OF THE SADDLE AND SIRLOIN CLUB 157 



A FOUNDER OF HEREFORD FORTUNES 



60. High upon the roll of those superlative men who assumed 

 the task of upbuilding American agriculture following the Civil 

 War is written the name of William S. Van Natta. The prac- 

 tical genius, the creative power, and the zest for good blood 

 which characterized this Hereford pioneer made him stand in 

 the foremost rank of that coterie of .devoted men who fought 

 the burdensome battles for breed recognition in the 80's and 

 early 90's. Mr. Van Natta loved good cattle, the producer's 

 kind. The low legs, broad breasts and wealth of flesh of the 

 earliest white faces so caught his fancy that following the Phila- 

 delphia Centennial he abandoned his old friends, the Dukes and 

 Duchesses, and carried the Hereford standard till his own step 

 faltered. During his thirty odd years of allegiance he con- 

 tributed of his energy and finances to the fullest, with a tena- 

 cious pluck and a rugged honesty that brooked no adversity. 



William S. Van Natta was prairie-bred, first seeing the 

 greens of Indiana blue grass from a log cabin window, Sep- 

 tember 27, 1830. His childhood earned him a perfect self- 

 reliance, an4 he grew up in the atmosphere of the stocker range 

 and feeder pen. In his earlier manhood he made a number of 

 trips into the Panhandle and the old "Texas long-horn" country, 

 and there gained an appreciation of western problems that made 

 him an invaluable contributor to the animals destined to domi- 

 nate the short grass areas. 



In the fall of 1876 he entered partnership with a banker, 

 Moses W. Fowler, La Fayette, Ind., and secured in New Mexico 

 a shipment of 1,500 steers for Mr. Fowler's 25,000 acre farm 

 in Benton Co. From handling them he became impressed with 

 the necessity for early maturity and quick finish in the face of 

 rising feed stuff prices. In 1878 he purchased a Hereford bull 

 from Robert Sample and the following year about thirty young 

 cows and heifers from T. L. Miller. One of these was Viola, 



