NOTES ON THE ANTE-BELLUM CATTLE INDUSTRY FROM THE McNEILL FAMILY PAPERS
by JOHN EDMUND STEALEY III
The long-ignored story of the pre-Civil War cattle industry in Ohio has been the subject in recent years of several scholarly studies which have enhanced the meager bibliography of American agricultural history. Previously only a few major works dealt with the beef trade on a general, national basis. The most notable of these are James Westfall Thompson's History of Livestock Raising in the United States, 1607-1860 and Charles Townsend Leavitt's original research in his 1931 University of Chicago dissertation "The Meat and Dairy Livestock Industry, 1819-1860."1 Ohio's role in the production and marketing of meat animals, however, won deserved recognition in Paul C. Henlein's description of cattle driving from Ohio in a 1954 Agricultural History publication as well as in his important monograph, Cattle Kingdom in the Ohio Valley, 1783-1860,2 and in the specialized articles by Robert Leslie Jones in the Ohio Historical Quarterly in 1955.3 The paucity of manuscript material, almost non-existent on many phases of the ante-bellum industry in Ohio and in the nation, has hindered research by agricultural historians. Henlein's use of previously unexamined manu-
NOTES ARE ON PAGES 70-72 |
NOTES ON ANTE-BELLUM CATTLE INDUSTRY 39
scripts, in the hands of generous
individuals and in public depositories, is
the enriching characteristic of his
monograph.
In addition to the manuscripts mentioned
above, the fragmentary though
important McNeill family papers in the
West Virginia University Library4
augment the scant supply of primary
material on the ante-bellum cattle trade
in both the Scioto River Valley of Ohio
and in the South Branch River
Valley of Virginia. The most important
feature of the latter collection is
that it contains several colorful and
informative letters written by various
members of the Renick family who
migrated from the South Branch to the
Scioto Valley and achieved enduring fame
as cattlemen.
Like many eighteenth century settlers on
the South Branch and in other
fertile river valleys in western
Virginia, the Renicks had originally migrated
from Germany to eastern Pennsylvania for
religious reasons. After a brief
stay in Pennsylvania, they traveled
southwest into the lush river valleys
through which flowed the southern
tributaries of the Potomac River: the
Shenandoah, the Cacapon, the South
Branch, and Patterson Creek. Two
Renick brothers settled on a part of the
Fairfax Grant known as the South
Branch Manor which was owned by Lord
Fairfax (and later John Marshall).
Here, one of them, William, became a
deputy surveyor for Fairfax.5 Among
their neighbors on the Fairfax estate at
Fort Pleasant on Indian Old Fields
was the McNeill family, which had
emigrated in 1722 from Scotland or
Northern Ireland.6 During the
course of three generations these two families
became inter-related by ties of
friendship, business, and marriage.
Even before 1800, cattle raising and
feeding in the South Branch Valley
evolved from a subsistence type of
operation, supplying local needs and
frontier forts, into an established
industry, marketing its product in eastern
cities. On the fertile soil, the
settlers raised large quantities of corn, which
they used for food for themselves and
their livestock. Additional food for
the animals was readily available in the
hilly regions surrounding the South
Branch, which were difficult to
cultivate but which made ideal pasture land
for cattle.7 The McNeills,
the Renicks, and other stockmen drove their
cattle either to the markets in the
newer towns of Winchester and Staunton
or to the older and more populous
cities, such as Richmond, Alexandria,
Georgetown, Baltimore, and Philadelphia.
At the beginning of the nineteenth
century, the feeders of the South Branch
Valley were attracting stock cattle from
other areas of Virginia and as far
away as Kentucky and eastern Ohio.8
Between 1800 and 1860, there may
have been a Scioto River Valley to South
Branch cattle trade, but adequate
documentation of its existence is
lacking.9 It would have been practical to
drive stock cattle or even corn-fed
cattle (when unfavorable market conditions
prevailed in eastern cities) from the
western regions up the South Branch
or other river valleys from the National
Road, because of the trellis drainage
pattern in this section.
