278 THE PORTRAIT GALLERY 



A LEADER OF MODERN SHORTHORN PROGRESS 



109. There is an old breeder's adage to the effect that having 

 found a successful sire, one should start immediately to look for 

 a new one, on the theory that when the good animal is gone it will 

 be too late to find his successor. Few students of bloodlines have 

 realized how pertinently this applies to tribes and families, as 

 well as to individuals. The man in American agriculture whose 

 foresight permitted him to divine this truth was CoLONEL Wil- 

 liam A. Harris, the founder of Linwood, and the custodian of 

 the lamp that lighted the Shorthorn supporters to new achieve- 

 ments following the days of the Duchess reaction. There is no 

 question but what America's greatest nursery for all classes of 

 purebred livestock was Woodburn Farm (82) and there is scarcely 

 less certainty that its most worthy and specialized rival was found 

 by the banks of the Kaw river, on the southern slopes of Linwood 

 in eastern Kansas. 



Col. Harris' life was almost an epic. Born at Luray, Va., 

 the son of a former congressman and Minister to Brazil, CoL. 

 Harris received his first training at the historic Virginia Military 

 Institute. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was peacefully 

 pursuing his studies under the guidance of the professor whose 

 name comes down to us as "Stonewall" Jackson. Col. Harris' 

 father was of that coterie of thinking men who opposed the policy 

 of secession, but when the will of the majority cast the lot of the 

 cavaliers' 4omain with the South, the younger Harris responded 

 to the call. His progress in the military service was rapid and 

 at Gettysburg he was Chief Ordnance Officer of one of the divi- 

 sions in Longstreet's corps. Later campaigns against the Con- 

 federacy completely wrecked the Harris fortune, and the recon- 

 structive period saw him engaged in locating the Kansas Pacific 

 railroad from Kansas City to Denver. Although engineer by 

 training, his insight and instincts were agricultural, and he made 

 mental note of the excellent grazing location some twenty-five 



