Abstract
Cyrus Hall McCormick has the lion’s share of the McCormick family fame, and rightly so, for his invention and skillful marketing of the reaper revolutionized American agriculture. His younger brother, William Sanderson McCormick, is all too little known. Yet his contributions to the reaper and to C.H. McCormick and Brothers Company--the great grandfather of today’s International Harvester Company--came only second in importance to those of his more renowned brother. Based on the abundant records found in the McCormick Collection of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, this paper intends to bring to light William S. McCormick’s contributions to the company. It also hopes to magnify an individual who was part of a process fundamental to American history--the process by which Americans turned from agriculture to industry. As a case in point, William McCormick's life shows that the American farmer was only one step removed from urban economic life. Even as a simple farmer, McCormick was a capitalist who produced in a wide and varied market. When he left farming and entered industry it was relatively easy for him to carry on complex financial operations. Finally, this study will show how William McCormick carried on business during the peculiar economic situation wrought by the Civil War, and that the nineteenth century entrepreneur was akin to the present day businessman in that he too laughed, and worried and worked too hard.