USA > Indiana > Newton County > A standard history of Jasper and Newton counties, Indiana : an authentic narrative of the past, with an extended survey of modern developments in the progress of town and country, Volume I > Part 3
USA > Indiana > Jasper County > A standard history of Jasper and Newton counties, Indiana : an authentic narrative of the past, with an extended survey of modern developments in the progress of town and country, Volume I > Part 3
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40
Sellers, E. B., 214 Sergeant Jasper, 45
Sergeant Newton, 45
Service, William, 276
Spitler, Charles G., 143, 146, 453
Spitler, George W., 47, 51, 54, 55, 63, 90, 139, 144, 169, 175, 176
INDEX
xxvi
INDEX
Spitler, Malinda, 42
Spitler, Marion L., 42, 55, 83, 451
Spitler, Thomas J., 148
Taylor, John W., 573
Taxable property, 78
Tecumseh, 26
Terwilliger, Matthew, 63
Test, Charles E., 63
Spotswood, John B., 287, 288
Test, Charles H., 209, 210
Thayer, 208
Stackhouse, Charles F., 478
Stackhouse, Clinton D., 478
1 Stage routes, 204 Stanforth, C. B., 311 Stanley, Amzi, 141
Starr, Charles C., 142
State Bank of Remington, 155
State Bank of Rensselaer, 146
State government founded, 28
State judicial system, 61
State militia, 114 State road, 71
State Supreme Court upholds Newton County, 185
State Trust and Savings Bank, 604
State Trust and Savings Bank, Good- land, 298 Staton, Jeptha B., 728
Thornton, H. C., 43
Stearman, Sadie, 318
Steinbach, Edward, 288
Stembel, Albert F., 543
Stembel, George O., 543
Stembel, Sarah E., 544
Tiffany, G. E., 265
Stephan, Joseph, 150, 167
Stephens, Albert P., 628
Sterrett, Morgan L., 167
Timmons, James T., 63
Steward, Edgar, 730
Tincher, Henry, 757
Stewart, Mrs. Ezra, 140
Tipton, John, 32
Stewart, Joseph, 677
Stewart, Sidney, 43
Stewart, William, 56
Stewart, William J., 615
Stockton, Almira M., 349
Stockton, William S., 348
Stoner, Henry, 199
Stoner, O. F., 341
Townsend, Lowell, 530
Townsend, William, 527
Township schools, 86
Strech, William M., 266
Township schools, Newton county, 332
Streight, A. D., 256
Townships formed, 49
Strohm, H. A., 193
Trails, 204
Treadway, Ezra S., 266
Strole, Asberry, 727
Triplett, C. D., 172
Triplett, Charles E., Sr., 191, 258, 270, 421
Triplett, Charles E., Jr., 421
Troxell, Joseph R., 213
Truman, B. H., 299
Tuggle, J. M., 343
Turfler, Francis A., 430
Tucker, E. N., 316 Turkey Foot and Bull affray, 171 Turkey Foot Grove, 171
Symes, John C., 58'
Thayer, E. M., 302, 345 The First Jasper County Court House (view), 50 Thomas, Greenip I., 539
Thomas, Mrs. Harve, 256, 261
Thomas, William, 266
Thompson, Delos, 146
Thompson, John, 192
Thompson, Mrs. Alfred, 121
Thompson, Roy D., 143
Thompson, Simon P., 63, 66, 209, 214
Thompson, William O., 744
Thornton, Adaline H., 429
Thornton, C. C., 43
Thornton, George L., 56
Thornton, George R., 427
Thornton, Greenleaf L., 428
Thornton, John H., 266
Thornton, Mrs. H. C., 42
Thrawls, James C., 56
Three I's Railroad, 74
Tilton, John W., 56
Timmons, Clement, 43
Tivoli, 293 Todd, John, 22
Toledo, Logansport & Burlington
Railroad Company, 74
Torbet, James M., 681
Town of Newton, 136, 137-141
Townsend, Claude B., 529
Strohm, Harry, 286
Stryker, Jonathan W., 197
Stump, John L., 49
Subscription schools, 86
Sullivan, J. W., 147 Surrey, 74 Swamp lands, 38, 170
