“It was a sacrifice Robert could well afford to make, she insisted. She, personally, was ready to give him every possible aid and comfort, as Robert was, of course, and if any honors or personal distinction should ever attach to the reaper invention, she was perfectly willing that Cyrus should have it, especially if it would advance the commercial success of the machine and thus benefit the whole family. “And now that Cyrus was about to reach man’s estate he must prepare himself to assume the family leadership when Robert and she were gone. Robert finally bends to his wife’s wishes He was getting along in years, soon he would be fifty the best part of their lives was behind them they had little to look forward to except the happiness and welfare of their children. “As for the personal honors that might result from the successful exploitation of the machines, he should be willing to forego them in favor of his oldest son. He could do with them as he pleased, dispose of them in any manner he saw fit. Surely, she told him, his inventions were his own property, just as were his house, land and personal effects. Against these scruples Polly also had a ready argument. It did not seem to him the right thing to do he had never heard of anyone doing such a thing. Somehow the abdication of his rights to his children, in his own brain, went against his grain. Thus Robert’s principle argument was confuted. She had sounded him out on the subject and he had promised that if he ever made a success of any of the machines he would share his good fortune with his brothers and sisters. Of course, she agreed, the other children should also profit by his inventions, but Cyrus would be glad to make that a binding condition of such a gift. “But Polly was not to be turned aside so easily. Polly continues to make her argument to Robert “If the reaper or any other of his inventions had a substantial, permanent value, if they were destined to produce a fortune, were not the other children also entitled to profit by their success? He was willing to do anything within reason for his children, especially for Cyrus, now that the boy was about to attain his majority, but, he pleaded, wasn’t this a rather unusual and unreasonable request? “Robert, of course, remonstrated against his wife’s proposal. From the family reminiscences and records available, we can reconstruct the sequence of events from her on with reasonable plausibility.Įtching of Robert McCormick’s reaper, from ‘Memorial of Robert McCormick: Being a Brief History of his Life, Character and Inventions,’ 1885.
“However, Polly had never before failed to carry a point with her husband, and she felt confident that in the end, she would be no less successful this time, although she realized that on no previous occasion had she called upon him to make a personal sacrifice of such magnitude and importance. Robert worries singling out Cyrus will snub other children He would have to be less than human to cede to his son, without a struggle, his rights and interests in the invention on which he had expended his brain and muscle for a whole generation, and which only now was beginning to show some promise of success. “That the idea would appeal to Cyrus she felt certain, but she was not so sure that Robert would readily accede to it. The plant would have to be enlarged, and the young promoter might conceivably see his dreams of fame and fabulous wealth come true without leaving the homestead. “If he could make a success of the machine, if he could cause the farmers of the country to use it, the Walnut Grove shops could not begin to meet the demand. If she could induce her husband to give Cyrus an invention or two, particularly the one in which the whole family had the greatest faith and confidence-the reaper-that might deter him from straying far afield in order to find a fitting instrument to realizing his life’s ambition. She must manage, somehow or other, to keep Cyrus at home. “Without her beloved son Cyrus at her side, Polly McCormick knew the declining years of her life would be empty and dreary.
Here’s Norbert Lyons’ telling of how the gift transaction from parents to son occurred: Cyrus patented his first version of the reaper in 1834. According to multiple accounts from family members and close friends, Robert had already invented the reaper after years of working on it, ran initial test trials in 1831, and gave it to his son Cyrus as a gift. According to research compiled by Norbert Lyons, Cyrus’ mother Polly encouraged her husband Robert to give Cyrus his inventions as a gift and allow Cyrus, the assertive and most business minded member of the family, to make the most of it.
0 kommentar(er)
