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 Illinois, were 
the two brothers, LAFAYETTE and Jacos 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 
Montcomery Warp 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 
corn shows, and that resulted in the state wide test of seed before 
