EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 491 



world still thrive on the steep and rugged but dry hills. In the terri- 

 tory here indicated there are nearly or quite 800,000 head of these fine- 

 wooled sheep, and many of the other millions of sheep in different sec- 

 tions, from Ohio southwest to Texas and west to Oregon, can trace their 

 origin to this same territory. 



The hardy pioneer who more than a century ago settled in the west- 

 ern country had a little flock of common sheep with which to clothe his 

 family with homemade linsey-woolseys. The wool was shorn, scoured, 

 picked, carded, spun, and woven by the females of the family, and tariff 

 discussions did not disturb nor alarm them. This system of domestic 

 manufacture continued for many years and was not broken in upon until 

 about 1810, when Merino sheep and carding-mills began to appear in 

 such number as to attract attention. The introduction of the Merino 

 was gradual. John C. McNary, in a recent address, says: 



The farmers discussed the propriety of buying and breeding the Merino as men do 

 to-day the Holstein and Jersey, or the Clyde. Many clung to the old common, long- 

 legged fellow that had furnished the clothing they wore and their fathers before 

 them. Others, more conservative perhaps, kept both, at least as many coarse sheep 

 as would make the stockings and blankets for the family. After the introduction of 

 the Merino in Washington County and their value to the farmers began to be fully 

 realized they became the staple product, and it is safe to say that in all the ups and 

 downs in price and demand for sheep and wool since then the farmer who persistently 

 and judiciously stuck to the Merino is the one who prospered and became wealthy. 



As early as June, 1810, James Kelly, of Ten Mile Run, Washington 

 County, said that there were many Merinos owned by Col. Crooks and 

 Absalom Hawkins, who had introduced them at considerable expense, 

 and that the number of half and quarter bloods was large, producing 

 good wool, which he was then making up into good cloth. Washington 

 County had then 47,294 sheep. The flocks of Col. Crooks and Mr. Haw- 

 kins were founded by purchases from the son of Col. David Humphreys, 

 and the Hawkins family, almost without exception, have been promi- 

 nent wool- growers ever since. 



In 1810 Joseph Clark purchased a few fine- wooled sheep, the first clip 

 of which was sold for $2 per pound. But the dogs and wild animals 

 gave him so much trouble and destroyed such a large number of them 

 that he sold what remained at the rates paid for native sheep. 



In 1811 a son of Col. Humphreys visited Washington County with a 

 flock of his father's Merinos. He sold a few of mixed blood and rented 

 out h is fine rams, one of them to Daniel Leet and his neighbor, James 

 Gilmore, to be paid for at the rate of $4 for each lamb received. A 

 German, Baron Bassey, of Bessenheim, Butler County, Pa., brought a 

 few sheep to Washington Village about the same time, as did also a 

 Mr. Baldwin, of Fayette County. Bassey's sheep, 7 in number, were 

 kept for some time in the cellar of the village tavern. Messrs. William 

 and John Hoge, who were the original proprietors of the town of Wash- 

 ington, also had a small flock from Bassey's and Baldwin's stock. 



In 1812 Nathaniel P. Atkinson and William F. Peterson bought at 



