Many have heard that Cyrus McCormick had a connection to Plano. Some websites mistakenly report that McCormick invented the Plano harvester, or that the reaper he patented was manufactured in Plano. The McCormick name is famous. We learned about the McCormick reaper in school because it was a significant advance in grain harvesting. But his reaper was not Plano’s harvester.
Cyrus McCormick got his start when he modified and patented the reaper his father invented. The reaper took the farmer from cutting grain with hand tools to reaping with a machine pulled by horses while farmhands followed, gathering the loose grain into bundles and tying them. Not primarily an inventor, McCormick used his business acumen to found and operate the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company to produce reapers and other farm implements, eventually gaining fame and fortune.
Plano, meanwhile, is the birthplace of the harvester. The harvester cut the grain and, in contrast to the reaper, deposited the grain on the machine’s platform where one or two people riding on the harvester could bind the grain and drop it to the ground to be stacked into shocks. The backbreaking work of gathering the grain from the ground and binding it into sheaves was exchanged for a quicker, less strenuous bundling process accomplished while riding on the harvester. This is Plano’s legacy.
The first successful harvester, one that did not break down shortly after it began its work, was manufactured in Plano. Brothers C.W. and W.W. Marsh invented the harvester with the aid of Plano’s John Hollister and Lewis Steward. The machine became another huge leap forward in grain harvesting. The first harvester factory opened in Plano in 1861 and by 1863 was selling the machines.
So why does Cyrus McCormick sometimes receive credit for Plano’s invention? Most likely it was the formation of International Harvester in 1902 that resulted in the confusion. Five companies merged to form International Harvester in order to reduce the fierce competition that had long characterized reaper and harvester manufacturing and sales. Two of the companies, Plano Manufacturing Company and Deering Manufacturing, had their origins in Plano, though by the time of the merger both were based in Chicago. McCormick Harvesting Machine Company was also among the five companies. Cyrus McCormick had been dead for 18 years by this time, but this joining of Plano’s namesake company with the McCormick firm is likely the cause for the confusion and misplaced credit for the invention of the harvester.
Cyrus McCormick can have his due credit for the reaper, but the harvester is an invention Plano can be proud to call its own.
Plano Historical Society 