OF THE SADDLE AND SIRLOIN CLUB 59 



FIRST IN THE PORTFOLIO OF AGRICULTURE 



18. In the village cemetery of Viroqua, Wisconsin, sleeps 

 General Jeremiah McLain Rusk, first Secretary of Agriculture 

 and former Governor of Wisconsin. Secretary Rusk's death 

 was as widely lamented and drew as notable a circle of promi- 

 nent citizens to pay homage as has been the lot of any public 

 servant of recent years. Chief among the mourners was Ex-Presi- 

 dent Benjamin Harrison, under whose administration Secre- 

 tary Rusk had been given charge of agriculture. To other 

 friends. President Harrison is quoted as having said, "Secre- 

 tary Rusk was perhaps the least educated of the members of my 

 cabinet, but he possessed the shrewdest native judgment. He 

 could not prepare a state paper, but he was the keenest and best 

 informed critic of such a paper, once prepared, that I could 

 secure." 



Jeremiah M. Rusk was of Scotch-Irish descent. His grandfather 

 James Rusk, was born near Londonderry in the north of Ireland, 

 and fled to America after knocking down the insulting agent of 

 his absent landlord. His father was born and brought up near 

 Pittsburgh but moved to Deerfield, Morgan Co., Ohio, shortly 

 after the war of 1812. It was here on June 17, 1830 that Jere- 

 miah was born, the youngest of eleven children. His schooling 

 was most limited and at sixteen years of age, due to his father's 

 death, he became the sole reliance of his mother. Already he 

 was a practical and skilled farmer, marketing his produce con- 

 sisting of a variety of wheat, grains, vegetables, apples, cider, 

 peaches, feathers, eggs, butter and hops at Zanesville, some 

 twenty miles away. The young man was a giant in strength, a 

 powerful wrestler and a fine horseman. It is related that he was 

 the champion cradler of his entire countryside. As a very young 

 man he was employed to drive the four horse stage coach between 

 Zanesville and Newark on the national turnpike, a distance of 

 thirty miles. At this time he became acquainted with James A. 



