OF THE SADDLE AND SIRLOIN CLUB 281 



AN EXPERT IN CATTLE VALUES 



110. James Brown, superintendent of the cattle buying foi 

 Armour and Company, was born on a farm near Springfield, 111. 

 His chief interest lay always in livestock and the soil, and from 

 his earliest days he has held more or less extensive farming inter- 

 ests. Educational opportunities in his family were meagre, due 

 to the death of his father when he was ten years of age. How- 

 ever, he attended the rural school annually from December 1 

 to March 1, until he was sixteen years old, when it became 

 necessary for him to participate continuously with his brothers 

 in the operation of the farm. Upon reaching his majority he 

 decided to extend his interests, and while retaining his partner- 

 ship in the farm, he entered upon the management of an elevator 

 near Springfield and also established a tile factory. This was 

 the first tile factory to be operated in Illinois outside of the 

 Whitehall district, but in spite of the necessity of shipping some 

 clays he managed to make it a success. After three or four 

 years he went west and in the spring of 1880 located at Buffalo, 

 Wyo.,' near old Fort McKinney. He obtained some ranching 

 property and sold his interest in the Illinois farm to extend his 

 ranch holdings. During this period he lived in Springfield 

 during the winter and went west for his cattle business in the 

 summer. 



In 1889 he came to Chicago, where he first entered into part- 

 nership in the commission firm of Ward & Brown as a cattle 

 salesman. During the five years he was a member of this firm 

 his work proved of such a nature that Mr. J. Ogden Armour 

 (69) secured him for the cattle buying department of Armour 

 AND Company, which position he has now held for over a quarter 

 of a century. He is head of this department for all the markets 

 on which Armour and Company operate, being in charge of their 

 cattle buying throughout the United States. 



