Who was Elijah McCoy’s Wife, What Was His Cause of Death
Who was Elijah McCoy
Elijah McCoy was a Canadian-American engineer of African-American descent who invented lubrication systems for steam engines. Born free on the Ontario bank of Lake Erie to parents who had fled slavery in Kentucky, he moved to the United States as a young child when his family reunited in 1847, becoming a U.S. resident and citizen.
When Was Elijah McCoy Born?| When and How did he die?
McCoy was born on May 2, 1844 in Colchester, Ontario, Canada. Talking about his cause of death, He died on October 10, 1929, at the age of 85, in the Eloise Infirmary in Nankin Township, now Westland, Michigan.
His death was as a result of injuries sustained in a vehicle accident seven years earlier in which his wife Mary perished. He was laid to rest in Detroit Memorial Park East in Warren, Michigan, U.S.
Elijah McCoy First Wife
McCoy’s first wife was Ann Elizabeth Stewart. However, not so much is known about Elizabeth Stewart.
Elijah McCoy Second Wife | Mary McCoy
Mary Eleanora McCoy Delaney was a philanthropist, organizer, and clubwoman. She is well recognized for establishing the Michigan State Association of Colored Women. She was born in Lawrenceburg, Indiana in 1846.
Her real birth date is unknown; it was either January 26, 1846 or January 7, 1846, according to various sources. She married twice, the first time to Henry Brownlow and the second time to Elijah McCoy.
Elijah McCoy was a famous inventor and the inspiration for the phrase “the real McCoy.” The McCoy’s decided to settled in Detroit in the early 1880s. She was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame in 2012, and the Mary E. McCoy Post Office Building in Detroit was inaugurated in 2016.
Elijah McCoy “The real McCoy”
This famous phrase, which usually means “the real deal,” has been credited to Elijah McCoy’s development of the oil-drip cup. According to one concept, train engineers who want to avoid substandard versions would ask for it by name and enquire if a locomotive was equipped with “the real McCoy system.”
The National Inventors Hall of Fame’s biography of Elijah McCoy mentions this hypothesis. The phrase “The real McCoy” was first used in 1881 in Yorkville, Ontario (now part of Toronto).
Elijah McCoy Career
When Elijah McCoy landed in Michigan, he could only find work with the Michigan Central Railroad as a fireman and oiler. McCoy also undertook more skilled labor in a home-based machine shop in Ypsilanti, such as making improvements and inventions.
He designed an automatic lubricator for oiling locomotive and ship steam engines, which he patented in 1872 as “Improvement in Lubricators for Steam-Engines.”
He had already developed similar automated oilers, one of which was the displacement lubricator, which had already gained extensive usage and whose technological descendants continued to be widely employed well into the twentieth century.
