322 THE PORTRAIT GALLERY 
A CONTRIBUTION OF CATTLE WEALTH TO THE 
SUNFLOWER STATE 
126. Jonn 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, JouHn, “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. 
