The Ann Arbor News
The ‘real McCoy’ may have been Elijah by name, Ypsilanti resident, inventor
Monday, April 10, 2006
HISTORICALLY SPEAKING
The expression “the real McCoy” means something that is authentic in its quality, that it is not an imitation or a substitute. One of the theories for the source of that expression holds that it originated with Elijah McCoy, who resided and worked in Ypsilanti in the late 1800s.
Elijah McCoy was the son of George and Millie McCoy, escaped slaves from the American South. They had made their way to freedom via the Underground Railroad, passing through Ypsilanti to Canada. The family settled on a farm near Colchester in Essex County, Ontario, where on May 2, 1844, Elijah was born. In the 1850s, the family returned to the United States and settled in Ypsilanti.
George and Millie lived on the Starkweather property, where George made cigars and transported the product to Detroit where the market was. The family soon moved to a house on Congress Street, where a large barn was converted into a cigar factory. At the same time, George was active in the Underground Railroad, and sometimes carried escaping slaves in his wagon.
When Elijah was 15 years old, and the American Civil War was beginning, he went to Edinburgh, Scotland, where he studied mechanical engineering. After the war was over, Elijah returned to Ypsilanti. He sought employment with the Michigan Central Railroad as an engineer, but because he was African American, the only position he could find was locomotive fireman.
Being a fireman on a train was physically demanding. He had to shovel coal into the engine’s firebox at the rate of two tons an hour. He also had the job of oiling the moving parts of the engine when the train was taking on water. The need to stop and oil the many moving parts of the engine caused many delays. Elijah McCoy turned his mind to the problem, and working in his home, he invented what became known as the lubrication cup.
McCoy received patent number 129,843 for his lubricating cup on July 23, 1872. Soon, others were selling their own versions of lubricating cups, but often they were cheap imitations of poor quality. The story about the expression is that railroad purchasing agents acquiring new cups would ask if they were “the real McCoy.”
McCoy’s lubricating cup made millions of dollars, but little of the money reached him. As an African American, McCoy lacked the money to produce the cup himself, so he had to turn production over to others.
The modest sums he received allowed him to continue his work. Eventually, he would hold some 80 patents, most for lubricating cups. He also invented a folding ironing board and a lawn sprinkler, but it is for the lubricating cup that he is most remembered.
Suffering from hypertension and senile dementia, McCoy was sent to Eloise, a hospital, in 1928. He died there that same year. Still, he was, as many believe, “the real McCoy.”
James Mann is a local historian, storyteller and author. His books include “Ypsilanti: A History in Pictures,” “City of Ypsilanti Fire Department 100 Years,” and “Our Heritage: Down by the Depot in Ypsilanti,” written with Tom Dodd. Mann can be reached at manjam@provide.net.