Whatever Happened to McCormick-Deering?

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However, even a corporate giant such as IHC wasn't immune to the calamity of the Great Depression. By 1932, its U.S. sales fell 78 percent, and the price of its stock dropped to $10.37 from a 1929 peak of $142 per share. Tens of thousands of Harvester employees were laid off and remained so through most of the lean 1930s.

The McCormick family had, starting as early as 1862, crushed several attempts at unionization by their own workers. In the late 1930s, though, the unions started organizing among Harvester's workforce of 60,000. IHC management fought bitterly, but by 1945, most every worker was a union member.

After VJ Day, Harvester started a round of diversification and acquisition that cost the company a fortune and diluted its focus. The old core business of farm equipment and trucks was joined by construction equipment and home refrigeration. Meanwhile, the attitude of IHC's management was summed up by one long-time dealer:

'They thought that whatever they built and painted red was going to sell.' Just three years later Deere green outsold Harvester red for the very first time.

A combination of factors finally killed the International Harvester Company. These included the huge and expensive proliferation of truck models, and the stiff postwar competition in the appliance. Also, several of IHC's new crawler and farm tractor models were rushed into production without being thoroughly tested, and then broke down in the field. Obsolete factories were kept too long in service, and there were chronic and costly labor problems. All of these were reasons, and yet, the reason for all of these was poor management.

Getting back to the original question, 'Whatever happened to McCormick-Deering?' The name was used on farm implements until some time in 1948 or 1949, when Deering was dropped and McCormick alone was used. During the 1960s, the proud McCormick and Farmall names were replaced by International, the name Harvester's farm machinery carried until the sale of the Farm Equipment Division to Tenneco, Inc. in 1984.

Ever since his years as a boy on a farm in western Pennsylvania, Sam Moore has been interested in tractors, trucks and machinery. He's been a collector of antique tractors, implements and related items for the past 11 years.

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