WHERE PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION MEET 301 



tant California. We are told that he walked most 

 of the way across the continent. He began life 

 there, digging ditches for those seeking the precious 

 metal, at $5 a day. Soon he took contracts for 

 ditching, and in this way accumulated in the course 

 of five years the sum of $8,000. He then returned 

 to Oneida County, intending to buy a farm, but not 

 finding one to his liking he recalled that on his 

 way home he had passed through a promising town 

 on the shores of Lake Michigan known as Milwau- 

 kee, even then an important loading point for vessels 

 carrying western products eastward. He had seen 

 enough of the prairies and the plains to stir his 

 imagination. The west had a destiny. He would 

 stake his fortunes upon its development. And so in 

 1859 he formed a partnership with Mr. FRED B. 

 MILES to enter the produce and commission busi- 

 ness at Milwaukee. 



This was in the days when the farmers of these 

 parts smoked and cured their own meats and hauled 

 their surplus, along with hides and pelts and bags 

 of wheat, to Milwaukee or Chicago. There were 

 thousands of homeseekers and an endless procession 

 of people passing through, seeking locations or 

 opportunities for entering business. These "over- 

 landers" required provisions for their journeyings 