The contributions of the settlers from
the South Branch Valley to the
catttle industry in the Scioto Valley
and other parts of the West have been
recognized by all historians in the field. The migrants
carried their practical
40 OHIO HISTORY |
|
knowledge and experience in stock raising to the extensive corn growing lands of the Scioto. The most important and unique technique transferred was the South Branch method of cattle feeding. When corn was harvested, it was cut and shocked in the open field with 12 to 16 hills per shock. From November to early spring, this shocked corn was hauled from the field in a low wagon and fed to the cattle to be fattened in an eight to ten acre feed lot. These animals were followed into the lot by hogs or stock cattle. All livestock remained unsheltered throughout the winter.10 Lord Dunmore's War had afforded many Virginians an opportunity to explore and view the rich, gently rolling lands in the Scioto Valley. Accounts of the fertility of the land on the Scioto were carried back to the South Branch by Daniel McNeill, Sr., James Parsons, and other men who had been at Camp Charlotte, Dunmore's encampment in what is now Salt Creek Township, Pickaway County. Spurred by these favorable reports, Felix |
NOTES ON ANTE-BELLUM CATTLE INDUSTRY 41
Renick, the son of Fairfax's surveyor,
yearned to explore this same region
for himself. Therefore, in October 1798,
Felix, Joseph Harness, and Leonard
Stump traveled westward to view this new
country. Their explorations con-
firmed the findings of Dunmore's
farmer-soldiers. In 1801 Felix, his wife,
and small child, moved with Jonathan
Renick and two hired hands by
packhorse to Darby Creek in the Scioto Valley
to raise a crop of corn on
lands jointly owned by Jonathan and
Thomas Renick. Later in the spring
Felix, also, was able to purchase, at a
government auction in Chillicothe, a
large tract of land for $2.50 an acre
located at the mouth of Indian Creek
on High Bank Prairie in Liberty Township
in Ross County.11
Within a few years, many other families
left the South Branch for the
more extensive virgin lands on the
Scioto. Among these were Felix Renick's
older brothers, George and William. Left
behind in the South Branch Valley,
which Felix later described as
"small in extent compared with many of
those in the west, yet in beauty and
fertility . . . not surpassed by any,"12
were their relatives and business
associates, the McNeills. Daniel McNeill, Jr.,
had married Margaret (Peggy), a sister
of the Renick brothers. Daniel's
brother, Strawder (Strother), had
married another sister, Mary Ann
Renick.13 The separation of the two
families, however, did not prevent
them from maintaining close friendships
and business ties.
By 1820 the Renicks were the undisputed
leaders in the cattle business
in the Scioto Valley. George Renick was
the first man to drive corn-fattened
cattle from the Scioto in 1805 over the
Alleghany Mountains to an eastern
market.14 Both Felix and George drove
cattle to the East intermittently
in succeeding years. All the brothers,
including William, explored surround-
ing states and regions as far west as
Missouri for cattle and land prospects,
and they brought stock cattle from
Kentucky and other western states into
the Scioto Valley to be fattened.15
In the winter of 1818-19, Felix Renick
sold to a victualer in Chillicothe
one of his seven-year-old steers which
weighed a total of 2,511 pounds
when slaughtered. Also dressed at the
same time was a William Renick
heifer which weighed 1,574 pounds.16
On November 3, 1819, a livestock
show was held in connection with the
first annual meeting of the Scioto
Agricultural Society in Chillicothe. The
Renick family won all the first
place premiums with their horses and
cattle. George Renick won a silver
cup for the best gelding in the show and
took another for the best steer,
"the fattest ever seen in this
country." Felix Renick was awarded a silver
cup for the best cow in competition with
the animals of his brother, George,
and his cousin, Jonathan Renick of
Pickaway County. William Renick of
Pickaway exhibited the best heifer under
two years old. For the gratification
of the spectators only, and not the
prize, William, George, and Felix showed
their jointly owned long horn bull, Duke
of Orange.17 In the expanded
second annual show of the society in
1820, the Renicks again won all the
silver cups awarded for cattle. In
addition, William Renick had the third
best hog and Mrs. Felix Renick exhibited
the best 20 yards of flax linen in
the handicrafts division.18
42 OHIO HISTORY |
|
As had been mentioned, the Renicks maintained close connections with the Daniel McNeill family and other former neighbors in the South Branch Valley. They corresponded regularly and their families exchanged frequent visits.19 On their return westward from marketing trips to eastern cattle yards, the Renicks usually would stop at "the Branch." They constantly kept each other abreast of market developments and news. Daniel McNeill would receive letters on the condition of markets from anyone traveling from his neighborhood to the eastern cities and then would relay it on west to the Renicks. The information furnished by James Parsons, Jr., on the state of the markets in February of 1823 is typical;20 According to promise I inform you that the markets are about the same that they were -- when I was here [Philadelphia] last year at this time -- cattle are a rating from $5. to $6.50 and a few choise cattle at $7.00 per hundred they new York market Zell tells me is not any better |
NOTES ON ANTE-BELLUM CATTLE INDUSTRY 43
yet. -- this market from information has
veryied very little for a bout
a month past I think it will get better
in a few weeks they people are
a puting off their cattle here fast for
fear of the western stock. Seymour
& Hutton sold out on two market days
all to four they sold none higher
than $6.25 per hundred I am informed
that they were very indifferent
and sold them well according to the
stock and I believe that they sold
none under $5.00 per hundred or very
few.
At one time, Daniel McNeill even had the
state legislator of his county
reporting on the Richmond markets.21
McNeill also wrote to the various
stockyards and their agents in eastern
cities for information. Julia A. Carr,
writing for her father, reported the
prospective prices of the 1820 New
York market in a letter written February
18:
I received yours of the 8th inst.
respecting the price of Cattle in
our market . . . The very first rate
Cattle is worth from 8 to 9 Dollars
per hundred & we have a good supply
at present, but I am of opinion that
Cattle wont be much higher, except some
very prime lots. I will give
you notice as the markets alter. If you
intend coming to New York;
dont let it be too late in the Spring if
your Cattle are large & heavy;
& bring nothing but the first rate
Cattle; for thin Cattle wont do to
come that distance.
