Web Page Inventor / Invention Template

My son, Cyrus Hall McCormick was born on February 15, 1809 in Rockbridge County, Virginia to myself, Robert McCormick, and my wife, Mary Ann Hall (called Polly). We purchased and moved to Walnut Grove, a 532-acre farm. I had patented several improved farming equipment and worked on perfecting the horse drawn reaper, unfortunately without success. Cyrus derived the love of inventing from me; and he succeeded where I had failed. In July of 1831, he produced the world's first model reaper adding various key features to the designs I had produced. At the end of the same 1831 harvest, my son had the first successful demonstration of his invention. He further refined his reaper and received a patent in 1834. The reaper slowly gained popularity until it finally outstripped Cyrus's abilities to produce them at the Walnut Grove blacksmith shop. His brothers, William and Leander, became partners with him when he moved to Chicago. There, he started a factory to help serve the vast prairie grain fields of the Midwest. In 1851, Cyrus McCormick's reaper won the highest award of the day, the Gold Medal at London's Crystal Palace Exhibition. Cyrus Hall McCormick helped shape today's society into what it is now, as his reaper allowed less people to produce more crops. This in turn permitted others to focus on industry, science, and the arts. He died on May 13, 1884 at the age of 75.