CYRUS HALL McCORMICK 



Professor Bradshaw of the Lexington Female 

 Academy, who finally announced in a loud and 

 emphatic voice, "'This machine is worth 

 a hundred thousand dollars." This 

 praise, from "a scholar and a gentleman," as 

 McCormick afterwards called him, T as very 

 encouraging. And still more so was the quiet 

 word of praise from Robert McCormick, who 

 said, "It makes me feel proud to have a son do 

 what I could not do." 



Of all who were present on that memorable 

 summer day, not one is now alive. Neither in 

 Lexington nor in Staunton the towns that 

 lay on either side of the McCormick farm 

 can we find any one who saw the Reapers of 

 1831 and 1832. But among those who testi- 

 fied at various lawsuits that they had seen the 

 Lexington Reaper operate were Colonel James 

 McDowell, Colonel John Bowyer, Colonel Sam- 

 uel Reed, Colonel A. T. Barclay, Dr. Taylor, 

 William Taylor. John Ruff, John W. Hough- 

 awout, John Steele, James Moore, and Andrew 

 Wallace. There was an old lady, also, in 1885, 

 Miss Polly Carson, who told how she had seen 



[40] 