Swamp lands scandal, Jasper county, 79 Swigget, Ralph, 197
Talcott, William C., 209, 211
Tatman, C. H., 147
Spitler, Wesley, 56
Spitler, Zechariah, 170, 175, 184, 185, 186, 187, 191, 198
Spitler's Real Estate Gazette, 148
Spottswood, James B., 212
Stoutsberg, 74
Strawn, Abner, 294, 295
INDEX xxvii
Turpie, David, 63 Turner, Daniel H., 649 Twelfth Cavalry, 130, 272 Twelfth Judicial Circuit, 210 Tyler, Felix, 195
Ulrey, John W. S., 199 Union township, 51, 77
United Brethren Church, Kentland, 288 United Brethren Church of the Brook Circuit, 312 United Brethren in Christ of Morocco, 342 Urmston, E. Littell, 198, 212, 285, 291
Vail, W., 314 Vance, E. E., 302, 318
Vanderburgh, Henry, 58
Vander Voort, William S., 320
Van Rensselaer, James, 52, 137, 140 Varnum, James M., 58
Veatch, John S., 199
View on State Street, Morocco, 341
Vincennes, 20, 22, 58
Vinton, David P., 209
Vinton, David W., 63 Vondersmith, Elkanah B., 156
Wainscott, Rev. 313 Walker, Isaac D., 684
Walker M. H., 56
Walker township, 51, 77 Wallace, David, 32
Wallace, James, 212 Ward, Artemas, 311 Ward, Peter E., 63
Ward, Peter H., 209, 213
Warner, Charles C., 433
Warner, Charles W., 55
Warner, Daniel G., 432
Warner, Norman, 56, 149, 431
Warner, Norman H., 433 Warren, Horace J., 255
Warren, Horace K., 199, 256, 261, 266
Warren, Isaac N., 463
Warren, John W., 463
Warren, Samuel, 463
Williamson, Cland, 341
Willis, Levin, 133 Willits, William R., 687
Wilson, Aaron, 198
Wilson, Blake, 198
Wilson, Charles, 293
Wilson, Neely, 739
Wimsett, A., 313
Wishard, Mrs. W. W., 134
Washburn, Perry, 566
Washington township, 197, 202, 203
Wasson, John M., 145, 146
Waterworks Plant at Kentland (view), 287 Watson, Charles M., 55 Waymire, Frederick R., 53
Waymire, Rev., 313 Weas, 19, 30
Weatherhogg, Charles R., 54
Weaver, Clifford S., 315
Weaver, Clifford T., 315
Weil, R. L., 298 Weiss, Charles R., 519 Welch, George, 587;
Welsh, Mrs. Benjamin, 43
Wenrick, Catherine, 667
West, Nathaniel, 198, 228, 236
Western county opposed, 184
Weston, Henry, 142
Whaley, James A., 195, 579
Wharton, Chester W., 290
Wheat, 3, 13 Wheatfield, 74, 77, 166
Wheatfield township, 77
Wheaton, Z. T., 198
White, Adda V., 282
White, Amos, 47
White, Charles, 725
White, Isaac, 28
White, Jacob A., 237
White, Mrs. Sherman, 314
White's Grove, 178
Whitney, E. B., 160
Wickwire, Chester, 199
Wigmore, Charles F., 288
Wildasin, John A., 199
Wild game, 92
Wild honey, 99
Wiley, J. H., 311
Wiley, Ulrick C., 63
Wiley, U. Z., 209, 214
Willard, Ashbel P., 187, 190
Willard, George L., 150
Williams, Cordelia M., 456
Williams Ditch, 221
Williams Ditch Triers, Angust, 1916 (view), 222 Williams, George A., 408
Williams, George W., 193
Williams, Jay W., 456
Williams, John A., 167
Williams, Joseph, 42
Williams, Thomas, 266
Warren, Solomon, 197 Warriner, W. B., 159
Washburn, Angus D., 285, 568
Washburn, I. B., 55
Washburn, Ira M., 435
Washburn, James A., 161, 486
Washburn, Mary, 120 Washburn, Mary E., 568
Wishard, William, 134
Wonder, Adolphus H., 257, 265
Wood, Charles A., 256, 709
Wood, Delos, 308
Wood, E. G., 149
Wood, Miles H., 289
Wood, Thomas J., 269
xxviii
INDEX
Wood, William L., 640
Yeoman, David H., 83, 153, 449
Woodson, Mrs. T. P., 307
Yeoman, Ira W., 43, 55, 73
Woodson, Thomas P., 307, 311
Yeoman, James, 43
Wright, Charles G., 41 Wright, Edward W., 149