In a letter of June 20, 1820, William
Spears notified McNeill that the sum-
mer livestock market in Baltimore was
very slow because of the butchers'
attitude:
Messers Rennick, Campbell and Foley are
all the Drovers we have
here at present I do not here of any
more a coming. the above mentioned
Gentlemen are all from the State of
Ohio. I believe the prices they are
selling at are from $7.00 to 7.50 p
hundred it appears that the Butchers
are determined not to bid up the price .
. . If any thing should take place
respecting the market I wil not fail of
leting you know of it.
In this way, besides using the business
information for his own benefit,
McNeill would keep the cattle-feeding
Renicks of Ohio informed of market
trends on a regular basis. In turn, the
Renicks would predict the number
and approximate departure date of herds
of cattle being driven from their
locality to the East. This knowledge
enabled McNeill to drive his own
cattle from the South Branch to the
eastern cities "at the head of the
market" before the western stock
arrived. These estimates of the Renicks
on the number of cattle being fed in
Ohio in the 1820's also furnish some
heretofore unknown information from
qualified sources.22
On the other hand, Daniel McNeill's
cattle feeding business was on a
much smaller scale than his
brothers-in-law's in the Scioto Valley. In the
fall, he would buy small lots of stock
cattle in outlying areas around the South
Branch and would drive them to his
fertile corn-growing farm, Willow Wall,
where some would be fattened on fodder
throughout the winter. In the
following spring, he would either sell
the finished cattle to dealers who visited
Willow Wall or he would drive them to
eastern markets himself, depending
on the price offered. In the autumn of
1820, for example, McNeill bought a
total of 78 head of stock cattle in odd
lots ranging from one to 40 from
eight individual raisers on the North
Branch at an average price of $16.79
per head. In the spring of 1821, he
drove 30 animals to Baltimore where he
44 OHIO HISTORY
sold them for $36.50 each. After
deducting $51.05 for the expense of driving
and $503.70 for their original cost,
McNeill cleared $530.25 on this small
drove. He kept the remaining cattle to
fatten through the next winter and
sold them in the spring in two lots at
his farm on the South Branch. He
sold a small lot of four for $94.00. The
second lot of 40 head was sold for
an average price of $41.20 apiece. He
thus realized a total profit of $976.40,
after deducting the original cost. The
four animals not accounted for may
have died or may have been retained by
McNeill. Even so, he was able to
clear $1533.49 on 78 head of cattle
within one and one-half years on an
original investment of $1310.00 (not
including the cost of the grain fed to
the cattle and other incidentals).23 And
McNeill was a small operator in
comparison with the Renicks and other
Scioto Valley feeders.24
George Renick, on the other hand,
combined his farming with mercantile
interests. Previous to his removal to
Chillicothe in 1802, he had operated a
general store in Moorefield, Virginia.
In preparation for his migration to
the Scioto, he married Dorothy Harness
and purchased a large stock of dry
goods in Baltimore. With the
merchandise, he established a store in Chilli-
cothe. Also, he raised cattle, hogs, and
horses for additional profit and pleasure.
After he proved that it was feasible to
drive corn-fed cattle from the Scioto
Valley to eastern markets, George used
his cattle driving trips for a two-fold
purpose. He would sell his cattle, and,
with the money received, would
purchase supplies to be carried back to
his store in Chillicothe. By 1808,
George had accumulated enough money and
real estate so that he was able
to give up merchandizing and devote all
of his time to his first love -- cattle
raising. During the next half-century,
except for a brief period in 1816, when
he moved to Kentucky for health reasons,25
he was as successful in cattle
and farming operations as he had been in
his store.
Expecting to drive a herd eastward in
the summer of 1820, George Renick
wrote his brother-in-law, Daniel
McNeill, in February asking him "Pleas to
Write me again on the prosspects of
markets" and forecasting that "150 head
of good Cattle will be the Extent that
will go from this Country to an Eastern
Market this season." He said about
ninety head of fat cattle were destined
shortly to go by boat for New Orleans,
including his own "large Stear (which
you probably have heard some talk of)."26
Western commerce, he reported,
"has again rivived" with fifty
boatloads of produce passing down the river
within a few mid-winter days.
Advice of the experienced McNeill was
also sought in November 1820
by Jonathan G. Harness on buying and
driving hogs to an eastern market.
Jonathan had moved from the South Branch
to the Scioto where his uncle
Joseph Harness and other relatives had
lived since 1798.27 He chided McNeill
for not having mentioned "the State
of the Market" in a recent letter and
reported that the asking price of pork
was two dollars without takers "and
I think their will be no Dificulty in
bueing at one Dollar and Seventy five
cents."
