Medill McCormick
Medill McCormick | |
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![]() McCormick in 1912 | |
United States Senator from Illinois | |
In office March 4, 1919 – February 25, 1925 | |
Preceded by | J. Hamilton Lewis |
Succeeded by | Charles S. Deneen |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's at-large district | |
In office March 4, 1917 – March 3, 1919 | |
Preceded by | Burnett M. Chiperfield |
Succeeded by | Richard Yates |
Member of the Illinois House of Representatives | |
In office 1913–1917 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Joseph Medill McCormick May 16, 1877 Chicago, Illinois |
Died | February 25, 1925 Washington, D.C. | (aged 47)
Political party | Republican |
Spouse(s) | Ruth Hanna |
Children | 3, including Bazy |
Parents | Robert Sanderson McCormick Katherine Medill |
Alma mater | Yale University |
Joseph Medill McCormick (May 16, 1877 – February 25, 1925), called Medill, was part of the McCormick family of businessmen and politicians in Chicago. After working for some time and becoming part owner of the Chicago Tribune, which his maternal grandfather had owned, he entered politics.
After serving in the State House, he was elected both as a Representative in the United States Congress and later as a US Senator from Illinois.
Early life[]
Joseph Medill McCormick was born in Chicago on May 16, 1877. His father was the future diplomat Robert Sanderson McCormick (1849–1919), who was a nephew of Cyrus McCormick.
McCormick attended the Groton School, a preparatory school at Groton, Massachusetts. He graduated from Yale University in 1900, where he was elected to the secret society Scroll and Key.
He worked as a newspaper reporter and publisher, and became an owner of the Chicago Daily Tribune. He later purchased interests in The Cleveland Leader and Cleveland News. In 1901 he served as a war correspondent in the Philippine Islands.
Marriage and family[]
In 1903 he married Ruth Hanna, daughter of the Ohio Senator Mark Hanna. They had three children:
- Ruth "Bazy" McCormick, (1921–2013) who married Peter Miller and then Garvin Tankersley. As Bazy Miller, she founded Al-Marah Arabians, a breeding and training farm for Arabian horses formerly in Tucson, Arizona, which is still operating, now in Florida, under the ownership of her son, Mark Miller.[1]
- Katrina McCormick (1913–2011), who married Courtlandt Dixon Barnes Jr.[2]
- John Medill McCormick, called "Johnny", died in a mountain-climbing accident in 1938.
The Chicago Tribune[]
McCormick was a grandson of the Tribune owner Joseph Medill. His mother Katherine Medill McCormick hoped that leadership of the paper would pass from her brother-in-law, Robert Wilson Patterson, to her first son. Joseph McCormick took over much of the management of the paper between 1903 and 1907, but became increasingly depressed and developed alcoholism. In 1907–1908, he spent some time under the care of the psychoanalyst Carl Jung in Zurich, and subsequently followed Jung's advice to detach himself from the family newspaper.[3]
His younger brother, the famed "Colonel" Robert McCormick (1880–1955) became involved in the newspaper, worked closely on it for four decades, and was a leading isolationist figure in the Republican Party.[4]
Political career[]
McCormick was vice chairman of the national campaign committee of the Progressive Republican movement from 1912 to 1914. He was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives in 1912 and 1914.
Afterward he advanced to national office, being elected to the United States House of Representatives, where he served one term from March 4, 1917, to March 3, 1919. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1918, and served from March 4, 1919, until his death at age 48 in 1925. In the Senate, McCormick was chairman of the and the Committee on Expenditures in Executive Departments.
McCormick lost the nomination in 1924 to Charles S. Deneen, who had previously served as the 23rd Governor of Illinois. He died on February 25, 1925, in his hotel suite at the Hamilton Hotel in Washington, DC.[5] Although it was not publicized at the time, his death was considered suicide.[6] McCormick was interred in , near Byron, Illinois.[7]
Family tree[]
Paternal side[]
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Maternal side[]
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See also[]
References[]
- ^ Parkinson, Mary Jane (1998). ... and Ride Away Singing. Arabian Horse Owners Foundation. ISBN 978-1-930140-00-4.
- ^ McCormick, Katrina (June 15, 1935). "Katrina McCormick Weds Courtland Dixon Barnes, Jr" (PDF). Syracuse Herald. Retrieved March 10, 2013.
- ^ Miller, Kristie (1992). Ruth Hanna McCormick: A Life in Politics. ISBN 0-8263-1333-7.
- ^ Richard Norton Smith (2003) [1997]. The Colonel: The Life and Legend of Robert R. McCormick, 1880–1955. Northwestern University Press. ISBN 978-0-8101-2039-6.
- ^ "National Affairs: Medill McCormick". Time magazine. March 9, 1925. Archived from the original on November 22, 2011. Retrieved January 9, 2011.
- ^ United States Congress. "Medill McCormick (id: M000369)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
- ^ Joseph Medill McCormick at Find a Grave
- American National Biography
- Dictionary of American Biography
- Miller, Kristie. Ruth Hanna McCormick: A Life in Politics from 1880 to 1944. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1992
- Stone, Ralph A. "Two Illinois Senators Among the Irreconcileables." Mississippi Valley Historical Review 50 (December 1963): 443–65.
External links[]
Media related to Joseph M. McCormick at Wikimedia Commons
- Newspaper clippings about Medill McCormick in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
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- 1877 births
- 1925 suicides
- American male journalists
- Groton School alumni
- McCormick family
- Medill-Patterson family
- Members of the Illinois House of Representatives
- Members of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois
- People from Ogle County, Illinois
- American politicians who committed suicide
- United States senators from Illinois
- Illinois Republicans
- Republican Party United States senators
- Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives