Joseph M. McCormick
In 1912 as Illinois representative
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 (1877-05-16)May 16, 1877 Chicago, Illinois
Died	February 25, 1925(1925-02-25) (aged 47) Washington, D.C.
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. He committed suicide at age 47, a few months after losing his bid for renomination for a second term in the senate.

Early life[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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 Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Labor 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 a hotel room in Washington, DC.^[5]
Although it was not publicized at the time, his death was considered suicide.^[6]
McCormick was interred in Middle Creek Cemetery, near Byron, Illinois.^[7]

Family tree[edit]

Paternal side[edit]

v t e McCormick Chicago family tree
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Robert McCormick Jr. (1780–1846)   Mary Ann Hall (1780–1853)                                                                         Nancy Fowler (1835–1923)   Cyrus Hall McCormick Sr. (1809–1884)   Mary Ann Grigsby (1828–1878)   William Sanderson McCormick (1815–1865)   Leander James McCormick (1819–1900)                                                                                       Cyrus Hall McCormick Jr. (1859–1936)   Harold Fowler McCormick (1872–1941)       Joseph Medill (1823–1899)           Leander Hamilton McCormick (1859–1934)                                                                       Robert Sanderson McCormick (1849–1919)     Katherine van Etta Medill (1853–1932)   William Grigsby McCormick (1851–1941)   Anna Reubenia McCormick (1860–1917)                                                                       Joseph Medill McCormick (1877–1925)   Ruth Hanna (1880–1944)   Robert Rutherford McCormick (1880–1955)   Chauncey Brooks McCormick (1884–1954)   William McCormick Blair Sr. (1884–1982)                                                                 Brooks McCormick (1917–2006)   William McCormick Blair Jr. (1916–2015)
Notes:

Maternal side[edit]

See also[edit]

• List of United States Congress members who died in office (1900–49)

References[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Joseph M. McCormick.

• 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.