24 THE PORTRAIT GALLERY 



ARCHITECT OF OUR TEMPLE 



6. Richest in associations with those noble husbandmen of the 

 half -century agone lives Robert Burns Ogilvie, master of Blair- 

 gowrie, and spiritual progenitor of the gallery whose tales these 

 pages bear. Since first he glimpsed the concept of the stockman's 

 shrine, his pulses have daily quickened to its service and upbuild- 

 ing. He it is, of all the throng with pastoral ideals, whose memo- 

 ries have fruited full; his dearest wish has been to find horizons 

 which the romance of the husbandman has not yet reached, and 

 through the message of these worthy souls give vision of the 

 artistry of herds and flocks. From Scottish forebears he has 

 gained the flavor of the land, the wind-swept slopes of pastured 

 hills have given him command of herder thought. Idyl of pedi- 

 gree and blood, of show yard stress, find lodgment in his heart, 

 and day by day, inspire anew fresh goals for rural youth. 



The blood of Forfarshire and Fife runs in his veins. Before 

 his birth his parents crossed to Whitby, Canada, and settled near 

 the site of modern Ashburne. From every viewpoint the family 

 was pioneer, and the common school instead of giving him the 

 training for his busy life, opened new fields of thought wherein 

 the world's masters had traveled, the realm of books. He has 

 been a voluminous and careful reader, and though necessity early 

 forced him into the mercantile world, the stored knowledge of 

 nearly six decades finds ready access to his tongue, and faultless 

 memory can trace it to its source. While still in his teens he 

 crossed from Ontario to Wisconsin, and in 1867 settled in Madi- 

 son. Employment was found in a dry goods store, and three 

 years later the foreclosers of a mortgage on the business placed 

 him in charge. One year proved him sufficiently a master to 

 cause the creditors of his first employer to sell the business to 

 him. Five years more saw him the owner of one of the leading 

 dry goods stores in Wisconsin. 



