Cyrus McCormick Farm and Workshop, April 9, 2011

Posted on April 11, 2011. Filed under: History, Travel |

Grist Mill and Workshop, Cyrus McCormick Farm and Workshop, Raphine, VA

Reaper, Cyrus McCormick Farm and Workshop, Raphine, VA

Grist Mill Wheel, Cyrus McCormick Farm and Workshop, Raphine, VA

Grist Mill Machinery, Cyrus McCormick Farm and Workshop, Raphine, VA

Workshop, Cyrus McCormick Farm and Workshop, Raphine, VA

Lexington, Virginia, Web Page
Commonwealth of Virginia Web Page

On Saturday Chris and I stopped at the Cyrus McCormick Farm and Workshop in Raphine, Virginia, a little south of Lexington, Virginia, in western central Virginia. We quickly walked around the beautifully landscaped grounds and through a couple of the buildings — we need to go back and explore it more thoroughly.

Cyrus McCormick was most famous for his invention of the reaper, a precursor to the harvester. His reaper, which he developed with members of his family, was patented in 1834. Cyrus McCormick is often called the “father of agriculture,” since his reaper was the beginning of agricultural mechanization.

He founded the McCormick Harvester Company, which eventually was bought by International Harvester Company. He became a prominent Chicago businessman.

The McCormick family farm was known as Walnut Grove. The 620-acre farm now belongs to Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (“Virginia Tech”) and is part of Virginia Tech’s Shenandoah Valley Research Station. The beautiful grounds include nine renovated buildings. We walked through the grist mill and blacksmith shop.

The McCormick family used the grist mill to grind wheat into flour. It was built around 1800 and was operated through the late nineteenth century.

The blacksmith workshop was used to repair farming tools. The McCormicks also built their reapers there.

We are going back to look at the McCormick Farm and Workshop in the future to look through the museum, carriage house, slave quarters (nine slaves lived at Walnut Grove), smokehouse, schoolhouse, and other buildings. We read online that eight of the nine original buildings remain. Robert McCormick, Cyrus’ father, created the farm in 1822.

I like the working miniature reaper models that were used by the McCormick Harvester Company salesmen. Most of all, I love the beautiful landscaping at this site.

Admission is free to this pleasant byway. You can stop by any day when the weather is good. One web site lists the hours as 8-5; another one says 8:30-5:00.