- Leander J. McCormick
Leander James McCormick (
February 8 1819 -february 20 ,1900 ) ofVirginia was born to theScottish American family of Robert and Mary Anne Hall McCormick inRockbridge County, Virginia . Leander was afarmer ,manufacturer ,businessman (who owned vast amounts ofreal estate in downtown Chicago), andphilanthropist .He was raised at the family homestead of Walnut Grove, near Raphine in
Rockbridge County, Virginia , in theShenandoah Valley on the western side of theBlue Ridge Mountains . His father,Robert Hall McCormick , invented the mechanical reaper, for which Leander's brotherCyrus McCormick later received the patent. Leander eventually developed multiple improvements to the reaper and received patents for two of them, with the remainder being patented by his brother Cyrus. At age 26, Leander married Henrietta Hamilton on her parents' homestead, Locust Hill, in Rockbridge County onOctober 22 ,1845 . The following year Robert McCormick died and his three living sons--Cyrus, Leander and William--established themselves in a business inChicago run by Cyrus to manufacture the reaper and sell it across the midwest. There they created what eventually became theMcCormick Harvesting Machine Company with Leander taking over management of the manufacturing department, which he controlled for the next 30 years. By 1870, the McCormicks were one of the wealthiest families in the U.S.In 1871, the
Great Chicago Fire destroyed much of the Reaper Works and other buildings, as well as the Leander McCormick family residence at the corner of Rush and Ohio streets. Leander, his wife and children fled their burning home in early morning hours. They moved to the west side of the city for the next several years, but eventually returned to Rush and Ohio, where he spent the rest of his life (building the Virginia Hotel on this site in 1889). The McCormicks, under Leander's direction, quickly rebuilt and recovered. By 1879, the business had fully recovered and was merged into a corporation. Leander stayed active in the management of the business until 1889 when he retired and sold his shares to his nephew,Cyrus H. McCormick, Jr. .After retiring from the business, Leander then invested heavily in real estate. At the time of his death, he had extensive holdings in downtown Chicago.
Leander donated funds for a refracting
telescope to theUniversity of Virginia . The telescope and building are known asMcCormick Observatory and opened in 1885; the telescope was the largest in the U.S. and second largest in the world when completed.In his later years, Leander McCormick remained in Chicago and began to research the McCormick genealogy. He eventually produced and published works on the McCormick family.
His children were: Robert Hall McCormick II, Henrietta McCormick-Goodhart, Leander Hamilton McCormick. His daughter Henrietta married British barrister Frederick E. McCormick-Goodhart, and established a 540 acre estate northeast of Washington D.C. known as Langley Park.
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