[Illustration: 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.