Market appraising began early for
William Renick, the son of George [not
to be confused with his uncle William], who began to
assume responsibilities
in his father's cattle business at the
age of 17. He traveled throughout Ohio
NOTES ON ANTE-BELLUM CATTLE
INDUSTRY 45
and Kentucky buying stock cattle28 and helped on
drives to eastern markets.
In Baltimore in May 1821 he duly
reported to his uncle Daniel "how times
are and how they are like to be."
He found beef selling between $5 and $6.50
"per Cwt.," said he had
disposed of some of $6.25 but still had twenty head
on hand, and estimated about 150 in the
market with cattle arriving
daily. He concluded his letter by saying,
"I hav only to relate that the seasons
are very backward here, there is hardly
any grass about here that is sufficient
to keep cattle but we have fine weather
for it to grow now."
Two letters of William Renick to McNeill
reflect the continual attention
given by the Renick brothers to the
general business climate. Less is known
about the contributions of William to
the cattle industry than about those
of his more renowned brothers. He
settled in Bloomfield, Pickaway County,
where he raised prize-winning cattle. He
had moved briefly to Missouri after
he explored the area with Felix in 1819,
but came back to the Scioto.29 In
March 1822 he reported on the river
traffic: "the boats were going yesterday
and today in great stile I suppose there
is something Like Fifty thousand
Barrels of flower pork beef and whiskey
on the Scioto River now on its way
to Market or Destruction," and in
January 1824 he commented on crop and
livestock prospects for the year:
There is a great part of our Contary
that have Raisd little or no Crops
of any Kind this Season but a Long the
warter Courrces ther has been
tollerable Crops of Corn but Lite Crops
of wheat but it appears to make
but Little Difference wheather they have
Crops or not they will have
stock . . . I found that there would be
but a few hogz here this Season
owing to the great quantity that died
Last winter . . . the quantity that
is going on to Market from a thousand to
three thousand in a Drove [.]
Henry Vanmeter passed threw Columbus a
week or two ago with 26
hundred in one drove . . .
We are feading as many Cattle in this
County as we did Last year
by one half but in Ross I suppose there
is about the Same number.
Felix Renick gives us additional
information about prospective market condi-
tions in the Scioto Valley. Early spring
of 1823, braving winter travel hard-
ships, he scouted the entire Valley
collecting information on the number of
cattle destined for the eastern market.
In his correspondence with McNeill,
Felix reviewed the growth of the cattle
industry in the West since the time
of his migration from the South Branch,
commenting wryly on Yankee
enterprise and voicing some prophesies
about the impact of western agricul-
ture on the economy of the eastern
United States. From "Cattail Pararie" on
February 24, 1823 he told his
brother-in-law that eight or ten New York
and Pennsylvania drovers had been buying
"more than half of the Cattle
in the County" at an average of $4
a hundredweight, some drives already had
started for the East with others likely
until "the first of August, & perhaps
the whole year." The animals were
being shod30 to enable them to travel the
long miles of frost-bound or thawing
roads, and he expressed the belief that
within five years winter cattle driving,
once regarded as "out of the question,"
would be common due to "yanky
vigilence and interprise." He continued:
The rise and progress of the west has
excited considerable alarm in
Some Sections of the east, and they have
already began to feel Some
of the effects. -- but rest assured you
feel nothing yet. -- we must
46 OHIO HISTORY
Measurably Judge things to come, by
things that has past, my present
knowledge of the vast extent and
fertility of the Soile of the west
induces me to blieve, that if we have no
uncommon rupture, in the
United States or Urope, that in twenty
years from this time, provisions
of all kinds will be reduced to one half
of their present Value, and that
before that day fat Cattle will be
driven to the eastern Markets even
from the Mississippi & Missouri.
A short time later, after consulting
with his brothers, George and William,
Felix again wrote McNeill on March 15,
1823 that five thousand head of Ohio
cattle would go East, some recently
purchased at from $4.50 to $5. More
than seven hundred had started, others
were passing through from Kentucky
and he questioned the consequences of
"their Crouding off in this manner"
fearful "it would be almost fatal
to the Markets and of Course to the drovers,
unless a Northern Market Should open
which I fear will not be the case this
Season."
The quantity of river-borne produce
alarmed Felix because of its effect on
business in the South and West.
"Our little river", he wrote, "has for two
or three days past been literally
covered with crafts conveying off produce
property, & articles of every kind
& denomination, that you could possibly
think of, and many that you nor no other
person, except a yankey, would
think of takeing to Market . . . our
ears are now continually greeted with
the Musical Sound of the boatmans horn,
boats have been passing for two
days & a half . . . at the rate of
about thirty pr. day . . . I think there will
Something like three hundred float out
of the Scioto this year . . ." His son,
George,31 he said, was off with a boatload
of English cattle to be delivered
at Portsmouth, at the mouth of the
Scioto.
By 1826, age and infirmities hindered
Daniel McNeill's personal, active
participation in the cattle business.
