Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/284

 PROMINENT PERSONS

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tains," (1884); "The Colonial Qiurch of Virginia/' (1885) ; "Christianity the Key to the Character and Career of Washington," (1886); and an "Address to the Minute- Men of Culpeper," (1887). He died in Cul- peper county, Virginia, June 12, 1890.

McCormick, Cyrus Hall, son of Robert ^icCormick and Mary McChesney, his wife, was born at "Walnut Grove," Rockbridge county, Virginia, February 15, 1809. His father was a farmer and machinist of me- chanical genius. He attempted to perfect a grain-cutting machine, but it failed to ^^ork. His son Cyrus, who had alread> shown much inventive talent in fashioning a side hill plow and other tools for farm use, then took up the idea and invented a machine on entirely different principles, which did work. The new machine made by Cyrus H. McCormick was put m a field ot wheat on the home farm and in a field of oat$ on the farm of John Steele and proved successful. The essential features of the im- . plement were a reciprocating knife moving through fixed fingers, a revolving reel, a receiving platform and a divider, piloting the standing grain to the cutting bar. These features are found in all the modern grain- cutting machines. He took out a patent in 1834 and in 1840 began a manufacture of them at his shop in Rockbridge. In 1846, after the death of his father, Cyrus H. en- gaged a firm in Chicago to manufacture 100 reapers for the harvest of 1847. ^"d obtained a new patent covering some improvements. He exhibited his machine at the World's Fair in London in 185 1, at the Paris Expo- sition in 1855. *'^nd at Hamburg in 1863, and won the grand prize each time. Mr. Mc- Cormick located in Chicago, and though his

patent was constantly infringed upon, built up an enormous business. The reaper had an immense effect upon increasing the wheat crop of the country, which rose from 40,- 000,000 bushels in 1850 to 200,000,000 in i860. The returns from the sales of his im- plements were largely invested in Chicago real estate and Chicago enterprises. He educated his employees and cared for their moral, physical and mental welfare. He made many gifts of an educational char- acter to Washington and Lee University; University of X'irginia, the Union Theolog- ical Seminary at Hampden-Sidney, and the McCormick Theological Seminary in Chi- cago. In 1872 he took upon himself the burden of a religious paper, the "Interior," which became the organ of United Pres- byterianism over the whole northwest. In 1876 his name was urged for a second place on the Democratic national ticket, but he withdrew in behalf of Thomas A. Hend- ricks. ^ He was chairman of the Democratic state central committee of Illinois, and con- demned the reconstruction measures. His invention has been recognized as probably the most important of the nineteenth cen- tury. He died at his home in Chicago, May I3» 1884.

Doggett, Daniel Scth, was born in Vir- ginia, in 18 10. His father was a lawyer and the son began the study of that profession, but changed to the ministry. He was edu- cated at the University of Virginia, and be- came an itinerant minister in 1829, traveling through the southern states. In 1866 he accepted a professorship in Randolph-Macon College, and in 1873 was made a Methodist bishop. He was about to take charge of the California conference, when he was seized

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