Yeoman, J. J., 140
Yeoman, Joseph, 40, 43, 133
Wright, Ezra, 55 Wright, J. A., 169 Wright, Jabez, 43
Yeoman, L. D., 139
Yeoman, Samuel, 254, 255
Wright, Joseph A., 63
Wright, Truitt P., 56
Zaring, Joseph, 311
Wright, Willis J., 54, 56
Zick, Robert, 632
Wright, W. J., 43, 133, 136
Zoborosky, Sarah, 772'
Zook, Edwin D., 302
Zook, R. M., 314
Yeoman, Allen J., 56 Yeoman, Daniel H., 41
Zook, S. C., 314
Zumbuelte, Mathias, 150
Wyatt, H., 286
Wyatt, Nathaniel, 43
Yeoman, Samuel E., 42, 56, 265
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RURAL SCENES IN BOTH COUNTIES
Kent's Pond, Kentland Scene near Remington Maple Walk, St. Joseph's College, Rensselaer Stewart's Lake, Goodland
Fountain Park, Remington
Jasper and Newton Counties
CHAPTER I
CO-OPERATION OF NATURE AND MAN
THE KANKAKEE AND IROQUOIS-SURFACE GEOLOGY-MINERAL SPRINGS-TOPOGRAPHY, SOIL AND PRODUCTS-MOULDING OF NATURE BY MAN-WHAT THE FIRES DID TO DRIVE OUT RANK FORAGE-THE LIVE STOCK OF JASPER COUNTY-AGRICULTURE AND LIVE STOCK FORTY YEARS AGO.
The watershed between the Lake Michigan region and the Valley of the Kankakee is about fifteen miles south of the great lake. If the territory now included in Jasper and Newton counties should be classified according to the arrangements of nature it would be placed in the great Illinois country. Its far northern sections are within a swamp area of the Kankakee Valley and in the earlier period of its political existence, or until the creation of Lake and Porter counties in 1836, it contained a large area of these lowlands north of the Kankakee. Some of its southern townships also extended into the Valley of the Wabash, but with the formation of Benton County in 1840 the territory to be covered by this history was embraced entirely within the Valley of the Illinois.
THE KANKAKEE AND IROQUOIS
The Kankakee, which is one of the leading tributaries of the Illi- nois, rises in St. Joseph County, Northern Indiana, flows south- west through Northwestern Indiana, receives the Iroquois in the first tier of Illinois counties, and, after a course of about 230 miles, enters the Illinois River above Morris. The Iroquois River, the chief tributary of the Kankakee, drains the central and southern portions of Jasper and Newton counties, flows southwest and west Vol. I-1
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JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES
into the State of Illinois, and then turns abruptly north to the Kan- kakee. So that Jasper and Newton counties are not only in the broad northern Valley of the Kankakee, with its torpid waters and marshes (many of which have been drained and converted into fer- tile, productive lands), but within the area of the rapid-flowing and stimulating Iroquois, along which sprung some of the first and most permanent settlements of the region.
SURFACE GEOLOGY
Jasper County lies just north of the basin of the Wabash. Its southwestern half is a gently rolling prairie of black, loamy soil, while its northern and northeastern portions are sandy, with oak openings and prairies, interspersed with sandy knolls and ridges. The country is underlaid with beds of bowlder drift, which vary in depth from twenty feet in the Valley of the Iroquois to nearly two hundred feet at some of the higher ridges.
