322 THE PORTRAIT GALLERY 



A CONTRIBUTION OF CATTLE WEALTH TO THE 

 SUNFLOWER STATE 



126. John Ross Tomson, breeder of Shorthorn cattle and 

 president of the American Shorthorn Breeders' Association 1918- 

 19, was born near Dover, Kansas, October 3, 1867. Of cattle 

 forebears, he was early initiated into the business, riding as 

 drover and buyer with his father at the early age of eight and 

 nine years over a radius of thirty miles from his home. His 

 aptness coupled with his extreme youth attracted much atten- 

 tion among the hardened veterans of the cattle range, and gained 

 him a reputation that made him the natural head of the business 

 when his father and brothers entered into purebred Shorthorn 

 production in 1886. At this time he had finished his common 

 school education and a course in a business college in Topeka, 

 so that the $80 cow then purchased provided his real start in 

 breeding. 



The firm thus launched to the breeding world was known as 

 T. K. ToMSON & Sons, the father, John, "Jim," and Frank 

 composing the partnership. For ten successive years a show 

 herd was on the western and southwestern circuit, and it is 

 believed the record shows not a year passed without a champion- 

 ship ribbon being awarded some member of the herd at one of 

 the fairs. While the circuit is no longer followed throughout, 

 the Tomson cattle are still frequent winners. Ever since the late 

 nineties the females of the herd have been particularly rcognized 

 as true to a type, the best ones being retained regularly for 

 breeding purposes. A party of Uraguay breeders visiting Amer- 

 ican herds in 1919 pronounced the ToMSON females to be the 

 best selected and most uniform they saw. Operations have been 

 conducted almost entirely on a private sale basis, very few pub- 

 lic auctions having been held. Hence no widely advertised fig- 

 ures have been announced although the financial results have been 

 eminently satisfactory, and the products of the herd sought both 

 by the east and west for purposes of foundation and improvement. 



