AND WINE MAKING. 185 



in which he is the principal stockholder, with capital 

 stock fixed at $50,000 (although they have cost over 

 $100,000). 



The officers are : Hon. John H. Craig, President ; 

 Gen. Louis T. Barney, Vice-President ; and Hon. Ed- 

 ward Jaeger, Secretary and Treasurer. The Directors 

 are, in addition to the above : Mr. Hambden Buel and 

 Hon. Hiram Barney. 



The wealth and position of these gentlemen, in ad- 

 dition to the good repute in which the wines are al- 

 ready held, ought to, and no doubt will, insure the 

 company the desired measure of success. 



The origin of the name ^MYhiteElk" was somewhat 

 romantic and is as follows : In 1841, Mr. Barney, then a 

 young limb of the law, visited the territory in behalf of 

 certain clients who had invested largely in the claims of 

 the half-breeds of the Sac and Fox tribes of Indians, then 

 residing on the reservations of that name in the southern 

 part of the territory, having about that time obtained a 

 decree of the court settling the title. Late in the month 

 of October, he, with a party of friends and an interpreter, 

 started across the country in carriages and on horseback to 

 the Indian encampment, some 100 miles beyond the lines 

 of civilized habitations ; arriving there they were received 

 with great ceremony, and treated with kingly hospitality 

 by Keokuk the then King of the united Sac and Fox 

 tribes, and also by all the lesser chiefs, in imitatioli of the 

 head one. Mr. Barney and his party remained two or three 

 days and then prepared to return to their homes beyond 

 the Mississippi, but before doing so Mr. Barney thought it 

 worth his while for certain reasons to be adopted into the 

 tribe, and sought Keokuk for the purpose of having the 

 ceremony performed, but not finding him at the moment 

 concluded to take his departure as he came, a simple white 

 man. But the fates had ordered otherwise, for they had 

 proceeded scarcely a^mile on their journey before they were 



