CHAPTER X. 



OTHER MAKERS OF WESTERN CATTLE 

 HISTORY. 



Another of the partners in the old Chicago Stock 

 Yards packing firm of Culbertson, Blair & Co. be- 

 came largely interested in Herefords, and was spe- 

 cially fortunate in forming a connection with one 

 of the best cattlemen America has yet produced. 

 The one was Moses Fowler, banker and landowner 

 of Lafayette, Ind.; the other was the late William 

 S. VanNatta. The co-partnership formed between 

 them in 1876 lasted for more than a quarter of a 

 century, and had a far-reaching and in every way 

 a wholesome influence upon the development of the 

 business of cattle breeding in the western United 

 States. 



Mr. Fowler had a large body of undeveloped land 

 in Benton Co., Ind., some 25,000 acres in extent, 

 which he wished to put to some profitable use. No 

 plow had ever run a furrow through the native 

 sod. The grazing of cattle was of course the logical 

 solution to this problem, and Mr. VanNatta was the 

 ideal man to handle the practical side of the busi- 

 ness. Neither owned any Herefords at the time. 



Mr. VanNatta's Early Experiences. — ^Mr. Van- 

 Natta was born in Tippecanoe Co., Ind., in 1830. 



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