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48-625: In 1916, in an early act of historic-building preservation, a group of wealthy Chicagoans bought the house and donated it to the American College of Surgeons (ACS). In addition to using the house as its headquarters, ACS built the adjacent classical Murphy Memorial Auditorium for meetings. When the mansion became too small for the ACS, it began renting it out in 1964. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and

96-607: A devout Presbyterian , as well as advocate of Christian unity. He also valued and demonstrated in his life the Calvinist traits of self-denial, sobriety, thriftiness, efficiency, and morality. He believed feeding the world, made easier by the reaper, was part of his religious mission in life. A lifelong Democrat, before the American Civil War , McCormick had published editorials in his newspapers, The Chicago Times and Herald , calling for reconciliation between

144-455: A greater role in the family's business as well as philanthropic affairs. In 1879, brother Leander changed the company's name from "Cyrus H. McCormick and Brothers" to "McCormick Harvesting Machine Company". He wanted to acknowledge the contributions of others in the family to the reaper "invention" and company, especially their father. On January 26, 1858, 49-year-old Cyrus McCormick married his secretary Nancy "Nettie" Fowler (1835–1923). She

192-540: A mechanical reaper, he applied for a patent to claim it as his own invention. He worked for 28 years on a horse-drawn mechanical reaper to harvest grain, but was never able to produce a reliable version. Building on his father's years of development, Cyrus took up the project aided by Jo Anderson, an enslaved African-American man held on the McCormick plantation. A few machines based on a design of Patrick Bell of Scotland (which had not been patented) were available in

240-674: A medical organization or association is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Cyrus McCormick Cyrus Hall McCormick (February 15, 1809 – May 13, 1884) was an American inventor and businessman who founded the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, which later became part of the International Harvester Company in 1902. Originally from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, he and many members of

288-437: A patent on the reaper on June 21, 1834, two years after having been granted a patent for a self-sharpening plow. None was sold, however, because the machine could not handle varying conditions. The McCormick family also worked together in a blacksmith/metal smelting business. The panic of 1837 almost caused the family to go into bankruptcy when a partner pulled out. In 1839 McCormick started doing more public demonstrations of

336-816: A peace plan to include a Board of Arbitration. After the war, McCormick helped found the Mississippi Valley Society, with a mission to promote New Orleans and Mississippi ports for European trade. He also supported efforts to annex the Dominican Republic as a territory of the United States. Beginning in 1872, McCormick served a four-year term on the Illinois Democratic Party's Central Committee. McCormick later proposed an international mechanism to control food production and distribution. McCormick also became

384-583: A religious newspaper, the Interior , which he renamed the Continent and became a leading Presbyterian periodical. For the last 20 years of his life, McCormick was a benefactor and member of the board of trustees at Washington and Lee University in his native Virginia. His brother Leander also donated funds to build an observatory on Mount Jefferson , operated by the University of Virginia and named

432-571: A trophy room and rare book library. Among other features, Maher had a stained glass dome built to replace the room's skylight. As part of the remodeling, new book cases and a monumental mantlepiece, attributed to Robert E. Seyfarth who was an architect in Maher's office at the time, were installed in the gallery. The iridescent glass tile fire surround of the mantle was created by the Chicago firm of Giannini & Hilgart . The family's decision to sell

480-488: Is a professional medical association for surgeons and surgical team members, founded in 1913. It claims more than 90,000 members in 144 countries. The ACS was founded in 1913 as an outgrowth of the Clinical Congress of Surgeons of North America that had existed since 1910 as an outgrowth of the journal Surgery, Gynecology and Obstetrics , an initiative of ACS Founder Dr. Franklin H. Martin . The college

528-534: Is a well-preserved example of the Aesthetic Movement as translated into the design of homes for wealthy Americans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This is seen in the wide variety of highly ornamented styles stemming from Japanese, Chinese, English, French, Moorish, ancient Greek, Renaissance Italian, and other influences. With its profusion of motifs and materials, the Nickerson House

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576-550: Is governed by a Board of Regents , a Board of Governors, and a variety of local ACS Chapters. The Board of Regents formulates policy and directs the affairs of the college. The Board of Governors acts as the liaison between the Board of Regents and the Fellows. The local ACS Chapters exert the college's influence at the community level.   Patricia L. Turner began serving as the executive director and chief executive officer of

624-487: Is indicative of the Victorian love for display as well as the general architectural mood emerging in Chicago in the years before the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition . Construction on Nickerson House began in 1879, shortly after the 1871 Great Chicago Fire and the resulting development of city ordinances for the fireproofing of masonry structures. The mansion was lauded as one of the first truly fireproof residences in

