Historical Name: Cyrus Hall McCormick
Common Name: Eastern Catalpa
Latin Name: Catalpa bignonioides
The Cyrus Hall McCormick Eastern Catalpa shaded a Virginia workshop where an important farming tool was invented in the early 1800s. The Shenandoah Valley was home to hundreds of farming families at that time. They relied on back-breaking labor to sow and reap their crops. But a farmer named Robert McCormick knew there had to be a better way to harvest grain than the centuries-old method of using a scythe. In the family workshop, McCormick’s son Cyrus mounted cutting blades on a spinning reel. His Virginia Reaper, drawn by a horse, cut grain in a fraction of the time it had previously taken, and revolutionized agriculture. This tree was grown from a seed taken from the Cyrus Hall McCormick Eastern Catalpa, and was planted into UCNJ’s Historic Tree Grove in 1997.
(text adapted from American Forests)