Daniel R. McNeill then assumed his
father's responsibilities for
purchasing, driving and marketing, but the elder
McNeill remained his adviser and
consultant, keeping himself informed of
market trends and forecasts. The son
reported to his parent from Baltimore
on March 25, 1826 that he had
"arived here in considerable croude yesterday.
I have had scarcely a butcher to see me
much less to bye any . . . I have
concluded to move the cattle on to
Philadelphia to day . . . If I can sell to
the drovers to any advantage I will do
so."
In his turn, the father furnished the
son with information on business
activity in the South Branch when the
latter was in eastern cities with a
drove.32 In the spring of
1829 he was able to relay additional intelligence
from his nephew, Strawder McNeill, who
had journeyed from Frankfort, Ohio
to the South Branch, in part over the
National Road.33 After a warning
from "Papa" not to sell any
cattle to a certain Rusk who "will keep you
waiting for your money so long and then
not get it," young McNeill told
of two South Branch droves destined for
Richmond and added:
Cousin Strawder34 says he
only saw three droves of Cattle on the road
as they came in & thez small droves,
the largest drove was 80, another
60, & one 40 one they passed at
Zanesville one just the other side of
the Ohio River, the other at Laurel
Hill, and says the road was so verry
bad they could scarcely get along, one
set had traveled 40 miles in 10 days.
NOTES ON ANTE-BELLUM CATTLE INDUSTRY 47
Daniel R. McNeill was in Washington in
the spring of 1830 when his sister,
Catherine, kept him appraised of the
active cattle trade in Hardy and Hamp-
shire Counties. This letter35 reveals
that a few South Branch cattle traders
had been going to Ohio to purchase
cattle to drive to market, but had found
prices prohibitive. "Mr. Sam
Alexander, returned from Ohio with John
Seymour," she reported, "&
told Felix Seymour . . . that the farmers there
held their stock much higher than they
do here, that not any of them had
sold when they left Ohio."
Frustrated in the Scioto Valley, the "cattle
merchants are buying up the cattle on
the branch lively," she wrote. Two
firms had acquired upwards of 500 head,
and 100 of these had gone to market
from Hardy County.
Daniel McNeill died in the early 1830'S,36 but fortunately
some of his
correspondence has survived and has
furnished a significant glimpse into the
relationship of the South Branch
settlers with the development of the beef
cattle industry in the Scioto Valley. As
has been shown, the Renicks and
other cattle raisers who originally
migrated westward from the South Branch
had a substantial influence on the
ante-bellum development of the national
beef cattle industry through the
transfer and adaptation of their feeding
methods and through the interstate sale
of their improved stock.37 Of prime
importance in this development, was the
Ohio Breeding and Importing Com-
pany, formed in 1833 for the purpose of
bringing Shorthorns from England.
Investors in this profitable joint-stock
company, which liquidated its assets
in 1837, included the Renicks and other
cattlemen of the Scioto Valley,
John and Strawder McNeill and others who
also had come to Ohio from
the South Branch.38 Throughout
the pre-Civil War period, South Branch
stockmen raised and fed beef cattle on a
smaller scale than those on the
more expansive lands of the emergent
West, but the eastern area, never-
theless, continued to furnish a dynamic
element in the development of
the western beef industry -- the industrious settlers
who were experienced
cattlemen.39
THE AUTHOR: John Edmund Stea-
ley III is Instructor, West Virginia
Center
for Appalachian Studies and Development,
West Virginia University. Previous
publi-
cations have appeared in West
Virginia
History and the Tennessee Historical
Quarterly.
70 OHIO
HISTORY
38. Sherman to Ellen Sherman, June 17,
1845, September 24, 1850.
39. Sherman to Ellen Sherman, October
10, 1863; Sherman to Minnie Sherman,
March 15, 1863, January 28, 1864;
Sherman to the Rev. Edward Sorin, C.S.C., March 1,
1867, May 5, 1870. Father Sorin was
president of the University of Notre Dame.
40. Sherman to Ellen Sherman, June 6,
1862, April 30, 1878; Sherman to Minnie
Sherman, October 4, 1862; David P.
Conyngham, "Soldiers of the Cross" (manuscript,
University of Notre Dame), Chap. IV;
Ellen Sherman to Sherman, June 23, 1861. Indi-
cations, but no proof, exist that Ellen
Sherman had the Rev. Joseph Carrier, C.S.C., sent
to Sherman's camp to check on reports
that her husband was mentally disturbed.
41. Sherman to Ellen Sherman, September
16, 1846.
42. Sherman to Ellen Sherman, September
18, 1846.
43. Sherman to Ellen Sherman, January 6,
March 24, 1872. An example of his detailed
church descriptions is in the letter of
January 6.
44. Sherman to Ellen Sherman, May 26,
July 24, 1872.
45. Sherman to Ellen Sherman, July 26,
1872. See also Sherman to Thomas Sherman,
March 1, 1872.
46. Sherman to Ellen Sherman, October
29, 1859, September 17, 1844.
