McCormick Family. William Sanderson McCormick (1815-1865) papers

During William Sanderson McCormick's life, the business which in 1902 became International Harvester Company emerged as a world-wide enterprise tremendously influential in the development of 19th-century American and European agriculture. His brother Cyrus Hall McCormick, who had early got control of the patents for the machine, spent most of his time out of Chicago promoting business and engaging in lawsuits relating to the patents, while William remained in Chicago as business manager of the company. Their younger brother, Leander James McCormick, served as head of the manufacturing end of the business.

The collection consists of approximately 100 letters from Cyrus Hall McCormick to William Sanderson McCormick (September 1, 1849 to April 24, 1865), and four letterpress books containing hectographic copies of William's letters to Cyrus (February 4, 1851 to April 25, 1865). Although William's letterpress books contain a few letters to other business associates, friends, and family members, by far the largest part of the correspondence is with Cyrus. An intense love-hate relationship between the two is revealed in this exchange of letters, with William's frustration and anger at what he considered Cyrus' unfair distribution of the profits of the company to the two younger brothers the overriding theme. The exchange culminates in a 246-page letter by William in April 1859, outlining in detail the history of his grievances. The resulting working agreements of April and November 1859 between Cyrus on the one hand, and William and Leander on the other, are in the collection, as well as an 1864 agreement. In all instances, Cyrus maintained control of past, present, and future patents, and of the money. It is he who has emerged in the pages of history as the inventor of the reaper, though this premise has been questioned over the years by those who believe that Robert McCormick--the father of Cyrus, William, and Leander--should be credited with the original invention. In any study of this question, William's letters to Cyrus contain invaluable source material.

William's letters to his father-in-law Reuben Grigsby in Volume 3 of the letterpress books reflect the position of many southerners living in the North during the Civil War. On April 17, 1861, he writes, "The anxiety which we have felt for some time with reference to the future of our country--our own positions and that of our friends and relatives in our dear and native state--has settled into most painful apprehension ... and we fear widespread ruin is to be the result." It is probable that four years of this anxiety in addition to the tensions of his business life contributed to the breakdown which resulted in William's death in an Illinois institution on September 27, 1865.

The Cyrus McCormick letters have been transcribed; two copies of each typescript are included in the collection. Also included is a typescript of Volume 1 of the William Sanderson McCormick letterpress books, and an analysis of this volume made by John Menaugh in 1951 for the Chicago Tribune Sunday editor. The transcriptions were evidently made for Colonel Robert R. McCormick. Since the transcriptions contain omissions and errors, the originals should be consulted in all cases. Volumes 2, 3 and 4 have not been transcribed, and may be difficult to read.