OF THE SADDLE AND SIRLOIN CLUB 59 
FIRST IN THE PORTFOLIO OF AGRICULTURE 
18. In the village cemetery of Viroqua, Wisconsin, sleeps 
GENERAL JEREMIAH McLain Rusk, first Secretary of Agriculture 
and former Governor of Wisconsin. SECRETARY Rusk’s death 
was as widely lamented and drew as notable a circle of promi- 
nent citizens to pay homage as has been the lot of any public 
servant of recent years. Chief among the mourners was Ex-PREsI- 
DENT BENJAMIN HARRISON, under whose administration SECRE- 
TARY Rusk had been given charge of agriculture. To other 
friends, PRESIDENT HaRRIson is quoted as having said, “SECRE- 
TARY Rusk was perhaps the least educated of the members of my 
cabinet, but he possessed the shrewdest native judgment. He 
could not prepare a state paper, but he was the keenest and best 
informed critic of such a paper, once prepared, that I could 
secure.” 
JEREMIAH M. Rusk was of Scotch-Irish descent. His grandfather 
James Rusk, was born near Londonderry in the north of Ireland, 
and fled to America after knocking down the insulting agent of 
his absent landlord. His father was born and brought up near 
Pittsburgh but moved to Deerfield, Morgan Co., Ohio, shortly 
after the war of 1812. It was here on June 17, 1830 that JERE- 
MIAH was born, the youngest of eleven children. His schooling 
was most limited and at sixteen years of age, due to his father’s 
death, he became the sole reliance of his mother. Already he 
was a practical and skilled farmer, marketing his produce con- 
sisting of a variety of wheat, grains, vegetables, apples, cider, 
peaches, feathers, eggs, butter and hops at Zanesville, some 
twenty miles away. The young man was a giant in strength, a 
powerful wrestler and a fine horseman. It is related that he was 
the champion cradler of his entire countryside. As a very young 
man he was employed to drive the four horse stage coach between 
Zanesville and Newark on the national turnpike, a distance of 
thirty miles. At this time he became acquainted with James A. 
