• Robert McCormick Jr. (1780–1846) was an American inventor who lived in rural Virginia.^[1] His maternal grandparents were Scottish immigrants, George Sanderson and Catharine (née Ross) Sanderson, and paternal grandparents were Thomas (1702–1762) and Elizabeth (née Carruth) McCormick, Presbyterian immigrants born in County Londonderry and County Antrim, Ireland respectively who married in 1728 and settled in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania in 1735.^{[list 1]}
• Cyrus Hall McCormick Sr. (1809–1884), entrepreneur, publisher, father of modern agriculture, and founder of what became the International Harvester Company. A devout Presbyterian, he was the primary benefactor of the McCormick Theological Seminary.^[4]
• William Sanderson McCormick (1815–1865), who was an inventor and co-founder of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company (International Harvester). Third son of Robert Jr. and Polly. William passed at an early age and his children were raised by their uncles.
• Leander James McCormick (1819–1900),^[5] an inventor and co-founder of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, he owned substantial real estate in downtown Chicago and Lake Forest, Illinois. In the 1880s, he donated the McCormick Observatory to the University of Virginia in an effort to help the South recover from the war. At the time it was the second largest telescope in the world and the largest in America. He married Henrietta Maria Hamilton (1822-1899) of Virginia, a direct descendant of the Dukes of Hamilton of Scotland.
• Robert Hall McCormick II (1847–1917) His chief interests were horses, yachting, and art. He owned one of the finest collections of British master paintings in the United States. With Bertha Palmer, he exhibited some of his paintings at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 and was a trustee of the Art Institute of Chicago. He owned two steam yachts: the Rapidan, which was wrecked in Delaware, and the Satilla, named after a river near the Jekyll Island Club and which became a naval ship during World War I. He married Sarah Lord Day (1850–1922), who was the daughter and granddaughter of founders of the law firm Lord Day & Lord and the lawyer for the McCormick Harvesting Machine Co.
• Robert Sanderson McCormick (1849–1919), a diplomat who served as the U.S. Minister to Austria-Hungary 1901–1902, U.S. Ambassador to Austria-Hungary 1902, U.S. Ambassador to Russia 1902–1905, U.S. Ambassador to France 1905–1907. He built the McCormick Villa in Washington, D.C., now the Brazilian Embassy. He was the son-in-law of Chicago Mayor Joseph Medill.^[6][7]
• William Grigsby McCormick (1851–1941), a Chicago businessman who was among the founders of the Kappa Sigma fraternity at the University of Virginia.
• Henrietta Laura McCormick-Goodhart (1857–1932). One of the first American heiresses to marry an English aristocrat, she lived in England and, later, at her estate, Langley Park in Maryland. By order of Queen Victoria, her last name was officially changed to encompass her husband's name, Goodhart. She had two sons, Leander and Frederick. Leander was a main figure at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C.
• Leander Hamilton McCormick (1859–1934), art collector and inventor. He is credited with the creation of the study of characterology. He had three sons: Leander James McCormick II, Edward Hamilton McCormick, and Alister Hamilton McCormick (1891–1921). Alister married Joan Tyndale Stevens, a niece of Charles Morton Astley, Lord Hastings. Leander II married the Comtesse de Fontarce et Flueries.^[8]
• Cyrus Hall McCormick Jr. (1859–1936), the head of International Harvester. He was a music lover who brought Sergei Prokofiev to the United States. In 1923, he and his mother donated McCormick Hall to Princeton University. A member of the Jekyll Island Club, a founder of the Chicago Community Trust, and a financier of the World's Columbian Exposition.^[9]
• Willoughby M. McCormick, the founder of McCormick & Company, a spice company. He was the nephew of Cyrus McCormick.^[10]
• Anita McCormick Blaine (1866–1954), who founded the New World Foundation and also the Francis W. Parker School and the Laboratory School at the University of Chicago. Despite coming from a conservative family, she embraced progressive movements, such as the United Nations and the suffragist movement.
• Harold Fowler McCormick Sr. (1872–1941) who married Edith Rockefeller, youngest daughter of John Davison Rockefeller and Laura Celestia "Cettie" Spelman. Before their divorce, Edith and Harold were the wealthiest couple in Chicago and were great patrons of the Civic Opera. They built a massive estate, Villa Turicum, in Lake Forest, Illinois and he was a pioneer in aviation, running a number of successful flights, and donated the Harold F. McCormick Collection of Aeronautica at Princeton. His promotion of his second wife's music career was partial inspiration for Charles Foster Kane in the movie Citizen Kane.^[11]
• Elizabeth Day McCormick (1873–1957), who owned one of the finest and most complete textile and costume collections, now the Elizabeth Day McCormick Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. To the University of Chicago she donated two very important early Greek texts, the Rockefeller-McCormick Manuscript, in memory of her cousin and fellow collector, Edith Rockefeller McCormick.
• Joseph Medill McCormick (1877–1925), who was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1916 and 1920, member of the Illinois Legislature, U.S. Representative from Illinois 1917–1919, and U.S. Senator from Illinois 1919–1925.^[12] Ruth was a Republican National Committeewoman 1924–1928, U.S. Representative from Illinois 1929–1931, and nominee for the U.S. Senate from Illinois in 1930.^[13]
• Robert Hall McCormick III (1878–1963). Alderman for Chicago's 21st Ward, and worked as a secretary to the Brazilian Ambassador in Rio de Janeiro. Welcomed Guglielmo Marconi to the U.S. in 1914. He also was the builder of Chicago's McCormick Building and the Roanoke Building. Maintained a Roman-style sailing ship, the San Marco, in Venice, Italy, which was sunk by the Nazis during World War II. He built the Apollo Theater and was director of the Civic Opera after the death of Edith R. McCormick.
• Ruth Hanna McCormick (1880–1944), the daughter of U.S. Senator Mark Hanna and Charlotte Augusta Rhodes,^[14] she was the wife of Joseph Medill McCormick, and after his death, the wife of U.S. Representative Albert G. Simms^[15]. She maintained a large farm in Byron, Illinois.
• Robert Rutherford McCormick (1880–1955), famous publisher of the Chicago Tribune and patriarch of Chicago. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1912, 1940, 1948 and 1952. He married twice and died childless. He considered his favorite niece, Ruth "Bazy" McCormick, to be his heir.^[16] Upon his death his estate became the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. McCormick Place is named for him as is the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University.^[4] His estate, Cantigny in Wheaton, Illinois, is now a museum. (Joseph Medill Patterson (1879–1946), Illinois State Representative in 1903, was first cousin of J. Medill McCormick and Robert Rutherford McCormick through the Medill family.)
• William McCormick Blair Sr. (1884–1982), the founder of William Blair & Co. (which specialized in financing homes in the Midwest). He married Helen Hadduck Bowen (1890–1972), daughter of Joseph Tilton Bowen and Louise deKoven.^[17]
• Chauncey Brooks McCormick (1884–1954), the president of International Harvester. He married Marion Deering, heiress of the Deering Machine Company fortune that had merged with McCormick to form International Harvester. They owned Villa Vizcaya in Miami.
• William McCormick Blair Jr. (1916–2015), an investment banker who served as the U.S. Ambassador to Denmark 1961–1964 and the U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines 1964–1967.
• Brooks McCormick (1917–2006), who was the last McCormick to have a senior role at International Harvester; his wife Hope Baldwin McCormick (1919–1993) served in the Illinois House of Representatives.^[18]
• Ruth "Bazy" McCormick Miller Tankersley (1921–2013), a publisher and Arabian horse breeder.^[16]

