PROGRESS IN THE CENTRAL WEST. 355 



far as the new West was concerned when they 

 made the importation of 1857, and they now 

 began a campaign in behalf of Short-horns at 

 the fairs that proved productive of far-reaching 

 results, bringing to the support of the trade 

 scores of new recruits whose liberal invest- 

 ments and enterprise spread the reputation of 

 the Short-horn throughout the largest area of 

 rich corn and blue-grass land in the world. 

 Some of the more important of these show-yard 

 operations leading up to the great "boom" of 

 the "seventies" will now be noticed. 



William R. Duncan and Minister 6363. 

 Mr. William R. Duncan, a Kentuckian who re- 

 moved to McLean Co., 111., about 1864, had bred 

 cattle for many years in his native State, hav- 

 ing had in service at one time in his Clark 

 County herd Mr. Alexander's imp. Orontes 2d 

 (11877), which he had hired in the fall of 1855 

 for one year at $655. He brought with him to 

 Illinois a good lot of stock, including quite a 

 number of Vanmeter Young Marys, Phyllises, 

 etc., and also the roan Woodburn-bred bull Ox- 

 ford Wiley 8753, sired by imp. Royal Oxford 

 (18774) out of a Miss Wiley dam. This bull 

 subsequently became the property of J. B. Ry- 

 burn of Bloomington. Mr. Duncan is chiefly 

 distinguished, however, in connection w r ith 

 Western Short-horn history by reason of his 

 exhibition of the show bull Minister 6368, bred 



