William Grigsby McCormick (June 3, 1851 – November 29, 1941) was an American businessman of the influential McCormick family in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, who was a co-founder of

Kappa Sigma Fraternity Kappa Sigma (), commonly known as Kappa Sig, is an American collegiate social fraternity founded at the University of Virginia in 1869. Kappa Sigma is one of the five largest international fraternities with currently 318 active chapters and colo ...

. He also served as a

Chicago alderman The Chicago City Council is the legislative branch of the government of the City of Chicago in Illinois. It consists of 50 alderpersons elected from 50 wards to serve four-year terms. The council is gaveled into session regularly, usually mon ...

Early life and education

William Grigsby McCormick was born June 3, 1851 in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

. His father was William Sanderson McCormick (1815–1865) and mother was Mary Ann Grigsby (1828–1878) of the Hickory Hill estate in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

. His father managed finances for the family agricultural machinery business which became

International Harvester The International Harvester Company (often abbreviated by IHC, IH, or simply International ( colloq.)) was an American manufacturer of agricultural and construction equipment, automobiles, commercial trucks, lawn and garden products, household e ...

until he died in an insane asylum in 1865. His mother then moved the family back to

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore wa ...

near her Virginia family estate. After she was widowed, his mother had sold her share of the family business to his better-known uncle

Cyrus McCormick Cyrus Hall McCormick (February 15, 1809 – May 13, 1884) was an American inventor and businessman who founded the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, which later became part of the International Harvester Company in 1902. Originally from the ...

. McCormick's brother

Robert Sanderson McCormick Robert Sanderson McCormick (July 26, 1849 – April 16, 1919) was an American diplomat. Born in rural Virginia, he was part of the extended McCormick family that became influential in Chicago. Early life McCormick was born July 26, 1849 on the ...

(1849–1919) married the daughter of the founder of the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

''. Their son Chauncey Brooks McCormick with their nephew

Robert R. McCormick Robert Rutherford "Colonel" McCormick (July 30, 1880 – April 1, 1955) was an American lawyer, businessman and anti-war activist. A member of the McCormick family of Chicago, McCormick became a lawyer, Republican Chicago alderman, distinguish ...

purchased the Hickory Hill estate of Reuben Grigsby in 1929.

Kappa Sigma

He attended the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

in 1868 and 1869, where he founded the

with four other friends on December 10, 1869. A plaque was later affixed to his 1869 room, which was numbered 46 East Lawn, where the first Kappa Sigma meeting was held. Mccormick's favorite drink was scotch whiskey. He was a guest at the fraternity house named for the family in 1916. The area is now a complex known as the McCormick Road Residence Area. He died on November 29, 1941 at the family estate known as St. James Farm near

Wheaton, Illinois Wheaton is a suburban city in Milton and Winfield Townships and is the county seat of DuPage County, Illinois. It is located approximately west of Chicago. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 52,894, which was estimated ...

. At the time Kappa Sigma was the fourth largest fraternity in the country.

Career

First, he left the university of Virginia in May 1870 and traveled with brother Robert to Europe, returning to Baltimore in November. He worked for two years as a banker for John S. Gittings. In February 1875, after taking a year of travel with his new wife, and then living for a few months in Baltimore, they moved to Chicago. He first worked for McCormick Brothers & Findlay, and then started his own business selling insurance and real estate, with offices in Chicago and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He was elected as a Democrat to the

Chicago City Council The Chicago City Council is the legislative branch of the government of the City of Chicago in Illinois. It consists of 50 alderpersons elected from 50 wards to serve four-year terms. The council is gaveled into session regularly, usually mon ...

as alderman representing the 18th ward in 1880 for one term. In 1884, he formed the partnership Smith, McCormick & Company to trade commodities on the

Chicago Board of Trade The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), established on April 3, 1848, is one of the world's oldest futures and options exchanges. On July 12, 2007, the CBOT merged with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) to form CME Group. CBOT and three other exch ...

. He became a member of the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its liste ...

in 1885. The business became part of the Schwartz, Dupee & Company stock trading firm (with partners Gustavus Schwartz and John Dupee, Jr.). He worked for them until the

panic of 1893 The Panic of 1893 was an economic depression in the United States that began in 1893 and ended in 1897. It deeply affected every sector of the economy, and produced political upheaval that led to the political realignment of 1896 and the pres ...

. He then formed a partnership of Price, McCormick & Company with Theodore Hazeltine Price on March 18, 1895. After some initial success, the firm ran into trouble in a failed attempt to take over

Hanover Insurance The Hanover Insurance Group, Inc. is an insurance company based in Worcester, Massachusetts. It was the original name of a property-liability insurance firm established in 1852, and it remained a publicly traded company under that name until the e ...

in 1899. He retired after that firm failed on May 24, 1900, due to a steep drop in the prices of cotton

futures contract In finance, a futures contract (sometimes called a futures) is a standardized legal contract to buy or sell something at a predetermined price for delivery at a specified time in the future, between parties not yet known to each other. The asset ...

s. Besides losing his own money, it was reported another backer was George Crocker, son of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

banker

Charles Crocker Charles Crocker (September 16, 1822 – August 14, 1888) was an American railroad executive who was one of the founders of the Central Pacific Railroad, which constructed the westernmost portion of the first transcontinental railroad, and took ...

Personal life

On October 23, 1873, he married Eleanor Brooks at the

Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church Brown Memorial Park Avenue Presbyterian Church of Baltimore, Maryland, U.S., is a large, Gothic Revival-style church built in 1870 and located at Park Avenue and Lafayette Avenue in the city's Bolton Hill neighborhood. Named in memory of a Bal ...

in Baltimore. His wife was daughter of former railroad executive Walter Booth Brooks. Together, they had seven children: # Carrie McCormick (b. 1874) # William S. McCormick (1875-1881), died as a child # Mary Grigsby McCormick (1878-1955), who in 1900 married Herbert Stuart Stone (son of

Melville Elijah Stone Melville Elijah Stone (August 22, 1848 – February 15, 1929) was an American newspaper publisher, the founder of the ''Chicago Daily News'', and was the general manager of the reorganized Associated Press. Biography Stone's parents were ...

whose family had founded the ''

Chicago Daily News The ''Chicago Daily News'' was an afternoon daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, published between 1875 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois. History The ''Daily News'' was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Doughert ...

''). # Walter Brooks McCormick (b. 1880). # Eleanor Harryman McCormick (b. 1882). # Chauncey Brooks McCormick (1884–1954) was the father of

Brooks McCormick Brooks McCormick (February 23, 1917 – August 15, 2006) was an American philanthropist and equestrian from the McCormick family that ran International Harvester. He was the chief executive officer of International Harvester in the 1970s, and wa ...

(1917–2006) who was the last McCormick to lead the family firm, then called International Harvester. # Reubenia ("Ruby") McCormick (b. 1891).

Family tree

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:McCormick, William Grigsby 1851 births 1941 deaths McCormick family University of Virginia alumni Chicago City Council members Kappa Sigma founders Illinois Democrats