Henrietta Maria Hamilton was the daughter of John Hamilton (9 Jun 1789 - 7 Aug 1872) and Elizabeth M. McNutt (23 Mar 1794 - 7 Apr 1871). She was born at Locust Hill, where she grew up 5 miles east of Lexington and 12 miles north of the Natural Bridge. She spent long hours attending the Oldfield school house until age 14, when she was sent to Ann Smith Academy, a girls boarding school in Lexington. She graduated there.

She married Leander James McCormick on 22 or 25 Oct 1845 at her parents home at Locust Hill in Rockbridge County, Virginia, at 5pm. Rev. B.L. Brown officiated. She described Leander as "6' in height, well-proportioned, perfectly healthy, with abundant dark hair, hazel eyes, and full black beard."

They left Rockbridge County, Virginia in 1848 for a long trip to Chicago with their first born, son Robert in tow.

They had 4 McCormick children (all connected below):
Robert Hall, 6 Sep 1847 (Sarah Lord Day)
Elizabeth Maria, 2 May 1850
Henrietta "Nettie J" Laura, 22 Apr 1857 (Frederick Emanuel Goodhart)
Leander Hamilton, 27 May 1859 (Constance Plummer)

Shortly after arriving in Chicago, she writes to her sister in law, Martha Ann Smith Hamilton, the wife of James Gilbreath Hamilton, in Covington, Virginia. The two letters dated 3rd and 10th Dec 1848 about her arduous journey to Chicago, life, food, new furnishings, clothing, the help. She was a Southern woman moving to the antebellum Northern city. Chicago Yesterdays: A Sheaf Of Reminiscences, compiled by Caroline Kirkland, Chicago, 1919, p 35-40.

Mrs. Henrietta Hamilton McCormick's photo is between page 318 and 319, plus after page 322, in the unnumbered Family Record and Biography, by her husband, Leander James McCormick, 1896. It is also in her work, Genealogies and Reminiscences, Chicago, 1897, containing McCormick and related personal and family genealogical history. My copies of both of these works were dated, autographed, and given by Leander to my kin, with a dedication inside. I also have a copy of their small book that opened out with family table charts, that included our family. The cover is missing. I have never seen it listed. However it appears to be a precursor of her grandson Leander McCormick-Goodhart's 1933 published, Genealogical Tables of the Descendants of John Hamilton of "Locust Hill", Lexington, Virginia, born 1789--died 1825.

There is a sculpted marble bust of her, circa 1865-1880 by Antonio Marmi Frilli in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Her obit, titled "Mrs. M'Cormick Dead," was in the Lexington Gazette (VA), dated 6 Dec 1899, front page (see photo). "Mrs. Leander J. McCormick died here yesterday at the Virginia Hotel of cerebral apoplexy. Her funeral will take place at the Fourth Presbyterian Church at 11 o'clock tomorrow morning and will be conducted by Dr. D.C. Marquis, of McCormick Seminary. Burial will be at Graceland. Mrs. McCormick was 77 years olf and had been in failing health several years. She is survived by her husband and two sons--R. Hall McCormick and L. Hamilton-Goodhart, of Hollow Castle, Kent, England. Henrietta Marie McCormick, the daughter of John and Elizabeth Hamilton, was born in Rockbridge county, Va., in 1822. Her childhood was spent on the homestead, 12miles from the Natural Bridge, and her school days began at a nearby schoolhouse. Reminiscences of this period, preserved in a volume of her own authorship, relate the trials of study-on hard straight-backed benches 7:30 o'clock in the morning until 6 at night. At the age of 14 she was sent to a boarding-school at the Ann Smith Academy, in Lexington. In 1840 she graduated from the academy and, after remaining with her parents five years, she was married to Leander James McCormick, of Walnut Grove, Rockbridge county. In October, 1848, Mr. McCormick old his property preparatory to entering partnership in the harvester business with his brother, Cyrus H. McCormick, in Chicago. WIth their inant son, Robert Hall, Mr. and Mrs. McCormick started on horseback in the midst of a blinding snowstorm. At Steel's Tavern they took the stage to New York. From Albany they proceeded West, and arrived in Chicago November 20. They soon began housekeeping on the North Side of the river, in the then city of 20,000 persons. Later Mrs. McCormick spent considerable time abroad, and was interested throughout her life in artistic pursuits. At the request of her friends she published two volumes of genealogies and reminiscences relating to her family and that of her husband. Leander J. McCormick, her husband became connected with the manufacture of reaping machinery abut 1848. His father Robert McCormick, had worked for many years trying to perfect a reaping machine, but failed of success. In 1831 Cyrus Hall McCormick, a son of Robert and a brother of Leander J., succeeded in building a successful reaping machine, the first that had ever been produced. He obtained patents upon it three years later and made improvements from time to time up to the building of the McCormick Works in Chicago in 1847. On account of this invention Cyrus H. McCormick was made a member of the French Academy of Science and was given the rank of an officer of the Legion of Honor. The McCormick family became millionaires through the manufacture of farm machinery, and have given liberally to educational institutions. Cyrus H. McCormick founded a seminary in Chicago and endowed a professorship in Washington and Lee University, Virginia. Leander J. McCormick gave to the University of Virginia a fine refracting telescope and erected the McCormick Observatory there."

Her obit in the 28 Nov 1899 issue of the Rock Island Argus says: "Mrs. Leander J. McCormick, a Chicago preacher and wife of a pioneer died Sunday, aged 77.

"Mrs. Henrietta Hamilton McCormick, a pioneer resident of Chicago, and the wife of Leander J. McCormick, one of the founders of the McCormick reaper works, died Sunday night of cerebral apoplexy, aged 77, years. She was born in Rockbridge county, Va., May 25, 1822." Published in the Bedford Bulletin, Vol 5, #33, dated 30 Nov 1899.

"Death of Mrs. Leander J. McCormick, Mrs. Henrietta Hamilton McCormick, wife of Leander J. McCormick, died at her home in Chicago Sunday night of cerebral apoplexy. Mrs. McCormick was born near Buena Vista in this county, May 25th, 1822. She was the daughter of John Hamilton. Her mother was before marriage Elizabeth McNutt of the same neighborhood, and a sister of Governor A. Gallatin McNutt of Mississippi. Mrs. McCormick was the last survivor of a number of children of her father's family. In her yonth she married Leander J. McCormick, then a yonng Rockbridge farmer. They lived for a time on a farm owned by him on South river, just where Midvale station on the Norfolk and Western road now stands. A little more than 50 years ago they moved to Chicago where Mr. McCormick joined his brother, Cyrus J.McCormick, in the manufacture of reapers, a business from which a great fortune was made by the family. When Leander J. McCormick and his wife went to Chicago it was necessary to follow in the main a water route by way of Buffalo, N. Y., and the great western metropolis was then in its infancy. Mrs. McCormick was a gentle and lovely woman of fine intelligence. Much of her time in recent years was devoted to studying the genealogy of her family, and a book prepared by her on the Hamilton family has placed in enduring form much history with regard to many families of this county. Her husband, who survives her, is several years her senior and in very infirm health. She leaves two sons—Hall and Hamilton McCormick, and one daughter, Mrs. Fred Goodheart, who lives in England." Published in the Rockbridge County News (VIrginia), Vol 16, #4, dated 30 Nov 1899 (see photo).

Her marker says:
HENRIETTA MARIA HAMILTON
WIFE OF
LEANDER J. McCORMICK
BORN ROCKBRIDGE CO., VA.
MAY 25, 1822 - NOV. 26. 1899

Bio by LSP