266 THE PORTRAIT GALLERY 



A STAUNCH SUPPORTER OF THE OLD-TIME CATTLE 



SHOWS 



103. The second generation of the Funk family so important 

 in the agricultural and livestock development of Hlinois, were 

 the two brothers, Lafayette and Jacob Funk. By curious inci- 

 dent, they died within an hour of each other, as did their father 

 and mother, at their home. Funk's Grove, in McLain Co., Illinois. 

 Lafayette Funk was born in 1834, in the log cabin which his 

 father, IssAc Funk (101) had timbered ten years previous, by 

 the side of a huge glacially-deposited granite boulder. The 

 public activities of Lafayette Funk were extremely conspicu- 

 ous for many years. He was active in the Illinois legislature, 

 and was made a member of the upper house when Joseph W. 

 Fifer was elected governor. Mr. Funk rendered valuable serv- 

 ice to the agricultural interests of Illinois as president of the 

 State Board of Agriculture, but it was in his capacity as man- 

 ager of cattle at the old Fat Stock Show held in the Lake Front 

 pavilion in Chicago during the 80's that he achieved his highest 

 success. He was chairman of the Illinois exhibit at the Colum- 

 bian Exposition, and a director of the Union Stock Yard Co., 

 operating the Chicago livestock market. 



Lafayette Funk was a veritable apostle of agriculture. In 

 the early days he drove his cattle from the pastures of central 

 Illinois to Chicago, and when the Chicago markets failed him, 

 he drove on through to Buffalo, or to Milwaukee. Where the old 

 Montgomery Ward building now stands, once stood a grove 

 of trees, under which he frequently paused to rest his cattle, 

 and to water them from the Chicago river. Mr. Funk was as 

 much a pioneer in breeding and production as he was in cattle 

 feeding. In the later years of the last century he paid close 

 attention to the improvement of Leaming and Reid Yellow Dent 

 corn, participating actively in the movement that developed seed 

 com shows, and that resulted in the state wide test of seed before 



