24 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



Bhe Passing of a M^i^ 



Kever since the first issue of Hardwood Eecord after I became 

 its editor in January, 1905, have I written of the passing of any 

 man ivith such a sense of personal loss as today, when I must 

 record the death of WilUam M. McCormick of Philadolphia, which 

 occurred at Atlantic City on Sunday, May 22, of heart failure. 



On Monday, May 23, the body was brought to the Hotel Bel- 

 gravia, Philadelphia, where from two to four it was visited by the 

 largest concourse of friends that has ever paid respects to a private 

 citizen in that city. The funeral was held from the residence of his 

 sister-in-law, Mrs. H. C. McCormick, at WiUiamsport, Tuesday after- 

 noon at four o'clock, and was attended by business associates and 

 personal friends from all over the United States. Mr. McCormick 

 leaves a widow, three brothers. Dr. H. G., Seth T. and Frank McCor- 

 mick of WiUiamsport, and a sister, Mrs. Thos. Painter of Pittsburg. 



WiUiam M. McCormick was born on a farm in Lycoming County, 

 near WilUamsport, Pa., in 1846. He was of Scotch-Irish descent. 

 His father, S. T. McCormick, 



was a farmer and pioneer 

 lumberman in a small way, 

 who eventually took up the 

 practice of law. 



As the family was in very 

 moderate circumstances, the 

 boy "William had but limited 

 school training. Consequent- 

 ly his was the education of 

 the great college of experi- 

 ence, from which, tutored by 

 his Irish perception, which 

 is the keenest and quickest 

 in the world, and his Scotch 

 reasoning power, which is 

 the most logical given to 

 man, Mr. McCormick was 

 graduated with high honors 

 in 1886, when he started in 

 business for himself in Phil- 

 adelphia as a buyer and 

 seller of hemlock lumber. Up 

 to this time he had been 

 giving loyal service to others, 

 working in mills and in lum- 

 ber yards as inspector, in 

 the woods as scaler, and 

 eventually as a lumber sales- 

 man. He was the first lumber 

 salesman out of the WiUiams- 

 port country, and it is need- 

 less to say proved eminently 

 successful, as he had energy 

 as weU as magnetism which 

 makes the success of a man 

 "on the road." 



Mr. McCormick was over forty years old when he started in 

 business for himself, yet by the time he was fifty, he was rated as 

 a man of commercial importance and what is better still, of com- 

 mercial integrity (it is a sad commentary on modern business methods 

 that the terms are not always synonymous). 



For several years before his death, he was one of the most im- 

 portant manufacturers of hardwoods, hemlock and yellow pine in the 

 country, and also a very large owner of standing timber. The Little 

 Elver Lumber Company of Townsend, Tenn., of which he was presi- 

 dent, has 100,000 acres of magnificent poplar, oak, chestnut and 

 hemlock timber in Blount and Sevier counties, Tennessee. He was 

 president of the Peart, Nields & McCormick Company, a large North 

 Carolina pine lumber and box shook house in Virginia, and also 



The Lale W 

 of Ph 



president of the Clearfield Lumber Company, Inc., of Morehead, 

 Ky., a large oak manufacturing institution. 



Mr. McCormick was a square shouldered, stockily built man with 

 the beautiful, soft hands which are characteristic of the Irish — 

 hands that look almost feminine, but which are always hearty in the 

 grasp of those of a friend and capable in the management of 

 affairs. He had the belligerency and impulsiveness of his Celtic 

 forebears, as well as loyalty to his friends and ability to see the 

 humorous side of the gravest situations in Ufe. His ancestry had 

 bequeathed him a dogged demeanor and a love of fight for its 

 own sake. Cant and hypocrisy he hated as much as he loved simple- 

 ness and truth. He was a staunch friend and a worthy foe, yet, 

 withal he never aUowed his personal prejudice to interfere with a 

 just estimate of a fellow man. Perhaps an anecdote might Ulus- 

 trate this characteristic: Some years ago Mr. McCormick and Robert 

 B. Wheeler, another distinguished hardwood lumberman, con- 

 stituted a committee of 



tlie Philadelphia Lumber 



Exchange to pass upon 

 the eligibility of appli- 

 cants for membership. One 

 day Mr. Wheeler caUed 

 Mr. McCormick on the 

 telephone with the inquiry 

 ' ' What do you know about 



Mr. ?" 



•■ ' I know more than is 

 necessary, ' ' answered Mr. 

 McCormick, and he punctu- 

 ated his answer with a few 

 verbal pyrotechnics, which 

 the Eecording Angel, know- 

 ing the man as he knew 

 Uncle Toby, surely blotted 

 out with a tear. Finally, 

 however, when Mr. Wheeler 

 succeeded in getting in a 

 word, he suggested that he 

 had not made the inquiry 

 in order to suggest a dinner 

 invitation for the man or 

 for the purpose of selUng 

 bira lumber, but that he had 

 applied for membership in 

 the local exchange. 



" Oh ! " exclaimed Mr. 

 McCormick, ' ' that 's all 

 right; I'll vote for him." 



Although he was the per- 

 sonification of cordiality to 

 ^^^'^^^^^^^^^^^^^"'^^^"^^^^ an acquaintance and stran- 



ger, William M. McCormick 

 gave his friendship but rarely, but once a man's friend, he was his 

 friend for all time, through good and iU. In his dislike of sham and 

 affectation he sometimes offended people unacquainted with his manner, 

 for he invariably referred to a spade as a spade. He particularly ab- 

 horred double dealing and insincerity, but his sympathies were always 

 catholic, as was his broad public spirit and quick sense of humor. One 

 could always tell just where to find him. No man was more loved by 

 his friends and no man had greater respect from his enemies. 



In summing up the character of this man I loved and whom I 

 was greatly privileged to call my friend, mere words seem inadequate,, 

 for his love for his fellow men was as generous as was that of Abou 

 Ben Adhem, and his charity of thought, word and deed, like the 

 sky of heaven, o 'er hung a suffering world. — Henby H. Gibson. 



M. McCormick 

 iladelphia 