47. Lloyd Lewis, Sherman, Fighting
Prophet (New York, 1932), 628-631.
48. Sherman to Ellen Sherman, July 14,
1855.
49. Sherman to Ellen Sherman, June 14,
1844.
50. Sherman to Ellen Sherman, July 26,
1872. See also Sherman to Ellen Sherman,
July 7, 1872.
51. For examples of the children's
intolerance, see Minnie Sherman to Ellen Sherman,
May 29, 1878, and Thomas Sherman to his
brother Philemon Sherman, February 24, 1890.
52. Sherman to Ellen Sherman, August 25,
1872.
53. Ellen Sherman to Sherman, November
21, 1860. This is a copy of the original
letter, which was destroyed by Philemon
Sherman.
54. Ellen Sherman to Sherman, April 29,
1855, December 1, 1859.
55. Sherman to Thomas Sherman, November
10, 1864; Sherman to Ellen Sherman,
November 29, 1860; Sherman to Thomas
Sherman, March 29, 1872.
56. Sherman to Minnie Sherman, April 20,
1888, January 2, 1890.
57. Ellen Sherman to Sherman, January
29, 1861, August 1879, April 4, August 23,
1887.
58. Sherman to John T. Doyle, June 16,
1878.
59. Sherman to Major Henry Turner, June
28, June 5, July 24, 1878.
60. Ellen Sherman to Sherman, April 15,
1864.
61. Sherman to Ellen Sherman, January
15, 1865; Sherman to Thomas Sherman,
March 29, 1872.
62. Sherman to Ellen Sherman, September
16, 1883. See also Sherman to Mrs. Alex-
ander Thackara (Eleanor Sherman), May
24, 1881; Sherman to Minnie Sherman, June
16, 1878; and Sherman to John T. Doyle,
July 28, 1878.
63. The quotation is from Sherman to
Major Henry Turner, July 13, 1878. See also
Sherman to Major Turner, May 27, July 7,
1878.
64. Sherman to Major Henry Turner, May
27, 1878. See also Sherman to Minnie
Sherman, June 16, 1878, and Sherman to
John T. Doyle, July 28, 1878.
65. Thomas Sherman's relationship with
his father is reflected in Thomas Sherman
to Sherman, May 25, 1878, July 14,
September 1, 1880. The gradual softening of Sher-
man's attitude is seen in Sherman to
Ellen Sherman, August 24, 1880 (postscript written
by Rachel Sherman), and Sherman to Mrs.
Alexander Thackara, December 30, 1880.
66. Ellen Sherman to Minnie Sherman. May
31, 1878.
67. Letter of John Sherman, dated
February 13, 1891, in New York Sun, February 19,
1891. See also John Sherman, Recollections
of Forty Years, II, 1102-1103.
68. Sherman to Mrs. Alexander Thackara,
May 24, 1881.
NOTES ON THE
ANTE-BELLUM CATTLE INDUSTRY FROM
THE McNEILL FAMILY
PAPERS
The author gratefully acknowledges the
patient encouragement, guidance, and criticism
of Dr. William D. Barns in a seminar in
American Agricultural History at West Virginia
University.
1. James Westfall Thompson, History
of Livestock Raising in the United States,
1607-1860, United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural
History Series, No. 5
(November 1942); Charles Townsend
Leavitt, "The Meat and Dairy Livestock Industry,
1819-1860" (unpublished doctoral
dissertation, University of Chicago, 1931).
NOTES
71
2. Paul C. Henlein, "Cattle Driving
from the Ohio Country, 1800-1850," Agricultural
History, XXVIII (1954), 83-95; Henlein, Cattle Kingdom in the
Ohio Valley, 1783-1860
(Lexington, 1959). See also Paul C.
Henlein, ed., "Journal of F. and W. Renick on an
Exploring Tour to the Mississippi and
Missouri Rivers in the Year 1819," Agricultural
History, XXX (1956), 174-186.
3. Robert Leslie Jones, "The Beef
Cattle Industry in Ohio Prior to the Civil War,"
Ohio Historical Quarterly, LXIV (1955), 168-194; 287-319.
4. This collection was generously given
to the West Virginia Collection of the West
Virginia University Library by John,
William, and D. Brown McNeill. Grateful acknowl-
edgment is made to Ralph J. Bean, Jr.,
of Moorefield, West Virginia for his guidance in
the South Branch Valley. In the editing
of these letters, the spelling and punctuation are
as similar to the originals as
typographical printing will allow.
5. Kuykendall Genealogical Day Book,
West Virginia Collection, West Virginia Uni-
versity Library, 104; Deed Book A,
Office of the Clerk of the County Court of Hardy
County, Hardy County Court House,
Moorefield, W. Va., 65, 350, 389; William Renick,
Memoirs, Correspondence and
Reminiscences of William Renick (Circleville
O., 1880),
1-2; Williams Bros., publishers, History
of Ross and Highland Counties, Ohio (Cleveland,
1880), opp. p. 205.
