Cyrus McCormick Farm

McCormick Mill and Farm

 We were chasing down geocaches, and when we got here we were really surprised to find the farm!!  This is where Cyrus grew up, working for his father in the mill, and on the farm.  Never, ever would have found this if it hadn't been for the caches placed here.

The grist mill was in use before Cyrus was born.  The structure has been carefully and authentically repaired in the last generation by the McCormick family.  It was again restored in the mid-1990s.  As it stands today it is as accurate as the best research and craft can make it.

 This sewing machine was in the museum area.  James Edward Allen Gibbs saw a picture of a sewing machine in a newspaper.  He started thinking about it and since they were very expensive, he decided to try to make one.  He even manufactured his own needles, from wood.  There was a three page article about how he went about the process.  He later was waiting for his father in the tailor shop where he saw a Singer sewing machine and thought it was much too big and heavy which pushed him on to develop this one.  

He sold a 1/2 partnership to a local saw mill owner, in order to have money for a patent application. He went to the patent office in Washington DC and observed patent models as well as some of the machines then on the market.  Gibbs realized he couldn't market this alone so, with his letters of patent in his pocket he went to Philadelphia.  

He patented 2 features, one was the revolving looper which pulled up a definite quantity of needle thread proportionate to the length of stitch and a feeding mechanism which fed the work positively between two corrugated surfaces. 

I was fascinated by the shape and size, would have liked to try it out.  They were having an open house the following weekend, don't know if they would have had it running or not.

Reaper Copy

   This reaper is a very old working reproduction of the machine that was invented on this farm.  Cyrus improved his father's machine including the reciprocating knife, guards, reel, platform, main wheel, side moving cutter and divider at the outer end of the cutter bar.  His invention took much of the drudgery out of a necessary chore, opened the door for a new era in agriculture by finding a way to replace muscle power with mechanical power on a job that had to be done.

These miniatures of farm implements on display were just incredible.  Such detail went into each one:

 

Grist Mill Water Wheel

 The farm had an interpretive trail around the mill pond, where the caches were.  

Mushrooms

Gary is pointing at a huge mushroom we found near the trail.  You can see 2 more in the background.  Wow, they were almost a foot across, looked like a soccer ball.  

Stream to the mill pond

 We were very happy to have accidentally come upon the McCormick farm.  Geocaching is so educational!  There have been so many caches in places that taught us much about the area and we would never have seen if it weren't for geocaching.