History of the Beef Cattle Industry in Illinois

by Frank Webster Farley

Jacob Strawn

Jacob Strawn came from Ohio and settled in Morgan county in 1827, and a few years later was probably the most extensive cattle dealer in the world, but his operations were, to a large extent, local and his most distant shipping point, Saint Louis. His pastures in Morgan county embraced about 15,000 acres and his business reached its maximum about 1860.

Survivors of that period recall Strawn's free handed methods. He purchased cattle by the thousands, fixing the price on mere verbal description as to quality and weight. Frequently, at delivery time, nobody was on hand to receive the cattle, but they were driven into the Strawn pastures and left with confidence that payment would be prompt. Both Strawn and his successor, Alexander, were always ready to buy cattle, in fact they were the market of that period. Strawn was at the height of his career when John T. Alexander came on the scene. Strawn produced beef as a feeder and grazier; Alexander contracted cattle to be delivered in the future.[17]

Mr. T. C. Sterrett relates that in the summer of 1856 he came to Illinois and was informed that the largest cattle dealer in the state was Jacob Strawn, living near Jacksonville, in Morgan county. He visited Strawn's place and found a remarkably large brick house and was astonished at the amount of brick paving about the house. Mr. Strawn lived on a good farm at Orleans Station, east of Jacksonville. He owned a lot of good horses and Shorthorn cattle. Piloted by the foreman, Mr. Sterrett went out into a 1,200 acre pasture which was fenced with rails and stocked with a fine lot of cattle. He was very much struck with a hundred head of the finest general work horses that could be found anywhere. This band of horses and cattle, the good fences, and the general appearance of everything about the place, indicated the power and ability of the owner. Mr. Strawn was by far the greatest American cattleman of his time.[18]

Benjamin Franklin Harris[19]

December 15, 1811—May 7, 1905

B. F. HARRIS at 55

"Benjamin Franklin Harris was born December 15, 1811, on a farm in the Shenandoah Valley, near Winchester and Harper's Ferry, in Frederick county, Virginia. He was the second of ten children of William Hickman Harris and Elizabeth Payne (own cousin of Dolly Payne Madison from England). His grandfather, Benjamin Harris, with two brothers, came from England and settled on the eastern shore of Maryland in 1726. The family were of Scotch-English extraction and Quakers; in this country becoming fighting Quakers, then Methodists. He grew to manhood on his father's Virginia farm, attending the country schools until sixteen years of age. At that time, President Jackson's attitude toward the United States bank so seriously affected values that wheat declined from $1.50 to 50 cents and Virginia farm land to less than one-third of its former price. These declines so affected the father's obligations that Benjamin Franklin Harris and his brothers, each with a six horse team—in those days without railroads—went into the "wagoning" or freighting business, and for three years "wagoned" freight over that section and out through Pennsylvania and as far west as Zanesville, Ohio, in order to recoupe the father's losses."

On March 20, 1833, the Virginia farm had been sold at 40 % of its original cost, and in a one-horse gig and a two-horse carryall, the Harris family set out for Ohio, arriving at Springfield on April 8, and nearby, purchased and settled upon their new farm. It was during this year that Benjamin Franklin Harris commenced business for himself, buying and driving cattle overland to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and there disposing of them to cattle feeders.

In 1834, he started for Illinois via Danville, then through the present site of Sidney, and Urbana—where there was but one cabin—and on to what is now Monticello in Piatt county. During the ensuing years, he began to accumulate farming lands in Piatt and Champaign counties and to buy cattle throughout all this section as far south and west as Mt. Vernon, Vandalia, and Springfield. During several seasons, he bought for the purpose of feeding cattle, all the corn for sale in Macon, Sangamon, and Champaign counties. Each year, for nine years, he drove these cattle overland via Muncie, Indiana; Springfield, and Columbus, Ohio, into Pennsylvania, and some into New York and Boston, where they were sold.

When B. F. Harris came into this state, no streams were bridged, and there were only eleven families on the Sangamon river from its source to the limits of Piatt county. Fifteen years later not a half dozen men had ventured their cabins a mile from the timber limits—the deer and the Indians were still at home here. In 1840, he visited Chicago, a town of 2000 people, on stilts in a swamp. Nineteen days were required for the trip and the corn and wheat he teamed there sold for 20 and 30 cents respectively. Fifteen years after he came, not 25 % of the land in these counties had passed from government ownership and the first railroad came twenty years later.

The operations of B. F. Harris in connection with the early beef cattle industry of Illinois were conducted more largely along the feeding lines than were those of John T. Alexander or Jacob Strawn. He bought, fed, and sold, from 500 to 2000 head of cattle annually for nearly three-quarters of a century. The Pittsburgh Live Stock Journal, May 8, 1905, in speaking of his death, referred to him as "The grand old man of the live stock trade—the oldest and most successful cattle feeder in the world." Everything to which he put his hand flourished. His judgment was so trustworthy that he made but few business mistakes. He did business on a cash basis and was never in debt. Operating on this basis, he was a rich man long before his race was run, and he enjoyed a period of ease and entire freedom from anxiety much longer than falls to the lot of most men who are counted fortunate in the world.

On May 23, 1856, his famous herd of one hundred cattle—the finest and heaviest cattle ever raised and fattened in one lot by one man—were weighed on his farm by Dr. Johns of Decatur, the president of the State Board of Agriculture. The average weight of each of the hundred head was 2,378 pounds. Visitors to the number of 500 came from Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and this state to see these cattle, whose weight can never again be equalled. The following year, February 22, 1857, twelve of these cattle which he had retained and fed were shipped to Chicago. This remarkable bunch averaged 2,786 pounds. Clayborn and Alley, the most famous butchers in Chicago at that time, paraded them about Chicago's downtown streets.

