CYRUS HALL McCORMICK 



a tall, muscular, dignified young man. The 

 neighbors, in later years, remembered him 

 mainly because he was so well dressed on 

 Sundays, in broadcloth coat and beaver hat, 

 and because of his fine treble voice as he led 

 the singing in the country church. 



Even as a youth he was absorbed in his in- 

 ventions and business projects. He had no time 

 for gayeties. In a letter written from Kentucky 

 to a cousin, Adam McChesney, in 1831, he says: 

 "Mr. Hart has two fine daughters, right pretty, 

 very smart, and as rich probably as you would 

 wish; but alas! I have other business to attend 

 to." 



Ever since Cyrus was a child of seven, it 

 had been the most ardent ambition of his father 

 to invent a Reaper. He had made one and 

 tried it in the harvest of 1816, but it was a failure. 

 It was a fantastic machine, pushed from behind 

 by two horses. A row of short curved sickles 

 were fastened to upright posts, and the grain 

 was whirled against them by revolving rods. 

 It was highly ingenious, but the sinewy grain 

 merely bunched and tangled around its futile 



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