harvest Cyrus and his father moved
the machine out to the field. There a crowd of neighbors gathered and
watched with fascination as the reaper cut six acres of wheat during the
day.

McCormick continued to improve his invention and other farmers risked
their money in purchasing the first six he offered on the market.
Eventually the news spread to the grain fields of the Middle West and he
opened factories to supply the farmers there.

For years the inventor strove to improve the reaper; he discovered that
other labor saving devices were needed equally as badly, and he offered
other types of farm machinery to the rich farm lands.

Inventive genius lay near Lexington along other lines, too. It was near
here that James Gibbs invented his common sense stitch sewing-machine
which was a forerunner of our more modern models. And what a
labor-saving machine that was to all the housewives!

WASHINGTON COLLEGE

The Scotch-Irish were determined to have the best schools and colleges
for their children. The Hanover Presbytery, which in 1776 embraced all
the Presbyterian churches in Virginia, established a school which they
called Liberty Hall Academy. This was built in Lexington, Virginia, with
the Reverend William Graham, a native of Pennsylvania, as its first
president. George Washington, in 1796, gave the school a regular
endowment, the first of its kind. This is how it was made:

The Legislature of Virginia "as a testimony of their gratitude for his
services," and as "a mark of their respect," presented to George
Washington a certain number of shares in the Old James River Company, an
industry then in progress. Unwilling to accept anything for his own
benefit, he gave it to the Liberty Hall Academy.

In 1812, the Trustees of the school voted to ask the Virginia
Legislature to change the name to Washington College. Many others
decided to follow George Washington's fine example. A Mr. John Robinson
left his whole estate to the college; the next to aid it, we are told,
was the newly organized Society of the Cincinnati of Virginia.

Old records of the school throw an interesting light regarding the
expenses of a student in those far-off days. The treasurer's bill for
tuition, room rent, deposits and matriculation was $45 per year. Board
was $7.50 a month. Laundry, fuel, candles and bed amounted to about
three dollars per month. The cost of everything averaged about $140 a
year.

Lexington

When he was beset a