160 THE PORTRAIT GALLERY 



tical. It required two years to sell them, the bulk of them going 

 to the Swan Lan«l & Cattle Co. This shipment, however, broke 

 the ice and in later years Mr. Clark shipped large numbers of 

 purebred bulls into the Cheyenne and Montana districts. Later 

 he went after the southwestern trade and sold many animals 

 into Kansas, the Panhandle and New Mexico. 



His showyard record began in 1869 in Ohio and Pennsyl- 

 vania. In 1876 he showed his herd at the Michigan State Fair, 

 meeting all the good Canadian Shorthorns. Under the adjudi- 

 cation of John Miller (114) he received first prize on his herd 

 over all competition. His first show in Illinois was the county 

 fair at Freeport in 1877. At this time his herd only numbered 

 about twenty-five head, but he husbanded its resources care- 

 fully, until at the heighth of his operations, he possessed about 

 150 purebred animals. His last year in the showring with any 

 considerable number of animals was 1902, although at intervals 

 since then he has shown one or two individuals. Mr. Clark 

 was the first man to sell a Hereford bull at public auction, to 

 realize as large a sum as $9,000. This was secured for the bull 

 Perfection, shortly after he won at the 1901 International. 



In August, 1877, the American Hereford Herd Book was 

 established under the direction of Mr. T. L. Miller, at Beecher, 

 111. Thomas Clark contributed liberally of his time and infor- 

 mation to the production of Volume I, and on its publication 

 in 1880 succeeded personally in attracting new breeders to the 

 Hereford standard. About this time breeders of Herefords 

 declared war to the knife on the Shorthorns, and made exten- 

 sive and organized plans to clean up the championships at the 

 Lake Front Show. Numbers of breeders ma-de enthusiastic prom- 

 ises to steer a large number of their best bull calves, following 

 Mr. Clark's admonition that the "gentlemen would do well to 

 bear in mind that if they wanted good steers they must aUer 

 good calves." In 1881 Mr. Clark imported for Earl & Stuart 



