These farm tools were as old as Time. The plow with which Great-grandfather McCormick broke his ground, and the sickles with which he cut his grain, were like the plows and sickles the farmers of Egypt over a thousand years before had used on their farms along the banks of the Nile River. The short scythes used on the McCormick place were almost exactly like the scythes used on the old farms of Rome.

When Great-grandfather McCormick’s son grew up and wanted a farm of his own, there was little good land left on any of the rivers or streams near his father’s home. So Son McCormick took his tools and went off across the Indian trails running through the forest and over the hills and came out on the banks of the Shenandoah River in Virginia. Here there was still plenty of land to be had for nothing. He cut down trees, built himself a log house, then plowed and planted his newly cleared land with corn and wheat. The land was rich, and it grew splendid crops. Everything went well with the young McCormick family. As time went on, the family grew bigger and bigger. As the McCormick family grew, the farm spread out over more and more land.