[1][2] Prior to industrialization, people harvested small grains like wheat by swinging a scythe and then manually tying the cut stems into bundles to dry.

In 1844 Cyrus began licensing the McCormick design to others to produce, including a company in upstate New York, but quality problems emerged at these other shops.

In 1847 Cyrus consolidated production at one factory in Chicago, which was then a frontier town, but closer to the grain-growing prairies and water transportation.

The factory was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, but McCormick rebuilt and branched out into new products, mostly by buying patents from other inventors.

[3] In the 1880s McCormick shifted from a jobber system of distributing their equipment to a branch house system, in which McCormick itself established regional outlets which acted as agents for the manufacturer, selling a full line of products to independent retailers, who sold direct to farmers.

Each branch house employed "blockmen" salesmen who each covered a chunk of territory; canvassers who tried to interest farmers in the product, helping both the blockmen and the dealers; and machinery experts who helped install, adjust and repair machines.

Madison by then had nine rail lines radiating out to various smaller towns in the farm country of southern Wisconsin and Illinois.

It is a simple three-story cream brick building with a Greek key design circling the top, and a flat roof.

Several painted ghost signs remain visible on the outside of the building: "OIL TRACTORS," "INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER COMPANY OF AMERICA," and "FARM...