Cyrus McCormick earned very little education from school

On February 15, 1809, McCormick was born at "Walnut Grove," a 1,200-acre family farm in rural Virginia. He was the son of Mary Ann Hall and Robert McCormick, a farmer, developer of agricultural equipment, and whiskey distiller. Robert McCormick created hydraulic machinery and reapers, but he never had any economic success with any of his creations.

Cyrus McCormick had very little formal schooling since he wasn't interested, which is an interesting fact about Cyrus McCormick. Instead, he used to spend time in his father's workshop, where he became interested in mechanics and creating new machines and equipment. For this reason, Cyrus McCormick took up the challenge and created a final, functional version of the wheat reaper after his father was unable to do so.

Young McCormick developed a political interest. He was a devoted supporter of slavery and a Democrat. He came to the North in the late 1840s and eventually bought the Chicago Times because he saw Abraham Lincoln's election as a calamity. He would express his pro-Southern viewpoints through the paper.