. Some successful Americans . Cyrus McCormicks Birthplace machine upon the market. It was not until 1840 that anywere sold. About 1835 the McCormicks engaged in smelting ironore. That had become a very profitable business, andseemed to promise more financial gain than the their new business continued to prosper, it is quitepossible that we should never have had the perfectedreaper; but owing to the decline in iron and because thecost of transportation to market by wagon was more than 82 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS the value of the product, during the panic of 1837 theirventure ended i
. Some successful Americans . Cyrus McCormicks Birthplace machine upon the market. It was not until 1840 that anywere sold. About 1835 the McCormicks engaged in smelting ironore. That had become a very profitable business, andseemed to promise more financial gain than the their new business continued to prosper, it is quitepossible that we should never have had the perfectedreaper; but owing to the decline in iron and because thecost of transportation to market by wagon was more than 82 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS the value of the product, during the panic of 1837 theirventure ended in disaster. Then young McCormick, withhis father and brothers, began to manufacture reapers intheir own shops on the farm. How often it happens thata seeming misfortune is a great blessing ! They had a primitive workshop at Walnut Grove andmade fewer than fifty machines the first year. Theyworked at a great disadvantage, as certain heavy parts. Shop where First Reaper was made had to be made at a furnace a considerable distance overthe mountain and the matter of transportation was a seri-ous one. In the case of the finished machines it was evenworse, for it was in the West, with its great plains andimmense grainfields, not in the East, with its uneven sur-face and small farms, that the reaper could be used to thebest advantage. Therefore the machines had to be drawnby teams to the canal at Scottsville, from there floated toRichmond, then sent to the coast, and from there sent CYRUS HALL McCORMICK 83 on the ocean to New Orleans, and again reshipped andsent up the Mississippi and Ohio to Cincinnati for sale. It was clear thatit was a great wasteof effort to manu-facture in Virginiaimplements to beused in the West;so young McCor-mick started fromhome on horse-back, with a littlemoney placed in
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectstatesmen, bookyear19
