HIS LIFE AND WORK 



than a business man," which was so widely used 

 against him during his lifetime, ought now in 

 all fairness to be laid aside. The fact is, as we 

 have seen, that he was schooled as a boy into 

 an inventive habit of mind; and that before his 

 invention of the Reaper, he had devised a new 

 grain-cradle, a hillside plow, and a self-sharpen- 

 ing plow. There is abundant corroborative 

 evidence in the letters which he wrote to his 

 father and brothers, instructing them to "make 

 the divider and wheel post longer," to "put 

 the crank one inch farther back," and so forth. 

 Also, in the will of Robert McCormick, there is 

 a clause authorizing the executor to pay a royalty 

 to Cyrus of fifteen dollars apiece on whatever 

 machines were sold by the family during that 

 season, showing that the father, who of all men 

 was in the best position to know, regarded Cyrus 

 as the inventor. 



Of all the manufacturers who fought Mc- 

 Cormick in the patent suits of early days, three 

 only have survived to see the passing of the Mc- 

 Cormick Centenary Ralph Emerson, C. W. 

 Marsh, and William N. Whiteley. In response 



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