16 THE PORTRAIT GALLERY 



A WORD PAINTER OF LIVESTOCK MASTERPIECES 



3. The dean of American showyard reporters was William 

 Ransdell Goodwin. Never was the story of a live stock exhi- 

 hition fully told to a North American breeder until he had 

 opportunity to read Mr. Goodwin's virile comment, and never 

 could he visualize clearly the incidents of the big ring battles 

 until his forceful pen had touched up the higher lights. Mr. 

 Goodwin's indomitable energy and his extraordinary facility 

 made a name for him that is almost immortal. He possessed a 

 perennial potentiality to find in each new show an added luster 

 in the animals on review, and from one season to another was 

 able to classify each detail in which the exhibit of that day had 

 surpassed its predecessor. His reports of the World's Columbian 

 Exposition, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, the Alaska- 

 Yukon Exposition, the Panama-Pacific Exposition, the Iowa and 

 Illinois State Fairs, the American Royals and the Internationals 

 were classic, no matter what the breed nor how unusual the feature 

 he discussed. He was one of the most forceful personalities 

 known to the field of agricultural journalism. 



Mr. Goodwin was born at Brookville, Indiana, August 19, 

 1863. His father, William Ransdell Goodwin, Sr., was a Meth- 

 odist divine, then president of a college at Brookville. His early 

 education was in the public schools of Danville, Quincy and De- 

 catur, 111., and he spent three years at the Illinois Wesleyan Uni- 

 versity. In 1883 he completed his college course at DePauw 

 University, receiving his A. B. degree. Three years later his 

 A. M. was conferred by the same school. He was a member of 

 Beta Theta Pi in college, and for years was joint host with his 

 brother. Judge John B. Goodwin, to the Chicago Alumni Asso- 

 ciation of the fraternity, either at Heatherton, his brother's Naper- 

 ville home, or at Oakhurst, his own estate near the same town. 



Following his graduation in 1883, he allied himself with his 

 brother in the breeding of Aberdeen-Angus cattle at Beloit, 