672-749: The Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way mural by Emanuel Leutze ; it added to the title: "with McCormick Reapers in the Van." In 1851, McCormick traveled to London to display a reaper at the Crystal Palace Exhibition . After his machine successfully harvested a field of green wheat while the Hussey machine failed, he won a gold medal and was admitted to the Legion of Honor. His celebration

720-470: The Civil War . Samuel Nickerson hailed from Brewster, Massachusetts on Cape Cod, where his family was instrumental in the development of the area's commercial shipping and fishing. The Nickerson Family first settled on Cape Cod in 1640. Samuel Nickerson also constructed Brewster's Gilded Age masterpiece, Fieldstone Hall , in 1890. Nickerson, his wife Mathilda Pinkham Crosby, and their son Roland lived in

768-752: The McCormick Observatory . During the last four years of his life, McCormick became an invalid, after a stroke paralyzed his legs; he was unable to walk during his final two years. He died at home in Chicago on May 13, 1884. He was buried in Graceland Cemetery . He was survived by his widow, Nettie, who continued his Christian and charitable activities, within the United States and abroad, between 1890 and her death in 1923, donating $ 8 million (over $ 160 million in modern equivalents) to hospitals, disaster and relief agencies, churches, youth activities and educational institutions, and becoming

816-470: The McCormick family became prominent residents of Chicago. McCormick has been simplistically credited as the single inventor of the mechanical reaper . He was, however, one of several designing engineers who produced successful models in the 1830s. His efforts built on more than two decades of work by his father Robert McCormick Jr. , with the aid of Jo Anderson, an enslaved African-American man held by

864-496: The McCormick family continued involvement with the corporation until Brooks McCormick , who died in 2006. Numerous prizes and medals were awarded McCormick for his reaper, which reduced human labor on farms while increasing productivity. Thus, it contributed to the industrialization of agriculture as well as migration of labor to cities in numerous wheat-growing countries (36 by McCormick's death). The French government named McCormick an Officier de la Légion d'honneur in 1851, and he

912-695: The Gilded Age period include Ransom R. Cable, Lambert Tree , Perry H. Smith, Joseph T. Ryerson, and Edward T. Blair. Upon retiring from his position as president of the First National Bank of Chicago in 1900, Nickerson sold the house to Lucius George Fisher, the president of Union Bag & Paper Co., who owned the house until his death in 1916. After purchasing the house, Fisher hired the Prairie School architect George Washington Maher to redesign Nickerson's art gallery, making it into

960-400: The United States in these years. The Bell machine was pushed by horses. The McCormick design was pulled by horses and cut the grain to one side of the team. Cyrus McCormick held one of his first demonstrations of mechanical reaping at the nearby village of Steeles Tavern, Virginia in 1831. He claimed to have developed a final version of the reaper in 18 months. The young McCormick was granted

1008-474: The city had the best water transportation from the east over the Great Lakes for his raw materials, as well as railroad connections to the farther west where his customers would be. When McCormick tried to renew his patent in 1848, the U.S. Patent Office noted that a similar machine had already been patented by Obed Hussey a few months earlier. McCormick claimed he had invented his machine in 1831, but

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1056-524: The city. The masonry is brick, with partition walls carried up to the roof. Beneath the highly decorative flooring boards are flooring strips bedded in mortar, followed by brick arches supported by iron beams. The house was commissioned by Samuel Mayo Nickerson , one of the founders of the First National Bank in Chicago and Union Stockyards National Bank, as well as having interests in liquor and wine businesses and an explosives company during

1104-575: The college in January 2022. She is currently on the faculty in the department of surgery at the University of Chicago Medicine. Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (or FACS) is a professional certification for a medical professional who has passed a set of criteria for education, qualification, and ethics required to join the ACS. FACS is used as a post-nominal title , such as John Citizen, MD, FACS . This article about

1152-462: The defense. Stanton had objected to Lincoln's presence, referring to him as "that damned long armed ape." After being elected president five years later, Lincoln selected Stanton to be his Secretary of War where he became one of Lincoln's key advisers. In 1856, McCormick's factory was producing more than 4000 reapers each year, mostly sold in the Midwest and West. In 1861, however, Hussey's patent

1200-558: The exterior was cleaned by lasers. This was the first time an entire building had been cleaned using this method in United States, although it is commonly utilized in Europe for cleaning sculptures. The restoration, which transformed the old Nickerson House into the Richard H. Driehaus Museum, won a Chicago Landmark Award for Preservation Excellence in 2008. American College of Surgeons The American College of Surgeons ( ACS )

