164 AT THE SIGN OF THE STOCK YARD INN 



Valley Company in 1852, and about the same date, 

 in partnership with his brother Judge WILLIAM BROWN 

 of Jacksonville, bought a number of valuable cattle 

 from leading Kentucky breeders. Meantime, he had 

 been elected to the state legislature in 1840, 1842, 

 1846 and 1853, serving in that body as a colleague 

 of ABRAHAM LINCOLN. During this service he intro- 

 duced and secured the passage of a bill creating a 

 State Board of Agriculture, and was elected its first 

 president. At the first exhibition, held at Springfield 

 in 1853, he was met in competition by HENRY JACOBY, 

 STEPHEN DUNLAP and G. M. CHAMBERS of Sangamon, 

 and others who by this time had become interested 

 in the introduction of good blood into the state. 

 Upon that historic occasion Gapt. BROWN carried 

 away six prizes the beginning of a long, successful 

 and always honorable career as an exhibitor at this 

 show. The following year he returned to the fray 

 at Springfield, and in 1855 made his way to Chicago 

 to meet old and new antagonists. At Alton, in 1856, 

 he broke a lance for the first time with JAMES M. HILL 

 of Gass County, a man destined to prove from that 

 time forward a foeman worthy of his steel. On Sept. 

 11, 1856, a public sale of Shorthorns was held at 

 Grove Park, the top price paid being $715 for the 

 six-year-old cow May Dacre, descended from the 