6. American Pioneer (Cincinnati,
O.), I (September 1842), 331; Kuykendall Genealogi-
cal Day Book, 4, 9; Simeon Miller
Bright, "The McNeill Rangers: A Study in Con-
federate Guerrilla Warfare" (unpublished M.A.
thesis, West Virginia University, 1950), 7.
7. Leavitt, "Meat and Dairy
Livestock Industry," 2-3, 4-5, 8-9, 12, 15, 175, 177-178;
Thompson History of Livestock Raising
in the United States 59-60.
8. F. A. Michaux "Travels to the
West of the Alleghany Mountains . . . [1802]," in
Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed., Early
Western Travels, 1748-1846 (Cleveland, 1904), III,
245; Fortesque Cuming, "Sketches of
a Tour to the Western Country . . . [1807-1809],"
Thwaites, Early Western Travels, IV,
136; Jones, "The Beef Cattle Industry in Ohio,"
174; Henlein, Cattle Kingdom in the
Ohio Valley, 4-5.
9. Jones, "The Beef Cattle Industry
in Ohio," 174; Thompson, History of Livestock
Raising in the United States, 94 states that several head of a herd of cattle being
driven
to Baltimore in 1805 were sold at
Moorefield, Va., but the documentation is inadequate.
10. Henlein, Cattle Kingdom in the
Ohio Valley, 2, 51; Jones, "The Beef Cattle Indus-
try in Ohio," 185, 190-191,
especially p. 191 for a discussion of the economic advantages
of the system; William Renick, "On
the Cattle Trade in the Scioto Valley," Third Annual
Report of the Board of the Board of
Agriculture of the State of Ohio (Columbus,
1849),
162-163; Percy W. Bidwell and John I.
Falconer, History of Agriculture in the Northern
United States, 1620-1860 (Washington, 1925), 178, 390; J. F. King, "The
Coming and
Going of Ohio Droving," Ohio
Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, XVII (1908), 252;
Alvin H. Sanders, Shorthorn Cattle (Chicago,
1918), 182-183; John A. Hopkins, "Eco-
nomic History of the Production of Beef
Cattle in Iowa," in Benjamin F. Shambaugh, ed.,
Iowa Economic History Series (Iowa City, 1928), 14-15; N. J. Dunlap, "Cattle
Feeding,"
Sixty-Second Annual Report of the
Ohio State Board of Agriculture (Springfield,
1908),
351.
11. American Pioneer, I (January
1842), 73, 78; American Pioneer, I (September
1842), 329, 331; American Pioneer, II
(January 1843) 41; Marriage of Felix Rennick
[sic] and Hannah See, November 5, 1795, Record of Marriage
Book, Office of the Clerk
of the County Court of Hardy County, 5;
Kuykendall Genealogical Day Book, 40;
Williams Bros., History of Ross and
Highland Counties, opp. p. 205, 273; Henry Holcomb
Bennett, ed., The County of Ross (Madison,
Wis., 1902), 356, 357, 655.
12. American Pioneer, II (January
1843), 41.
13. Extract from the McNeill Family
Bible, Kuykendall Genealogical Day Book, 4,
96, 97; Bright, "The McNeill
Rangers," 7.
14. Renick, Memoirs, 12, 79, 80,
99-100; Henlein "Cattle Driving from the Ohio Coun-
try," 83; Henlein, Cattle
Kingdom in the Ohio Valley, 8-9, 103.
15. Henlein, ed., "Journal of F.
and W. Renick," 174; Henlein, Cattle Kingdom in the
Ohio Valley, 8-9; Jones, "The Beef Cattle Industry in
Ohio," 178-181, 187-189; Renick,
"On the Cattle Trade in the Scioto
Valley," 163.
16. Supporter (Chillicothe,
Ohio), January 13, 1819.
17. Scioto Gazette and Fredonian
Chronicle (Chillicothe, Ohio), November 5, 1819.
18. Ibid., November 9, 1820.
19. Renick, Memoirs, 5; Felix
Renick to Daniel McNeill, December 18, 1820; Dr. John
Coates to Daniel McNeill, February 16,
1823. McNeill Family Papers.
20. James Parsons, Jr., to Daniel
McNeill, February 21, 1823. McNeill Family Papers.
21. Jethro Neville to Daniel McNeill, February
5, 1826. McNeill Family Papers.
22. Jones, "The Beef Cattle
Industry in Ohio," 193.
23. Daniel McNeill Account Book,
1820-1823. McNeill Family Papers. Except for
the account on the seventy-eight head of
cattle mentioned, this book is fragmentary and
contains only scattered entries for the
purchase of fodder and other grain supplies.
24. See Leavitt, "The Meat and
Dairy Livestock Industry," 90-93, for a discussion of
72 OHIO
HISTORY
the economic system of cattle feeding in
the Scioto Valley.
25. Renick, Memoirs, 3-4, 32-35,
48; Henlein, Cattle Kingdom in the Ohio Valley, 131;
Bennett, The County of Ross, 137; The Scioto
Gazette, March 27, June 26, 1806; January
11, 1808.