1248-456: The family. He also successfully developed a modern company , with manufacturing , marketing , and a sales force to market his products. Cyrus Hall McCormick was born on February 15, 1809, in Raphine, Virginia . He was the eldest of eight children born to inventor Robert McCormick Jr. (1780–1846) and Mary Ann "Polly" Hall (1780–1853). As Cyrus's father saw the potential of the design for

1296-412: The façade belies the wealth of detail found within. The house's interiors are decorated with a large amount of marble (17 types, giving it the nickname of the "Marble Palace"), onyx, alabaster, carved and inlaid wood, glazed and patterned tiles by Minton Hollins & Co. and J. & J. G. Low Art Tile Works , mosaics, and Lincrusta . With a majority of its original features intact, the building today

1344-581: The first chairman of the Moody Bible Institute . McCormick and later his widow, Nettie Day McCormick, also donated significant sums to Tusculum College , a Presbyterian institution in Tennessee, as well as to establish churches and Sunday Schools in the South after the war, even though that region was slow to adopt his farm machinery and improved practices. Also, in 1872, McCormick purchased

1392-586: The former U.S. Attorney General Reverdy Johnson and New York patent attorney Edward Nicholl Dickerson. Manny hired George Harding and Edwin M. Stanton . Because the trial was set to take place in Illinois, Harding hired the local Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln . The trial was moved to Cincinnati, Ohio , however. Manny won the case, with an opinion by the State Supreme Court Judge John McLean . Lincoln did not contribute to

1440-599: The house from 1883 to 1900. The mansion was used for many social gatherings characteristic of the Gilded Age , including a masquerade ball and a number of receptions. It also served as exhibition space in which the Nickersons displayed their renowned art collection of American and European paintings and drawings, Indian jewelry, and Japanese and Chinese ivories and curios. In 1900 the Nickerson Collection

1488-681: The leading benefactress of Presbyterian Church activities in that era. Official leadership of the company passed to his eldest son Cyrus Hall McCormick Jr. , but his grandson Cyrus McCormick III ran the company. Four years later, the company's labor practices (paying workers $ 9 per week) led to the Haymarket riots . Ultimately Cyrus Jr. teamed with J.P. Morgan to create the International Harvester Corporation in 1902. After Cyrus Hall McCormick Jr., Harold Fowler McCormick ran International Harvester. Various members of

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1536-401: The mansion after Fisher's death in 1916 sparked what is believed to be Chicago's first successful preservation effort. After the house remained on the market for three years without a buyer, a group of prominent Chicagoans, including Cyrus Hall McCormick II , William Wrigley, Jr. , and Julius Rosenwald , were concerned about the possible demolition of the magnificent residence. The group raised

1584-407: The market just as the development of railroads offered wide distribution to distant markets. McCormick developed marketing and sales techniques, developing a wide network of salesmen trained to demonstrate operation of the machines in the field, as well as to get parts quickly and repair machines in the field if necessary during crucial times in the farm year. A company advertisement was a take-off of

1632-491: The money to purchase the house as a civic effort, and in 1919 presented the deed to the American College of Surgeons . This gift spurred the College of Surgeons' decision to make Chicago its headquarters. From 1919 to 1965, the organization utilized the former Nickerson residence as administrative offices and meeting rooms. The house was acquired by Chicago businessman Richard Driehaus in 2003 who has since restored and opened

1680-527: The national sections. His views, however, were unpopular in his adopted home town. Although his invention helped feed Union troops, McCormick believed the Confederacy would not be defeated and he and his wife traveled extensively in Europe during the war. McCormick unsuccessfully ran for Congress as a Democrat for Illinois's 2nd congressional district with a peace-now platform in 1864, and was soundly defeated by Republican John Wentworth . He also proposed

1728-740: The principal benefactor and a trustee of what had been the Theological Seminary of the Northwest, which moved to Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood in 1859, a year in which he endowed four professorships. The institution was renamed McCormick Theological Seminary in 1886, after his death, although it moved to Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood in 1975 and began sharing facilities with the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago . In 1869, McCormick donated $ 10,000 to help Dwight L. Moody start YMCA , and his son Cyrus Jr. would become

1776-406: The product's reputation. In 1847, after their father's death, Cyrus and his brother Leander (1819–1900) moved to Chicago, where they established a factory to build their machines. At the time, other cities in the midwestern United States , such as Cleveland, Ohio ; St. Louis, Missouri ; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin were more established and prosperous. Chicago had no paved streets at the time, but

