CYRUS HALL McCORMlCK 



against the use of wire. Wire, they said, got 

 mixed with the straw and killed their cattle. 

 Wire fell in the wheat and made trouble in the 

 flour-mills. Wire cut their hands. Wire clut- 

 tered up their barn-yards. They would have 

 no more to do with wire. What they wanted 

 and must have was twine. 



William Deering, the newcomer who had 

 caused this disturbance, became in a flash 

 McCormick's ablest competitor. He had en- 

 tered the business eight years before with a run- 

 ning start, having been a successful dry goods 

 merchant in Maine. His geneology in the 

 harvester industry shows that he had become 

 an active partner of E. H. Gammon in 1872. 

 Gammon, who had formerly been a Methodist 

 preacher in Maine, had started as an agent for 

 Seymour and Morgan of Brockport, which 

 firm had been licensed by McCormick in 1845. 

 Deering was the first highly skilled business 

 man to enter the harvester trade. He was not 

 a farmer's son, like McCormick. He was 

 city-bred and factory trained. And in 1880 

 he staked practically his whole fortune upon 



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