At Rensselaer the Iroquois flows over a bed of limestone con- taining interesting specimens of corals and fossils. The stone is rather cherty and not favorable to the production of lime, but a short distance below the city it is purer and has been burned for commercial purposes. Above Rensselaer, near the old mill dam, thin beds of limestone raise themselves above the low banks of the river constituting the only natural rocky exposure on the Iroquois in Jasper County. Southeast of town is a sandstone quarry which has been worked to some extent and a few miles north several gravel beds, which have supplied material for roads and buildings purposes.
MINERAL SPRINGS
A number of mineral springs are found near Rensselaer, the waters of which experience has determined to be highly medicinal. Among them are some white sulphur springs, which, in a malarious climate, are worthy of attention. Half a mile east of the county seat a well that was bored to the depth of 800 feet formerly dis- charged a large volume of sulphureted water. This well was sup- plied from a crevice about 180 feet below the surface. Another well in the corner of the courthouse yard that was bored with a "diamond drill," furnished a supply of water near the surface.
TOPOGRAPHY, SOIL AND PRODUCTS
The divide which separates the Kankakee and Iroquois rivers is a succession of low ridges of yellow or white sand, interspersed with
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JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES
swampy valleys from 100 to 400 yards in width, indicating ancient river channels. These numerous river beds show the extent of the region traversed by the Kankakee and Iroquois rivers before finding a fixed channel, when old Lake Kankakee was first drained off. The soil in these valleys is peaty, of no great depth, and is underlaid by a deposit of white sand. A narrow strip of deep, rich alluvial soil from one to two miles in width along the southern margin of the Kankakee is well timbered and highly productive. Groves and skirts of timber are found along the water courses, the wood comprising hickory and white and burr oak.
Wheat has not been a reliable crop, as the soil does not seem favorable to its continuous growth. A large part of the county, also, is nearly level, with great capacity for supporting water. What little snow falls does not rest quietly where it settles, but is blown about by the heavy, sweeping winds, by which the wheat plants are exposed to the alternate thawings and freezings of February and March. Of the fruits, grapes and apples seem to best flourish.
As to really profitable crops, hay closely follows corn, and of live stock, both cattle and hogs are most extensively raised.
MOULDING OF NATURE BY MAN
The bold topographic lines are laid down by nature, as well as the general conditions of climate, soil and drainage, but in Jasper County, as elsewhere, man has done much to transform the face of nature. In that transformation fire, artificial drainage, scientific cultivation, the denuding of original tree growth and the introduction of new generations of plant and animal life, have made the country immeasurably more pleasant and healthful than it was in its primi- tive state. How these improvements on nature were accomplished in Jasper County calls for a general backward survey.
WHAT THE FIRES DID TO DRIVE OUT RANK FORAGE
Cultivation has wrought marked changes in this country during the eighty years which the white man has possessed the land. What appeared to the early settlers a dead level expanse of prairie and swamp is now a pleasant rolling area of thrifty farms. This trans- formation has been brought about not by physical changes, but by the natural effects of the farmer's occupation. The open land was originally covered with a rank growth of prairie grass; on the high lands the grass did not reach its normal height, while on the lower
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JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES
lands its growth was of astonishing proportions, frequently reaching a height which would hide a man on horseback, and thus would tend to create the illusion of a perfectly level plain. In the timber lands the change has been still more marked. The dense forests of young growth, underbrush and saplings, did not exist fifty years ago. Then the timber, save along the rivers, was marked only by scattered oaks and hickories, which favoring localities preserved from the annual fires that swept the prairies. These were started by accident from the fires of hunters, or by the Indians, for the purpose of keeping the timber in check, and clearing the country of the rank grass stubble.
These fires that kept the beautiful panorama of prairie unob- structed, although of permanent benefit, were the most to be dreaded of all the early contingencies with which settlers had to deal. From the time the grass would burn, which was soon after the first frost, usually about the first of October, till the surrounding prairie was all burnt over, or, if not all burnt, till the green grass in the spring had grown sufficient to prevent the rapid progress of the fire, the early settlers were continually on the watch, and as they usually expressed the idea, "slept with one eye open." When the ground was covered with snow, or during rainy weather, the apprehension was quieted, and both eyes could be safely closed. A statute law forbade setting the prairie on fire, and one doing so was subject to penalty, and liable to an action of trespass for the damage accruing ; but convictions were seldom effected, as proof was difficult to obtain, though there were frequent fires. Those started on the leeward side of an improvement, while dangerous to property to the leeward, were not so to property to the windward, as fire progressing against the wind is easily extinguished, and the temptation to start one of these fires for some trivial purpose was often quite irresistible.
