McCormick Family History

The ancestors of the McCormick family were of Scotch-Irish lineage. They emigrated to America sometime after the siege of the city of Londonderry, Ireland in 1689. The McCormick family who settled in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania were descendants of Thomas McCormick, who married Elizabeth Carruth in 1728, and emigrated to America in 1735 with his brother Hugh McCormick. The McCormick name became prominent in the early settlement of the county and members of the family in each succeeding generation distinguished themselves in every field of endeavor, including business, finance, law, politics and the military. The best-known McCormick was Vance McCormick(1872-1946) (son of Colonel Henry McCormick), who went on to serve as chair of President Woodrow Wilson's Commission for Peace at Versailles. Several prominent Daupin County, PA families married into the McCormick family, and their mementos, letters and photos are incorporated and preserved within the McCormick Family Collection. The Cameron Family is among these. A very well-known and influential family in Central Pennsylvania history, the Camerons boasted statesmen and high-standing business leaders in their ranks. In fact, during the time that the McCormick Family Papers were collected, the Harrisburg-Lancaster County McCormick-Cameron family included two U.S. Senators, six bank presidents, a mayor and gubernatorial candidate and three President-makers, plus a U.S. Attorney General (by marriage). The best known Cameron family member was Simon Cameron. The Alricks family was related to the McCormick family through the marriage of James and Mary Alricks McCormick. The Alricks family traces its lineage back to Peter Alricks, who arrived in America in 1657 with dispatches from the Holland Commissioners to his uncle, Jacob Alricks, director of the Amsterdam Colony on the Delaware River. He was a successful trader and became a prominent figure in the early settlement. He married Maria Wessels in New York in 1664. Mary Wilson Alricks, a direct descendant of their youngest son, Wessell, married James McCormick (1832-1917) in 1859. The Finney family is related to the McCormick family through the marriage of Eliza McCormick, daughter of James and Mary Alricks McCormick. It was the Finney branch of the family that preserved the McCormick Family Collection.

Individual Family Members

The most celebrated McCormick is Vance (1872-1946), who remains one of the most influential figures in Cumberland and Dauphin County, Pennsylvania history. For information about Vance's life, or to see photos, or documents and other memorabilia related to Vance within the McCormick Collection, visit Vance's page. To learn about other family members (bios, photos, and other documents, as they become available), click on the names at left. For further general information about the McCormick Family history, see our Simple Family Tree/ Genealogy Page

About the Collection

The McCormick family history is preserved in the McCormick Family Papers, a collection of letters, photos, publications, collected objects and personal and official documents that have been passed down by family members. The papers were donated to the Historical Society of Dauphin County in the spring of 1993 by Louisa France, whose mother, Eliza McCormick Finney, was a sister of James McCormick, Jr. Several papers, including J.G. Finney and William W. Finney's correspondence, original deeds and materials about the Harrisburg Flood, 1936, are included in the McCormick Family Papers collection.

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This site is sponsored by the Center for Pennsylvania Cultural Studies at the Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg, in cooperation with the Historical Society of Dauphin County, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Director of the McCormick Family Papers Project at the Center is Professor Michael Barton.

Learn more about the Center, and the program that sponsors this project

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