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]
_John T. Alexander_[16]
[Illustration: JOHN T. ALEXANDER.]
"Among the cattle operators of Illinois, John T. Alexander was probably
the greatest by reason of the magnitude of his transactions, but he
was antedated by Jacob Strawn, who located in Morgan County in 1827.
Alexander has been regarded as America's greatest cattleman in a
commercial sense. In the strict sense of the term, he was a pastoralist
and a trader, not an agriculturalist. His parents were native of
Ireland, who migrated to Virginia in 1818, and in 1824 joined the
exodus to the Mississippi Valley, settling in Jefferson County, Ohio.
John T. Alexander was the oldest of a family of eleven children. His
education was on the farm. He was endowed with that faculty called
cattle sense. At the age of fifteen, he was entrusted, by his father,
with the entire charge of a drove of cattle sent to Philadelphia. He
sold them to advantage, collected the money, and took it safely home.
At the age of seventeen, he was purchasing cattle in Illinois to
replenish his father's Ohio pastures. It is related that his search
took him down into Sangamon county, where he was so struck with its
natural advantages, from a cattle standpoint, that he determined to
migrate."
In 1840, the Alexanders settled in Morgan county, then a cattle range
bounded only by the horizon. Mr. Alexander accumulated a herd of
steers, pastured them on the public domain, and for half a decade
prospered in a moderate way. As the country became settled, it soon
became evident that he must own land or get out of the cattle business
as far as that locality was concerned. In 1848, he purchased 3,000
acres of land at prices ranging from 87 cents to $3.00 per acre. This
land was adjoining the half section that he had originally homesteaded.
In 1855, he acquired another 1,000 acres at $30.00 per acre. This
indicated how rapidly the price of land was advancing. In 1857, he
bought 700 acres more at $50.00 per acre, and in 1859, he acquired 1500
acres of the Strawn estate at $30.00 per acre. In 1864, he secured 853
acres at $60.00 to $70.00 per acre, making him the owner of 7,233 acres
of the choicest land in Illinois. In 1866, he purchased the stock farm
of Michael Sullivan in Champaign county, Illinois, containing 26,000
acres at $11.00 to $12.00 per acre.
It was during this period of purchase that John T. Alexander acquired
the title of "cattle king." His transactions were on an enormous scale.
His buyers searched every nook and cranny of the cattle producing
region of the Mississippi valley, and Alexander, on the Wabash railroad
in Morgan county, Illinois, was the largest cattle shipping station in
the world. Entire trains of cattle, destined for eastern markets,
were daily loaded there and almost the entire population was on the
Alexander pay roll. Thousands of other cattle, for which he paid but
never saw, were loaded at innumerable points for eastern markets. From
a pastoralist, he had emerged into a speculator on probably the most
gigantic scale the live stock industry has ever witnessed. He ruled the
markets of the East and was the Napoleon of the cattle trade. His name
was more familiar to the West than that of Vanderbilt or A. T. Stewart.
His annual cattle shipment for many years exceeded 50,000 head, and
in 1868, reached 75,000. For a lengthy period, his sales on eastern
markets exceeded $4,000,000 annually, and it is related that prior to
his Champaign county purchase, an inventory of his assets showed 7,233
acres of land, averaging $75.00 per acre in value, $100,000 in bank,
7,000 cattle on his Morgan county pastures, and not a dollar of debt.
Such speculative operations, however, had the result of entailing
financial embarrassment. In 1871, Alexander had to contract
his business and part with his Champaign county property. This
embarrassment was due to many causes, not the least serious of which
was cattle mortality by splenetic fever, by which he lost $100,000.
He also sustained heavy losses by shrinkage in cattle values, and the
Champaign county investment proved disastrous. He also became involved
in railroad complications. The railroads were keen competitors for
the livestock traffic and in 1871, Alexander severed his relations
with the Pennsylvania railroad, making a contract with the New York
Central, by which that company gave him a low rate conditional to
a specified tonnage. By way of resentment, the Pennsylvania railroad
put merely nominal rates into effect, thereby glutting eastern markets
and crippling Alexander's trade, which had become so colossal as to
be unwieldy. To carry on such gigantic operations, he was compelled
to trust to innumerable assistants, many of whom proved to be either
incompetent or unfaithful. Confronted with liabilities aggregating
$1,200,000, he was forced to make an assignment, but his estate was
sufficient not only to pay off every creditor, but leave him a large
sum for a fresh start in life. It was while energetically engaged in
retrieving his fortune that he died, in 1876.
Those survivors of John T. Alexander, who remember his activity as
Illinois' greatest operator, describe him as being tall and commanding
in appearance. Even at the time of his death, he was hale and youthful.
He was of sanguine temperament, naturally impulsive, but quiet and
non-assuming in manner, sparing in speech, and undoubtedly one of the
great American captains of industry in his time, an outstanding figure
in a trade that boasts many conspicuous men.
The old Alexander mansion in Morgan county, the greatest house in
the countryside half a decade ago, remains in a somewhat dilapidated
condition, and the decaying out-buildings convey a mournful hint of
vanished greatness. Here, during Alexander's time, Abraham Lincoln,
Stephen A. Douglas, Richard Yates, and others, whose illustrious
names adorn Illinois history, were the guests of America's greatest
cattleman.
_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]