ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN S ASSOCIATION. 23 



The motion for the appointment of a committee pre- 

 vailed, and the chair appointed R. R. Stone and C. W. 

 Gould, of Elgin, R. W. Stewart, of Hebron, and Ira Albro, 

 of Wayne, as such committee, which was afterward enlarged 

 by the appointment of J. R. McLean and George W. Lake. 

 These gentlemen met and drafted a constitution and by- 

 laws, which were adopted at a meeting held at Elgin, March 

 I, 1 872, and at the same meeting the following officers were 

 elected : President, Dr. Joseph Tefft ; vice-president, J. R. 

 McLean; secretary, R. R. Stone; treasurer, O. Davidson. 

 I think at the next meeting a few samples of cheese and 

 butter (the latter private dairy) were exhibited, and a few 

 sales were made. 



I may here go back a little in the history of the board, 

 and state that many who favored the organization felt that 

 it would be more ornamental than useful, but the eight years 

 of its existence have proved most conclusively that they 

 were mistaken in their supposition. They inquired who 

 would come to Elgin and buy their goods. By this move, 

 if unsuccessful, they, or at least some of them, were fearful 

 that the commission men would refuse to handle their pro- 

 ducts, and they would then be worse off than before. To 

 some it looked like leaping from the frying-pan into the fire. 

 Little did they dream that in two years Chicago, Cincin- 

 nati, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York, and even 

 Liverpool, England, would send dealers to their little inland 

 city, to buy the goods direct from the manufacturers. But 

 they have lived to witness the frequent visits of the repre- 

 sentatives of the leading cities of the Union to the Elgin board 

 of trade, in search of the best butter made in the world, 

 and the best skimmed cheese that can be found. I say the 

 best skimmed cheese, for I have heard dealers say that 

 some of the cheese offered for sale was skimmed on the top 

 and bottom, and opened and skimmed in the middle ; so 

 that would make it the best skimmed. 



But to return. All of the books and papers belonging 

 to the board, containing the reports of the sales made and 

 the proceedings of the business meetings, were destroyed 

 by fire in January of the present year, so I am compelled 

 to rely on memory and the columns of " The Elgin Advo- 

 cate," which publishes weekly a full statement of the sales 

 and business of the board, for many of the facts and figures 

 here given. 



