252 THE PORTRAIT GALLERY 



Shorthorns were first recorded by him in 1870. He took a 

 prominent part in the establishment of the American Shorthorn 

 Breeders' Association, and was its second president, serving from 

 1884 to 1900. He survived the floods of Booth, Bates and 

 Scotch popularity by making his tenet the best animal regard- 

 less of the fashionableness of its bloodlines. 



Mr. Cobb was very successful financially, a part of his wealth 

 arising from the gradual incorporation of his farm into the limits 

 of Kankakee. He died at the age of seventy-nine, on April 14, 

 1910. Perhaps his most outstanding trait was his courtliness of 

 manner and his gentlemanly character. Mr. Cobb was a man of 

 high spiritual nature respected and beloved by all who knew him, 

 and he rightly earned the title accorded him by a Kankakee 

 friend, in a published appreciation, "one of God's Gentlemen." 



