L. Hamilton McCormick

Leander Hamilton McCormick (May 27, 1859 – February 2, 1934) was an American writer, inventor, art collector and sculptor.

Early life McCormick (as he was known) was born in Chicago, May 27, 1859. He was the youngest of four children born to Henrietta (née Hamilton) McCormick and Leander J. McCormick.

His grandfather Robert McCormick of Virginia invented agricultural machinery. His father, Leander J. McCormick,

McCormick reportedly made over a hundred inventions and took out many patents. However, since he inherited a fortune, he did not need to earn a living. He claimed to have invented an aerial torpedo, motorcycles, eyeglasses for looking backward while driving, a watch which shows the time the world over, an electric rotary brush, an electric rotary razor, an apparatus to locate vessels in a fog at sea, a boat which will not rock in rough water, a quadricycle to lessen vibration upon rough roads, an hydroplane for skimming over the surface of the water, an ambulance to prevent shock or vibration to its occupant, an audiophone for theatre use, a water cycle, a scheme to bridge the English Channel, and finally at the end of the World War I an improvement in war tanks, which came just as hostilities ended. and Student's Course in Characterology: an exact science in fifteen lessons (1921). He also wrote on other related topics. views which were not rare at the time.

Personal life

In 1886, while touring Europe, he met Constance Plummer (1865–1938), the daughter of Edward Plummer, of Canterbury, England, whom he married on February 15, 1887. Together, Hamilton and Constance were the parents of three sons:

Leander J. McCormick (1888–1964), who married heiress Alice Cudahy, daughter of Edward Cudahy of the Cudahy Packing Company, in 1917. They divorced in Reno in 1929, and in 1933 he married Renée de Fleurieu Fontarce, the Countess de Fleurieu, and adopted both of her children from a previous marriage to Guy de Brotonne. After their marriage, the couple settled in at Shaws, the Samuelson home in Weybridge. After their marriage, they lived in Chicago, and later, Santa Barbara, California.

Legacy His mansion, at 100 E. Ontario Street, Chicago, has been the home of Lawry's The Prime Rib restaurant since the 1974. It is in the River North neighborhood just half a block off the Michigan Avenue shopping district.

Family tree