History of the Beef Cattle Industry in Illinois

by Frank Webster Farley

Mr. Bradley wanted Mr. Ponting to go with him to McLean county, but as Illinois was known in those days as a very sickly state, Mr. Ponting was afraid to venture.

While in Chicago at this time, he met a Mr. Lewis and Mr. Heyworth who had come up from Vermilion county with a drove of cattle. Mr. Heyworth was taken sick here and Mr. Ponting was employed to assist Mr. Lewis in taking the cattle on to Milwaukee.

In the spring of 1849, Mr. Ponting went to Georgetown, Illinois, and there purchased about 300 head of cattle. He also bought a camping outfit, a yoke of oxen, employed a cook, and drove through with the cattle to Wisconsin. The cattle that got fat on the way were sold to the butchers, while those that were fit for milk cows were sold to the immigrants. During this same spring, when Mr. Ponting was in Vermilion county, he visited Mr. Lewis at Crabapple Grove, which is on the line of Vermilion and Edgar counties. This man and one of his neighbors had bought a drove of geese, drove them to Iowa, and traded them for steers. They drove the steers back to Vermilion county, fattened them, and the next spring built flat boats and shipped them to New Orleans. In the fall of this same year, he made several trips over the line into Illinois, in Stevenson county, buying fat sheep to drive to Milwaukee. There were no regular banks in Milwaukee, therefore all the money that was paid for stock was Mexican dollars and five franc pieces. Very little American silver money was seen at that time. The hotel rates in Milwaukee were very cheap; only $2.00 per week, with bitters before breakfast, free. Whiskey sold for 15 cents a gallon and was used liberally by stock drivers.

In March, 1850, Mr. Ponting rode on horseback from Milwaukee to Leroy, in McLean county, where he met with some men who were buying cattle to take back to California. He went from here to Christian county, where he bought a drove of cattle which cost him from $6 to $11 per head. In the spring, he drove them to Milwaukee. There had been very heavy rains that spring and rivers were very high, which made cattle driving very difficult.

In the spring of 1851, he purchased about 350 head of cattle, buying from Rochester, near Springfield, to the Wabash river. After gathering the cattle together, he pinned them up near the present site of Moweaqua. He bought these cattle very cheap and drove the entire herd to Milwaukee, where they were herded on the prairies near town until sold. He took a few in each week and sold them to the butchers. After finishing the season's work, he returned to Indiana to spend the winter.

In the summer of 1852, the cattle business in Wisconsin was dull. Money matters were very much changed; gold began to come in from California, and get into circulation. Mr. Ponting and his partner decided to go to Texas and buy their feeder cattle. They rode through to Hopkins county, Texas. Here they visited a Mr. Hart, one of the large cattle men in that country. They bought several hundred cattle and drove them back to Illinois, reaching Moweaqua in July of the next year. He put these Texas cattle on pasture until winter, when they were fed out on shocked corn. Mr. Ponting's partner went to Indiana and bought several hundred hogs to follow these cattle. They bought shocked corn, paying about 50 cents a bushel for it. They would go into a piece of corn after it was dry enough and select two of the smallest shocks they could find. The owner would select two of the largest ones. These were shocked out and weighed, the average being taken as an average size shock. He bought about 40 acres from Mr. Dennison Sanders this way. The shocked corn was fed to the cattle in the same place each day, so that when it rained, the accumulation of stalks would keep the steers out of the mud. He drove this bunch of cattle to New York the next summer, where they were sold July 4, 1854.

In the spring of 1855, Mr. Ponting purchased a large drove of cattle, which together with some he had bought a few months before, were driven through to Chicago. Illinois was pretty well settled by this time, and it was unnecessary to take a camping outfit along. He stopped this drove of cattle near Pullman, put them out on the grass and took only a few into Chicago at a time. There had been a great change made in the Chicago market since Mr. Ponting was there two years before. There were two regular stock yards; the Merrick Yards, now known as the Sherman Yards, and the Bullshed Yards. In the fall of this year, he bought another bunch of cattle and drove them to Chicago in October. This time he stopped the cattle near the present site of Kankakee, and rode on into Chicago to learn the prospects for a market. They were then taken on to Chicago and left just outside the city to graze until they could be sold to the cattle dealers. This was the last bunch of cattle Mr. Ponting ever drove over land to Chicago, and it is probable that they were the last bunch ever driven from central Illinois. From this time on, the cattle were sent to market by railroad. The next year, 1856, he shipped 110 head of cattle from Moweaqua, the first cattle ever shipped from that place.

In the early part of 1857, the cattle business was very flourishing and the packers said there would be a big demand for them that fall. Mr. Ponting contracted for 1000 head of cattle and about 1500 hogs before the season was over, but before he got them on the market, a panic came on, money became almost worthless, and he suffered a heavy loss.