybody at the drop of a hat."
When his patent on the reaper expired, he
fought to renew it, eventually taking his case to
Congress, where he fought a pitched but ultimately
unsuccessful battle for influence against other companies and entrepreneurs.
To this day, McCormick's detractors argue that
credit for the reaper's invention should go to others,

You can still find International Harvester tractors at work in the field and on display
at agriculture and tractor fairs throughout the Blue Ridge region and throughout the
warm months of the year. Here are a few this fall in or near the mountain region:
September
Belwood Antique Tractor and Engine Festival. Belwood, North Carolina.
Mason-Dixon Historical Society 52nd Annual Steam & Gas Round-Up.
Westminister, Maryland.
West Virginia Oil and Gas Festival. Sistersville, West Virginia.
Maryland Steam Historical Society 59th Annual Steam & Gas Show. Upperco, Maryland.
www.marylandsteam.org
Wood County Flywheelers Assn. 25th Annual Volcano Days Antique Engine Show and
Festival. Volcano, West Virginia.
October
Annual McCormick Farm Mill Day at Walnut Grove. Shenandoah Valley AREC,
Raphine, VA. www.arec.vaes.vt.edu/ shenandoah-valley
Blue Ridge Folklife Festival. Ferrum, Virginia.
www.blueridgefolklifefestival.org
Apple Country Engine & Tractor Club WNC Fall Harvest Days. Arden, NC.
www.applecountry.org

whether allies such as his father Robert or Jo
Anderson, or to rivals such as Obed Hussey, who
unveiled a reaper in 1832 and fought with
McCormick up until Hussey sold the rights to
McCormick in 1858.
Koons, who's given dozens of talks on the
Shenandoah Valley's history of agriculture, says the
question almost always comes up: "It's been fascinating
to me the number of times I have given this talk and
I'll have people in the audience who say Cyrus
McCormick didn't really invent it, [but] that it was his
father, or it was his slave."
The reaper helped farming reach new heights in
the Midwest, and it helped turn the Civil War in
the North's favor. While the South starved,
Midwestern farmers aided by the reaper produced
so much grain they fed the Union and still had
plenty to export for profit.
Cyrus McCormick died in 1885, but his legacy
continued as the McCormick Harvesting Machine
Company passed to his son. In 1902, J. P. Morgan
merged it, Deering Harvester Company, and three
smaller companies to form International Harvester.
International Harvester became a major player in the
growing business of building tractors and implements, thanks largely to its innovative Farmall tractor. It exceeded both Ford and John Deere in sales
during the "golden era" of tractors in the '40s and
'50s before eventually selling its agricultural division
to Tenneco, Inc., and its J.I. Case subsidiary in the
mid-'80s. 
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 | 53

http://www.marylandsteam.org http://www.arec.vaes.vt.edu/shenandoah-valley http://www.blueridgefolklifefestival.org http://www.applecountry.org

Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014

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