Following is a copy of a pamphlet gotten out by Mr. Harris immediately after the sale of these cattle. (see next page)

The New York Tribune of October, 1853, refers to his prize winning drove of cattle averaging 1,965 pounds, displayed at the New York World's Fair then in session.

Every few years, he took cattle prizes or topped the market. Less than a year before his death, his 1,616 pound cattle topped the Chicago market for that season.

Mr. Harris died May 7, 1905, in his ninety-fourth year, still in strong mental and physical vigor, although at the age of fifty-three, he had retired from extremely active business life. He came in the day of ox teams and lived to ride over his farm with his son, grandsons, and great grandsons in an automobile. He voted for nineteen presidents, beginning with Henry Clay, and saw five generations of his family settled in Champaign county. He established the First National Bank in Champaign in 1865—the oldest bank in the county, and was its president at the time of his death.

In the issue of The Breeder's Gazette, May 24, 1905, is the following statement: "In literature, art, professional life, or politics, a man with a record of achievements equal to that of the late Benjamin Franklin Harris would deservedly have numerous biographers. Many a man has been made the subject of bulky biography who might not measure up to him on any score. This is not because the most inviting and interesting personalities are found outside the farmer's calling, but largely because until recent years agriculture as a vocation has not been adequately appreciated by the public. It has not been sufficiently dignified to become the source of life histories. Other professions have furnished the candidates for the Plutarchs, and contributed the heroes and heroines famous in fiction. Farming has been drawn on principally for Philistines. Its great men, its geniuses, its Harrises, have been overlooked by almost all writers worthy of putting their useful lives into books."

(Cont. on page [47].)

Record of the Best Hundred Head of Cattle Ever Fattened in One Lot in the United States.

STOCKMEN, ATTENTION

Who Can Beat This Record?

Weight of 100 head of Cattle, fatted by B. F. Harris, of Champaign County, Illinois:

No. Cattle	Weight
2	4718
2	4782
2	4340
2	4580
2	4582
2	4730
2	4764
2	4738
2	4880
2	4756
2	5150
2	4624
2	4582
2	5364
2	4828
2	5378
2	4864
2	4640
2	4694
2	4610
2	4776
2	4488
2	4572
2	4988
2	4634
2	4458
2	4920
2	4828
2	4702
2	4852
2	4464
2	4900
2	4634
2	4764
1	2690
2	4650
2	4806
2	4505
1	2548
2	4830
2	4762
2	4706
2	4854
2	4746
2	4700
2	4546
1	2516
2	4648
2	4724
2	4720
2	4732
1	2646

Average price sale, 7 cents

These cattle were weighed by Dr. Johns, President of State Agricultural Society.

Twelve of the large cattle out of 100 head, weighed May 23d, 1856, which was during the time of fattening:

Black	2424
Red	2340
Pied	2640
M. Red	2264
Ch. Roan	2522
B. Red	2574
S. Roan	2330
C. Red	2340
S. White	2360
P. Red	2486
Long White	2496
M. Red	2540

Same cattle weighed July 18, 1856:

Black	2526
Red	2480
Pied	2730
M. Red	2424
Ch. Roan	2654
B. Red	2646
S. Roan	2470
C. Red	2490
S. White	2430
P. Red	2630
L. White	2600
M. Red	2564

Same cattle weighed February 12th, 1857:

Black	2720
Red	2780
Pied	2990
M. Red	2640
Ch. Roan	2810
B. Red	2910
S. Roan	2680
C. Red	2770
S. White	2605
P. Red	2840
L. White	2810
M. Red	2880

Average, 2786¼ lbs.

Average age, 4 years

Weighed by B. F. Harris; sold for 8 cents per lb.

Largest steer in Illinois, weight 3524, 7 years old, raised by John Rising, fed by H. H. Harris.

Average weight of the 100 head, 2377 lbs.

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The foregoing is a correct statement of a famous cattle sale which occurred in the City of Chicago, month of March, 1856.

The herd comprised 100 head of the finest and heaviest cattle ever raised and fattened in one lot by one man in the State of Illinois, or in the United States of America, or elsewhere, so far as the records go to show. These cattle were raised from 1 and 2-year-old steers on my farm in Champaign County, Illinois, and fattened for the market in the years of 1855 and '56, their average age, at that time, being 4 years. They were weighed on my farm by Dr. Johns, of Decatur, Illinois, President State Agricultural Society. Said weights were witnessed by a large number of representative men from Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois, to the number of five hundred, among whom were many professional cattle raisers and dealers, all of whom bore willing testimony to the average weight of the cattle, which was 2,377 lbs. per head. Out of this lot of 100 cattle, 12 head of the finest steers were selected and fed until the following February. They then showed an average weight of 2,786¼ lbs., and were sold to Messrs. Cliborn and Alby, of Chicago, at 8 cents per lb. The weight master kept a record of each draft as the cattle were weighed—one and two in a draft. A copy of said weights is herewith attached for the inspection of the general public; also copy of average gain at different periods.

On the 22d of February, 1857, the 12 steers sold to Cliborn and Alby, appropriately decorated with tri-colored ribbon, preceded by a band of music, were led through the principal streets of Chicago, followed by 100 butchers, mounted and uniformed. After this unique procession, the cattle were slaughtered by said Cliborn, and Alby, for the city markets, some of the beef selling as high as 50 cents per lb. Small packages of it were sent to customers in various parts of the United States, and even Europe, and sold, in some cases, as high as $1.00 per lb. These orders were given by these parties simply that they might say they had eaten of this famous premium beef.

B. F. Harris.