Three branches: (1) Cyrus-the McCormick Blaines and the Rockefeller McCormicks. (2) William-the Deering McCormicks, the Medill McCormicks, and the McCormick Blairs. (3) Leander-the Hall McCormicks, the McCormick-Goodharts, and the Hamilton McCormicks.^[1]

The following is a list of companies in which the McCormick family have held a controlling or otherwise significant interest.

• Al-Marah Arabian Horse Farm
• Chicago Dock and Canal Company^[35]
• Chicago Tribune
• Duluth & Iron Range Railroad^[36]
• Illustrated Daily News
• Illinois Steel^[37]
• International Harvester
• McCormick & Company
• McCormick Estates^[38]
• Rockford Consolidated Newspapers^[39]
• Washington Times-Herald
• WGN (AM)
• William Blair & Company

The McCormicks are remembered through their philanthropy and projects named in their honor, including:

• List of United States political families

Bundled references

• Kearney, Joseph D.; Merrill, Thomas W. (2013). "Contested Shore: Property Rights in Reclaimed Land and the Battle for Streeterville". Northwestern University Law Review. 107 (3): 1057–1123. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
• Drury, George H. (2007). "Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway". In Middleton, William D.; Smerk, George M.; Diehl, Roberta L. (eds.). Encyclopedia of North American Railroads. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. pp. 398–399. ISBN 978-0-253-34916-3.

• McCormick Family Financial Records at the Newberry Library.