26. This event was noted in the Scioto
Gazette, February 24, 1820.
27. Bennett, The County of Ross, 359;
Jonathan G. Harness to Daniel McNeill,
November 1, 1820. McNeill Family Papers.
28. Renick, Memoirs, 55.
29. Henlein, ed., "Journal of F.
and W. Renick," 174, 176.
30. King, "The Coming and Going of
Ohio Droving," 251.
31. George W. Renick.
32. Daniel McNeill to Daniel R. McNeill,
April 11, 1827. McNeill Family Papers.
33. Catherine McNeill acted as her
ailing father's amanuensis in this letter. Daniel
McNeill to Daniel R. McNeill, March 31,
1829. McNeill Family Papers.
34. Strawder McNeill was the son of
Daniel McNeill's brother, John, who had
migrated to Ross County in 1809. In 1816
he established the town of Frankfort upon his
lands in Concord Township. Throughout
his life, John McNeill was engaged in the
mercantile and livestock businesses.
Will of Daniel McNeill, Sr., Will Book I, Office of
the Clerk of the County Court of Hardy
County, 328; Bennett, The County of Ross, 599;
Williams Bros., History of Ross and
Highland Counties, 314.
35. Catherine McNeill to Daniel R.
McNeill, March 15, 1830. McNeill Family Papers.
36. Inventory of the Estate of Daniel
McNeill, Will Book 6, Office of the Clerk of the
County Court of Hardy County, 71-74.
37. John Ashton, "History of
Shorthorns in Missouri prior to the Civil War," Missouri
State Board of Agriculture Monthly Bulletin,
XXI (November 1923), 14-29.
38. Henlein, Cattle Kingdom in the
Ohio Valley, 75-79; Sanders, Shorthorn Cattle,
185-186; Charles S. Plumb, "Felix
Renick, Pioneer," Ohio Archaeological and Historical
Quarterly, XXIII (January 1924), 28-56; Edward N. Wentworth, A
Biographical Catalog
of the Portrait Gallery of the Saddle
and Sirloin Club (Chicago, 1920),
235-238.
39. For names of settlers from the South
Branch who went to Missouri, see Ashton,
"History of Shorthorns in
Missouri," 59-62.
THE WHISKEY WAR AT
PADDY'S RUN:
EXCERPTS FROM A
DIARY OF ALBERT SHAW
The editor, Lloyd J. Graybar, wishes to
dedicate this article to the memory of his
mother, Maude V. Graybar.
1. Lloyd J. Graybar, "Albert Shaw's
Ohio Youth," Ohio History, LXXIV (1965), 29-34,
tells of Shaw's upbringing in Ohio and
his later rise to prominence. The diary is deposited
in the large collection of Shaw
Manuscripts in the New York Public Library. His capi-
talization, spelling and punctuation
appear here as in the original.
2. Ibid., 31. For history of the
community see Stephen Riggs Williams, The Saga of the
Paddy's Run (Oxford, Ohio, 1945). W. H. Irwin, Esq., and Rev. S. D.
Crothers, Cen-
tennial Historical Sketches of
Greenfield and Vicinity, July 4, 1876 (Greenfield,
Ohio,
1876), contains "An Historical
Sketch of Paddy's Run, Butler County, Ohio," by Rev.
B. W. Chidlaw [n.p.].
3. J. H. Beadle, The Women's War on
Whiskey: Its History, Theory, and Prospects
(Cincinnati, 1874), is a graphic account
of the crusade written by an experienced reporter
for the Cincinnati Commercial. From
January 23 until May 2, 1874 he visited a score
of Ohio towns to write on the campaign's
progress and later published his stories in his
book. See also Cincinnati Commercial,
January 6, 16, February 8, 10, April 10, 1874;
Cincinnati Daily Gazette, February
16, 1874; Cincinnati Enquirer, March 6, 1874; Mary
Earhart, Frances Willard: From
Prayers to Politics (Chicago, 1944), 138, 141-145. The
Commercial, edited by Murat Halstead, native of Paddy's Run, gave
extensive news
coverage to the crusade, often on the
first page, under a standing headline: "Woman's
War on Whiskey" until March 30 when
"Temperance" was substituted. Editorially it
was unenthusiastic. The Gazette made
a lesser effort at coverage, calling it "The Woman's
Temperance Crusade" or "The
Temperance Crusade." The disapproving Enquirer gave
considerable space to news under
headings "Woman's War" or "The Crusade."
4. Cincinnati Daily Gazette, February
3, 1874; Beadle, Women's War, v, 11-14. Dr.
Lewis wrote the foreword to Beadle's
book in March 1874.
5. A notable example was John C. Van
Pelt, New Vienna saloonkeeper who first
threw beer on his female tormentors,
then repented, dumped his stocks and joined Dr.
Lewis when he returned to Ohio in
February on another lecture tour to advance the