1824-459: The property to the public as the Richard H. Driehaus Museum in 2008. The rooms display some furnishings original to the Nickerson period as well as Driehaus' private collection of late 19th and early 20th-century decorative arts objects, including a large private collection of statues, paintings, furniture, and Louis Comfort Tiffany glass. When the restoration began in 2003, the building itself

1872-517: The reaper, McCormick noticed orders arriving from farther west, where farms tended to be larger and the land flatter. While he was in Washington, D.C. to get his 1845 patent, he heard about a factory in Brockport, New York , where he contracted to have the machines mass-produced. He also licensed several others across the country to build the reaper, but their quality often proved poor, which hurt

1920-474: The reaper, but local farmers still thought the machine was unreliable. He did sell one in 1840, but none for 1841. Using the endorsement of his father's first customer for a machine built by McPhetrich, Cyrus continually attempted to improve the design. He finally sold seven reapers in 1842, 29 in 1843, and 50 in 1844. They were all built manually in the family farm shop. He received a second patent for reaper improvements on January 31, 1845. As word spread about

1968-491: The renewal was denied. William Manning of Plainfield, New Jersey had also received a patent for his reaper in May 1831, but at the time, Manning was evidently not defending his patent. McCormick's brother William (1815–1865) moved to Chicago in 1849, and joined the company to take care of financial affairs. The McCormick reaper sold well, partially as a result of savvy and innovative business practices. Their products came onto

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2016-696: Was an orphan from New York who had graduated from the Troy Female Seminary and moved to Chicago. They had met two years earlier and shared views about business, religion and Democratic party politics. They had seven children: Mary and Stanley both had schizophrenia . Stanley McCormick's life inspired the 1998 novel Riven Rock by T. Coraghessan Boyle . Cyrus McCormick was an uncle of Robert Sanderson McCormick (son-in-law of Joseph Medill ); granduncle of Joseph Medill McCormick and Robert Rutherford McCormick ; and great-granduncle of William McCormick Blair Jr. McCormick had always been

2064-674: Was bought in 2003 by philanthropist Richard Driehaus. It is home to the Richard H. Driehaus Museum , which focuses on architecture of the Gilded Age , the Art Nouveau movement. The Nickerson House was designed by one Chicago's earliest prominent architects, Edward J. Burling (1819–1892) of Burling and Whitehouse. In addition, three decorators were contracted for the interiors: William August Fiedler (1843–1903) and R. W. Bates & Co. of Chicago, and New York-based George A. Schastey & Co. The three-story, 24,000 square-foot Nickerson House

2112-431: Was deemed in good condition. It was, however, very dirty. One of the most noteworthy elements of the restoration focused on cleaning the exterior. The facade is predominantly porous sandstone, which over the years had accumulated a thick crust of grime and pollutants. The formerly light gray stone had become a deep, dark black. Traditional methods to blast away or clean the pollutants with chemicals were deemed unsuitable, and

2160-635: Was donated to the Art Institute of Chicago. After the Great Fire, the Near North Side became a fashionable neighborhood for prominent Chicago business owners like Nickerson. Because the area was home to Cyrus H. McCormick , his brothers William S. McCormick and Leander J. McCormick , and their descendants, whose mansions were mainly concentrated along Rush Street, the neighborhood was known as McCormickville . Other notable residents of

2208-484: Was extended but McCormick's was not. McCormick's outspoken opposition to Lincoln and the anti-slavery Republican party may not have helped his cause. McCormick decided to seek help from the U.S. Congress to protect his patent. In 1871, the factory burned down in the Great Chicago Fire , but McCormick heeded his wife's advice to rebuild, and it reopened in 1873 even as McCormick's health declined, so she took

2256-545: Was reported to be the largest and most extravagant private residence in Chicago at the time of its completion. (This distinction would be transferred to the Palmer Mansion on the Gold Coast several years later.) Nickerson spared no expense, spending $ 450,000 on the construction and decoration of his home. The mansion's Italianate exterior is limestone and Ohio sandstone. Although elegant, the restrained design of

2304-717: Was short-lived after he learned that he had lost a court challenge to Hussey's patent. Another McCormick Company competitor was John Henry Manny of Rockford, Illinois . After the Manny Reaper beat the McCormick version at the Paris Exposition of 1855, McCormick filed a lawsuit against Manny for patent infringement. McCormick demanded that Manny stop producing reapers, and pay McCormick $ 400,000. The trial, originally scheduled for Chicago in September 1855, featured prominent lawyers on both sides. McCormick hired

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