We have all heard of Cyrus Hall McCormick 1809 – 1884 a famous Ulster Scot inventor, industrialist and philanthropist that the McCormick tractors of today are named in honour of and for the company he founded in the 1830’s.

However there is another Ulster Scot who is not that well known in the British Isles, but who in so many ways is an even more important innovator connected with the McCormick, International Harvester and Case International Harvester story. His name is Edward Arthur Johnston whose 150th birthday is being celebrated in 2025.

Edward Arthur Johnston was born on the 1st August, 1875 at Brockport, New York, USA. His family including his great grandfather and grandmother hailing from County Down and other family roots from County Tyrone. Edward Johnston was also related to the same McCormick family as Cyrus Hall McCormick from County Tyrone. Edward Johnston’s great grandfather, grandfather and father were all noted inventors of agricultural machinery. Like so many Ulster Scots, innovation is in our blood.

Because of what was known as the “harvester wars”, J.P. Morgan brokered a deal to merge the McCormick, Deering and three smaller agricultural harvesting machine companies into the International Harvester Company. Edward Johnston and his designs would singlehandedly make the new International Harvester Company into the world’s largest tractor manufacturer by the mid-1920s.

placeholder image — A styled McCormick WD9 Standard tractor, one of Johnston's last tractor designs introduced in 1940. It had new "styled" tin work to modernise it like other International tractors of the time, but underneath it was a WD9 introduced in 1935. Designed by Johnston it started on petrol and once warm automatically turned over to Diesel fuel.

In 1894 Edward Johnston went to work for the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company as a designer and his Auto-Mower, a self-propelled mower with a petrol engine would win first prize at the 1900 Paris Exposition in France. It used at first a single or later two cylinder petrol engine which he also designed. The Auto-Mower had a “Live” power drive which allowed the cutting blades to run independently from the movement gears that he patented in 1902.

“Live Power Take Off” would not be seen again until the 1940s when it started to become a popular feature of tractors. His innovative and revolutionary thinking was on a different level in so many areas. He would leave the McCormick Company after a patent dispute in 1902. In 1905 the McCormick family who owned the controlling interest in the new International Harvester Company knew his brilliance and realised the company needed him to develop their first ever internal combustion engine tractors.

Edward Johnston would go on to hold patents for hundreds of inventions for the company from cars, lorries, tractors, engines and agricultural equipment. The International Auto-Buggy and Auto Wagon that had a bigger cargo space were the world’s first pickup trucks. Designed by Johnston as a car with rear load carrying space, they had larger wheels and high ground clearance that could take the farmer, family and produce from the farm to the town for sale over dirt track roads.

His designs for tractors included dozens of tractors under the Deering, Farmall, McCormick, Mogul, Titan, and International brand names. As well as designing wheel type tractors, he would also work on track type crawler tractors for the company including the TracTracTor range, and experiment with four and six wheel drive tractors. In 1935 International’s first hydraulic lift was designed by him, he had been looking at ways to attach a plough to a tractor for a number of years previously and his early lift worked with air pressure.In 1926 he designed the header of a combine to be raised and lowered by hydraulics.

Johnston most notably would be key in the design of the Farm-all or Farmall as he named it for the world’s first general all-purpose rowcrop type farm tractor that was able to successfully replace the horse for crop cultivation. Production of the Farmall tractor commenced in February, 1924 and celebrated its centenary last year. The general purpose Farmall tractor would prove so popular that its name would often eclipse the names of McCormick and the International Harvester Companies.

The pattern used on the tyres of today’s tractors for grip is taken from a 1913 patent by him.He is also credited with the development of the Power Take Off and making it a standard tractor feature from 1919 on some of the International Harvester tractors. Johnston would develop the first petrol and Diesel engines for the company. The first Diesel engined wheeled tractor by the International Harvester Company was to a design by him in 1935.

It started on petrol (low compression, spark ignition for easy starting) and after a few seconds when the engine warmed up it was changed over to Diesel (high compression for compression ignition), a unique but brilliant idea because early Diesel engines were so difficult to start in cold weather. Many other ideas by him are still in use in the latest tractors of today thanks to his brilliant, logical and creative mind. With so many inventions during his long career he is generally considered one of the greatest ever agricultural innovators.

It’s amazing to think that the two most influential designers in the history of the farm tractor are Ulster-Scots. I am also referring to Harry Ferguson of course, the inventor of the modern tractor, who’s Ferguson Master Patent celebrates its centenary this year.

For his hard work in the company, Edward Johnston became Vice President in charge of engineering in 1934 of the International Harvester Company and was awarded the Cyrus Hall McCormick Medal as a member of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers in 1938. He retired on the 1st March, 1939 from the International Harvester Company and passed away at Los Angeles, California, USA, on the 6th April, 1947, aged 71.

On the 1st August, 2025 as we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Edward Arthur Johnston his life story is just one of so many people with outstanding innovation achievements that the Harry Ferguson Museum of Innovation will address. Those like Edward Johnston with Ulster Scots family ties back to Northern Ireland of today really do make the case for the museum being located beside the Ulster American Folk Park in County Tyrone.

Edward Johnston’s very important legacy is not properly celebrated in any museum and by establishing the Harry Ferguson Museum of Innovation in County Tyrone this will appeal to a worldwide tourist audience and especially tourists from America.