Various means were resorted to for protection. A common one was to plow several furrows around a strip, several rods wide, out- side the improvements, and then burn out the inside of this strip, or to wait until the prairie was on fire and then set fire outside of this furrowing, reserving the inner strip for a late burn, i. e., until the following summer, and in July burn both old grass and new. The grass would start afresh immediately, and the cattle would feed it close in preference to the older grass, so that the fire would not pass over it in the following autumn. This process repeated would soon, or in a few years, run out the prairie grass, which in time would be replaced by blue-grass, which will not burn to any serious extent. But all this took time and labor, and the crowd of business
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JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES
on the hands of a new settler, of which a novice has no conception, would prevent him doing what would now seem a small matter; and even when accomplished, all such precautions often proved futile. A prairie fire driven by a high wind would often leap such barriers and seem to put human effort at defiance.
A prairie fire when first started goes straight forward with a velocity proportioned to the force of the wind, widening as it goes,
FOOD FOR PRAIRIE FIRES
but the center keeping ahead; it spreads sideways, but burning laterally, it makes but comparatively slow progress, and if the wind is moderate and steady, this spreading fire is not difficult to manage, but if the wind veers a point or two, first one way and then the other, it sends this side fire beyond control. The head fire in dry grass and a head wind is a fearful thing, and pretty sure to have its own way unless there is some defensible point to
,
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JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES
meet it. A contest with such a fire requires such skill and tact as can be learned only by experience, and a neighborhood of set- tlers called out by such an exigency at once put themselves under the direction of the oldest and most experienced of their number, and go to work with the alacrity and energy of men defending their homes and property from destruction.
The usual way of meeting advancing fires was to begin the de- fense where the head of the fire would strike, which was calcu- lated by the smoke and ashes brought by the wind along in advance of fire. A road, cattle-path, or furrow is of great value at such a place ; if there was no such, a strip of the grass was wetted down if water could be procured, which was, however, a rather scarce article at the time of the annual fire. On the side, nearest the com- ing fire, of such a road or path, the grass is set on fire, which burns slowly against the wind until it meets the coming conflagration, which latter stops, of course, for want of fuel, provided there has been sufficient time to burn over a strip that cannot be leaped by the head fire as it comes in. This is called "back-firing;" but in this method, great care must be exercised to prevent the fire getting over the furrow or path, or whatever is used as the base of opera- tions. If it gets in the rear of this and once under way, there is no remedy but to fall back to a more defensible position. The head of the fire successfully checked, the force of fire-fighters divide, part going to the right and part to the left, and the backfiring continues to meet the side fires as they come up. This must be continued until the fire is checked along the entire front of the premises endangered, and the sides secured.
Various implements were used to put out a side or back fire, or even the head of a fire in a moderate wind. A fence board, four to six feet long, with one end shaved down for a handle, was very effective when struck flat upon the narrow strip of fire. A bundle of hazel brush, a spade or shovel was often used with effect. The women frequently lent their aid, and dextrously wielded the mop, which, when thoroughly wet, proved a very efficient weapon, especially in extinguishing a fire in the fence. When the fire over- came all opposition, and seemed bound to sweep over the settle- ment, a fear of personal loss would paralyze, for the moment, every faculty, and as soon as the danger seemed imminent, united effort ceased, and each one hastened to defend his own as best he could. It is due to historical truth to say that actual losses were much less than might have been expected, though frequently quite severe. The physical efforts made in extinguishing a dangerous fire, and
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JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES
protecting one's home from this devouring element, were of the most trying nature, not infrequently resulting fatally.
