[12] Life of Tom C. Ponting.
[13] Scientific American—The Meat Industry of America, 1909.
[14] Estimated.
[III. CATTLE BARONS AND PIONEER DROVERS OF ILLINOIS]
Previous to the end of the first quarter of the nineteenth century, no droves of cattle were seen in the country west of Ohio. The first drove ever driven from Illinois was taken from Springfield, through Chicago, to Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 1825, by Colonel William S. Hamilton. Beginning with this date, the practice of collecting cattle into droves and driving them to market soon grew from a minor occupation into an industry within itself; beef cattle that were grown and fattened in Illinois were gathered together into large droves by men who made it a business, and were driven to the then great cattle markets on the sea board. Foremost among these early pioneer cattlemen were: Jacob Strawn, John T. Alexander, B. F. Harris, and Tom C. Ponting. In the scope of their operations, Jacob Strawn and John T. Alexander exceeded many of the conspicuous operators in the rise and fall of the range industry in this state. These men owned hundreds of acres of the prairie land of the state, on which they collected enormous droves of cattle. These cattle were grazed here throughout the spring and summer, then were fed during the winter. It was no uncommon occurrence for one of these operators to buy all the corn for sale during one season in three or four counties. The next spring these fat bullocks were trailed across the level country to the eastern mountain ranges, over which they climbed to reach Lancaster, Philadelphia, and New York. Cincinnati and Buffalo received a few of these cattle, but most of them were driven on through to the markets on the sea board, where better prices were obtained. These cities bore about the same relation to the livestock traffic of those days as Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, and St. Joseph bear to the cattle trade of today; they were the collecting points for the business and the slaughterers who bought them either salted the carcasses down in barrels and casks or sold them to local consumers. Other dealers, however, bought some of these cattle and drove them on to smaller towns nearer the coast. "In the census of 1850, it was recorded that Illinois alone sent 2,000 head of cattle each week to the New York market."
While the cattle barons represented a large part of the beef cattle trade of Illinois, there were hundreds of smaller dealers who fed only a few cattle each year which added materially to the magnitude of the beef cattle industry of the state. A few of these smaller operators were found in almost every section of the state, especially in the central and northern part.
Cattle trailing continued until lines of railroad connecting Illinois with the cities on the Atlantic coast were built. This made cattle trailing unnecessary and greatly stimulated the production of beef in the state by furnishing means for placing beef before the consumers of the east quickly and, at a much less cost than that of the old method. The long drives greatly decreased the weight of the animals, and, at the same time, the meat of carcasses was inferior to that of the cattle that were shipped by railroad, and slaughtered without having taken such a long drive.[15]