TENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK-PAKT IV II:', 



the turning point in the growth of the live stocl^ industry. Scarcely more 

 than a half century ago the carrying trade of the United States was prac- 

 tically limited to passenger traffic and what is known in railroad circles as 

 "dead freight." ^ 



Before the civil war it was the custom to drive on foot through the 

 open country to market. One route from the bluegrass region of Ken- 

 tucky to New York City covered about SOO rniles, and according to a man 

 who drove the route several times, it consumed a few days over ten weeks. 

 The particular route followed on one occasion led from the neighborhood 

 of Lexington, Ky., to the Ohio river, just above Maysville. Thence north- 

 westerly through Chillicothe; thence across the Ohio river below Wheel- 

 ing, West Virginia. The course then passed through Connellsville and 

 Bedford, Pennsylvania, to Carlisle; thence to Harrisburg. Here the road 

 turned southeasterly, passing within sight of Lancaster, through West 

 Chester to Philadelphia. From this point the cattle were driven north- 

 easterly through Trenton, Princeton and Newark to the Hudson river, and 

 were ferried across to New York City. The drove referred to contained 

 119 cattle and three men were required to care for them. 



Another route from the neighborhood of Lexington, Kentucky, ex- 

 tended to Charleston, South Carolina, a distance of 550 to 600 miles. The 

 way led southeasterly through Cumberland Gap to the French Broad river. 

 Then the river was followed as far as Ashville. The route then turned 

 again southeasterly, crossing the South Carolina line at Saluda Moun- 

 tain, and thexice lassed on to Charleston. 



In those days driving r.o eastern seaboard cities from points as far w-i?: 

 as Iowa, was by ;io means uncommon and cattle from Texas were among 

 those on the road. A news item of 1855 mentions a drove oi several 

 hundred head from Texas passing through Indiana county, Pennsylvania, 

 on the way to New York City. They had left Texas four months previous. 

 During this same period large numbers of sheep w-ere driven from Ver- 

 mont to Virginia. A resident of Maryland, writing in 1854, tells of driv- 

 ing Spanish Merinos, mostly from Vermont, to Virginia, and that during 

 the following five years he sold upward of 13,000 head. Large numbers of 

 hogs were driven to market before the advent of railroads. As long ago 

 as 1827 the keeper of a turnpike gate near the Cumberland river certified 

 that r)5.517 hog:-; had been dnvtn through the gate on the way to the 

 South Atlantic states. 



Among the most important trails of the Mississippi river were those 

 which led from Texas. One trail extended to pasture lands in the Kansas 

 River valley on the line of one of the Pacific railroads. Near Abilene, 

 Kansas, a station on this railroad, thousands of cattle were wintered an- 

 nually in the late sixties and early seventies. One of the routes from 

 the southwest to northern pastures which cattle were driven from 1865 

 to 1884 led from the Gulf coast of Texas northward passing west of San 

 Antonio; thence to the Red river at Doan's Store, in Wilbarger, Texas. 

 Here the trail branched, one part going northward to a point now in- 

 cluded in Beaver county, Oklahoma, and thence west to the Colorado 

 ranges. The other fork of the trail led northeasterly through Fort Sill 