The premises about the residence and- yards being trampled down by the family and domestic animals, after a year or two became tolerably safe from fire, but the fences, corn and stubble fields were often attacked. When the open land was all fenced and under cultivation, so that these fires were a thing of the past, the residents of the prairie were happily released from the constant apprehen- sion which for years had disturbed their peace by night and caused anxiety by day, though the early settlers still retain vivid recollec- tions of the grand illuminations nightly exhibited in dry weather, from early fall to late spring, by numberless prairie fires. The whole horizon would be lighted up around its entire circuit. A heavy fire six or seven miles away would afford sufficient light in a dark night to enable one to read fine print. When a fire had passed through the prairie, leaving the long lines of side fires like two armies facing each other, the sight at night was sublime, and if one's premises were securely protected, and he could enjoy the exhibition without apprehension, it was a sight well worth going far to see. .
THE LIVE STOCK OF JASPER COUNTY.
From the first it was evident to the county's pioneers who had come into the country with any experience of live stock raising that the rich bottom lands of the Kankakee, when properly drained, as well as the more accessible sections along the Iroquois, in the south, were destined to become an admirable region for the breeding and care of cattle, horses and hogs. Its farmers, with very few excep- tions, have never striven to cultivate blooded stock, but have endeav- ored to produce those varieties which were most useful and profit- able for the home and as accessories to agricultural progress. It was years before any of the early settlers attempted to raise more cattle, horses or hogs than would be required for household con- sumption or the operation of the farm. But by the '50s consider- able progress had been made toward the raising of live stock in commercial quantities, as will be evident by reading the following article, originally published in the Rensselaer Gazette during 1858: "As a grazing country, we scarcely have an equal, and cannot be easily surpassed. Grass grows here in rich abundance, and truly, cattle are made to 'lie down in green pastures.' This fact is well known to many cattle raisers, who are in the habit of bringing their
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JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES
JASPER COUNTY LIVE STOCK
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JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES
cattle two or three days' drive every spring, that they may luxuriate on our rich pasture, and drink of our cooling streams. Some of the finest cattle that go from grass to market go from this county.
"Beef cattle have commanded the attention and capital of farm- ers to a greater extent than any other stock in this branch of rural labor. Horses, swine, sheep and asses have each occupied more or less time, but more capital has been devoted to cattle than to any of the others.
"Dairies, except with a very few farmers, have been a secondary object. Butter-making has not been made a serious branch of business. No attention has been paid to it, except by families for private use, or to supply the limited trade with the villages of the county, and even this has been very inconsiderable, because almost every villager keeps a cow during the summer season.
"There has not yet been any general system of cattle-raising adopted from deliberate or scientific trial by farmers of this county. Each individual has acted upon the scheme suggested by his own judgment or fancy, or such as the state of improvement or the natural features of his own particular location has afforded, or his own particular case has dictated.
"Numerous breeds of cattle have been raised in this county. Herds have been purchased abroad and raised and fatted here. But little or no attention has been given to the fineness or firmness of the texture of the beef, the color of the flesh, or the odor or flavor of the meat, or the peculiar frame of the animal, but that breed would undoubtedly receive the preference which will attain the greatest weight of carcass in the shortest time, and with the least labor, and, what is of not less importance, they should be of a hardy variety, able to stand the greatest degree of cold and extreme exposure in winter on inferior food, without shelter.
"In selling, the practice has been to sell for so much per hundred pounds, live weight. Drovers have been offered so much per hun- dred and raisers have accepted the bid, and driven their cattle from the grass onto the scales, or themselves taken them to market where the same or similar result was achieved.
"A few only have packed the beef of their own raising or even of their own fattening, and where any have had it packed on their own account, it has generally been done at some larger towns out of the county, at Lafayette, Chicago, or some other city, the butcher furnishing barrels, salt, cutting the meat, and packing it, for the hide, head, shanks and tallow as payment. In this case the drover must of course, await the action of the market before he can realize.
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JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES
In some instances, advances are made by the consignees, but what- ever has been the final arrangement of drovers and packers, cattle have always commanded cash in hand to the growers and fatteners, though there has been but little competition among buyers, drovers generally giving their own prices.
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