PROGRESS IN THE CENTRAL WEST. 341 



Thos. Wilhoit of Henry County was another 

 of the Indiana pioneers whose herd achieved 

 celebrity. He began with Short-horns in 1851, 

 when he bought of Milton Thornburg of Wayne 

 County two heifers and a bull. They were 

 good cattle for that day, although unrecorded. 

 It is related that Mr. Wilhoit paid $35 per head 

 for these unregistered animals, and his neigh- 

 bors and friends considered this pure extrava- 

 gance and laughed at what they termed his 

 folly. His experience with them was never- 

 theless so satisfactory that in later years he 

 made several journeys to Kentucky, selecting 

 animals approaching as nearly as possible his 

 ideal as represented in the beef type. He 

 bought four heifers from H. H. Hankins of 

 Ohio and also purchased females from W. H. 

 Richardson and the administrator of T. G. Sud- 

 duth of Kentucky, paying as high as $500 for 

 single animals. Subsequently the Wilhoit herd 

 developed into one of the best in the Western 

 States, largely through the use of the Booth- 

 bred Forest Richard and Scotch bulls, reference 

 to which will be made further on. 



Other enterprising men who helped to intro- 

 duce the breed into Indiana were J. M. Wood- 

 ruff of Johnson County, in whose hands Mr. 

 R. A. Alexander placed the Woodburn Herd for 

 safe-keeping during the Civil War; A. Root, 

 Lake County; Chas. Lowder, Hendricks County; 



