Leander James McCormick (February 8, 1819 – February 20, 1900) was an American inventor, manufacturer, philanthropist, and businessman and a member of the McCormick family of Chicago and Virginia. Along with his elder brothers Cyrus and William, he is regarded as one of the fathers of modern agriculture due to his part in the development of the McCormick Reaper and what became the International Harvester Company. He also owned and developed vast amounts of real estate in downtown Chicago and Lake Forest, Illinois. In 1885, he donated one of the world's largest telescopes to the University of Virginia. Early life McCormick was born on February 8, 1819, in Rockbridge County, Virginia. He was the fourth of five sons born to Robert McCormick, Jr. (1780–1846) and Mary Ann "Polly" Hall (1780–1853) of the prominent McCormick family. His older brothers were Cyrus McCormick and William Sanderson McCormick. Another older brother, Robert Hall McCormick, died as a teenager, and his younger brother, John Prestly McCormick, died as a young adult. He was raised at the family homestead known as Walnut Grove, near Raphine in Rockbridge County, in the Shenandoah Valley on the western side of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Career His father invented agricultural machines including the mechanical reaper. His eldest brother Cyrus received the patent in 1834 and Leander developed multiple improvements to the reaper and received patents for two of them, with the remainder being patented by his brother Cyrus. Following the death of their father, Leander owned a third share of the reaper business, which amounted to 75 machines in 1846. In 1847, Leander helped Cyrus set up a factory in Cincinnati, Ohio that produced 100 machines. In fall 1848, he moved to Chicago with his wife and infant son to join Cyrus in setting up an even larger factory. Brother William joined them in 1850 in a business in run by Cyrus to manufacture reapers and sell them across the midwestern United States. They created what eventually became known as the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, with Leander taking over management of the manufacturing department, which he controlled for the next 30 years. By 1870, the McCormicks were one of the wealthiest families in the United States. In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed much of the Reaper Works and other buildings, as well as the Leander McCormick family residence at the corner of Rush Street and Ohio Street, .