OF THE SADDLE AND SIRLOIN CLUB 111 



FULFILLER OF SHOWYARD DREAMS 



39. The court of ultimate resort in the affairs of animal indus- 

 try has, since the first of the present century, been located in 

 the International Livestock Exposition held at Chicago each 

 year. The bur4en of developing this institution was laid on 

 the shoulders of Mr. William E. Skinner, in the spring of 1898. 

 In company with Messrs. Robert B. Ogilvie (6), Mortimer 

 Levering (40), and G. Howard Davison (8), at one of the 

 Toronto Livestock Expositions, the idea of the International 

 was generated, and on Mr. Skinner was conferred the title of 

 General Manager of the exposition, a title that became obsolete 

 with his departure as a compliment to the wealth of his service. 



Mr. Skinner is a native Canadian, his birthplace being Water- 

 town, Ontario, on June 24, 1864. His father was a physician, 

 but various circumstances prevented his receiving the customary 

 public school education, and at twenty years of age, he crossed 

 the border to become a citizen of the United States, a fact accom- 

 plished in 1886. His first work was with the Erie & Western 

 Railway, afterwar4 a part of the Erie System. In 1884 he came 

 to the Union Stock Yards in Chicago, and entered into duty 

 with the Stock Yard Company, the beginning of an experience 

 with the livestock market that has occupied the major years of 

 his life. After three months in Chicago he transferred his alle- 

 giance to the Street Stable Car Line, and personally conducted 

 the first stable car across the Missouri river to Cheyenne. 

 During his three years with this company his headquarters were 

 at Cheyenne, and he lived an integral part of the boom days of 

 the cattle country. In 1887 he entered the service of the Omaha 

 Stock Yards Co. and so intimate did he grow into the market 

 interests of the early cattle barons, that today he is known by 

 his first name and wholesomely loved wherever cattle graze 

 between Omaha and Cheyenne. The year prior to the Colum- 

 bian Exposition he was sent to Fort Worth to help organize the 



