CYRUS HALL McCORMlCK 



cities; but McCormick considered one thing 

 only the making and selling of his Reaper, 

 and he saw that Chicago, with all its mud and 

 shabbiness, was the link between the Great 

 Lakes and the Great West. Here he could best 

 assemble his materials steel from Sheffield, 

 pig iron from Scotland and Pittsburg, and 

 white ash from Michigan. And here he could 

 best ship his finished machines to both East 

 and West, 



Chicago, in fact, and the McCormick Reaper, 

 had many characteristics in common. Both 

 were born at very nearly the same time. Both 

 were cradled in adversity. Both were unsightly 

 to the artistic eye. Both were linked closely 

 with the development of the West. And both 

 inevitably achieved success, because they were 

 fundamentally right Chicago in location and 

 the Reaper in design. 



At the time that he began to build his Chicago 

 factory, Cyrus McCormick was no longer a 

 country youth. He was thirty-eight years of 

 age, and a tall powerful Titan of a man, with 

 a massive head and broad shoulders. His 



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