Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/129

 Mccormick

Mccormick

tor, but resigned in 1867 to take his place as a Democratic representative in the 40th congress to fill the unexpired term of Thomas E. Noell, who died Oct. 3, 1867, and he was re-elected to the 41st and 42d congresses, serving 1867-73. He died in Farmington, Mo., May 19, 1897.

McCORMICK, Leander J., inventor, was born at Walnut Grove, Va., Feb. 8, 1819 ; son of Robert and Mary McChesney (Hall) McCormick. He attended the public schools of Rockbridge county and was engaged with his father and brothers in farming and in perfecting and constructing the reaping machine invented by his father in 1809. He invented various improvements to the reaper, including a seat or stand from wliich a man could divide the grain in sheaves suitable for binding, 1845 ; an improvement on the divider side in 1845 ; and later a seat for the driver, who had before ridden on one of the horses. He was married in 1845 to Henrietta Maria, daughter of John Hamil- ton, of Rockbridge count}', Va. ; she died in Chi- cago in November, 1899. Their son, Robert S. McCormick, was secretary of legation under U.S. minister, Robert T. Lincoln, in London ; married a daughter of Joseph Medill, editor of the Chicago Tribune, and in 1901 was appointed by President McKinley envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States to Austria- Hungary. Leander J. McCormick went to Cin- cinnati, Ohio, in 1847, to superintend the con- struction of one hundred reaping machines and in 1848 he removed to Chicago, 111., where he was joined by his brother Cyrus Hall, in 1849, and where they established a factory. He took entire charge of the manufacturing department until 1879, when the business was incorporated as the McCormick Harvesting Machine Co., and he re- tired from active participation in the business. He presented the University of Virginia in 1871 with a twenty-six-inch refracting telescope con- tructed by Alvan Clark & Sons of Cambridge, Mass. , and at the time the largest refracting lens in the world, and the observatory building was known as the McCormick observatory. Mr. Mc- Cormick died in Chicago, 111., Feb. 20, 1900.

McCORMICK, Richard Cunningham, governor of Arizona, was born in New York city. May 23, 1832 ; son of Richard and Sarah (Decker) McCor- mick ; grandson of Hugh McCormick of Lycom- ing county. Pa. (born in 1777), and a descendant of James McCormick, of Londonderry, who came to America about 1700. He received a classical education in New York city, and settled as a broker in Wall street in 1850, which business he pursued until 1854. He was war correspondent during the Crimean war, 1854-55, edited the Young Men's Magazine, 1858-59, and was con- nected with the New Yov^ Evening Post, 1860-61. He was war correspondent for that and other

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New York newspapers, in the Army of the Po- tomac, in the civil war, 1861-62, and chief clerk of the U. S. department of agriculture, 1868-63. He was appointed by President Lincoln secretary of Arizona when organized as a territory in February, 1863, and in 1866 he was ap- pointed by President Johnson governor as successor to John N. Goodwin. He resigned in 1869 to take his seat as delegate to congress from Ari- zona, and served as such in the 41st, 42d and 43d congresses, 1869-75. He was mar- ried in Washington, D.C.,Nov. 25, 1873,to Elizabeth, daughter of the Hon. A. G.

Thurman of Ohio. He established the Ari- zona 31iner, at Prescott, in 1864, and the Arizona Citize7i,.at Tucson, in 1870. He was a delegate from Arizona territory to the Republican na- tional conventions of 1872 and 1876 ; a commis- sioner from Arizona territory to the Centennial exhibition at Philadelphia, Pa., in 1876 ; assistant secretary of the U.S. treasury, 1877, and commis- sioner general to the Paris exposition in 1878, where he was decorated a commander of the Legion of Honor by the French government. He declined the mission to Brazil in 1877, and the mission to Mexico in 1879. He removed to Jamaica, L.I., N.Y., in 1878 ; was the Republican candidate for representative from the first New York district in the 50th congress in 1886, and was defeated by Perry Belmont, Democrat, but served as a representative in the 54th congress, 1895-97. He is the author of : Visit to the Camp before Sebastopol (1855); St. PauVs to St. Sophia (1860); Arizona, its Resources (1865). He also edited The Reports of the United States Commis- sioners to the Paris Exposition (5 vols., 1879). He died in Jamaica, N.Y., June 2, 1901.

McCORMICK, Robert, inventor, was born at Walnut Grove, Rockbridge county, Va., in 1780; son of Robert and Martha (Sanderson) McCor- mick. His ancestors, who were Scotch, em igrated to the north of Ireland and thence to America. His father, a native of Pennsylvania, served in the Revolution, removed his family to Rockbridge county, Va., in 1779 ; and was at Guilford Court House, N.C., where he narrowly escaped death, March 15, 1781. After the war he conducted a number of farms at Walnut Grove, Va., a grist and saw mill and a machine shop, where he in- vented and manufactured labor-saving farm im-