The farm of Gregg Bros., eleven miles north west of Sedalia, contains six hundred and forty acres, of which two hundred and fifty eight acres are devoted to pastures and meadows, and the balance to the cultivation of grain. The owners, G. W. & O. G. Gregg, manage the farm in person, and sell annually three hundred fat steers, three hundred swine and two hundred mutton sheep.

J. S. Hughes'" Pleasant Retreat," a beautiful, well cultivated and very productive farm of three hundred and sixty acres, is situated on Brushey creek twelve miles northwest of Sedalia. One hundred and sixty acres are reserved for plow land, and the balance is devoted to blue grass pastures, meadows and orchards. He keeps twenty-five to thirty choice breeding cows, seventy-five to one-hundred Southdown sheep, fifty to one hundred cattle, and one hundred to two hundred swine.

A fine farm of seven hundred and sixty acres, six miles southwest of Sedalia, is owned by George & D. E. Davis. Three hundred and twenty acres are used for the cultivation of grain, and four hundred and forty acres are laid in meadows of timothy and clover and blue grass pasture. Water is supplied by springs, wells and ponds, and the value of the property is enhanced by a large and well constructed residence and number of convenient and commodious farm buildings. The owners keep a splendid herd of Short-horns, six high grade brood mares, and thirteen mules and horses. They also fatten and ship to market annually about one hundred fifty swine and two hundred and twenty-five to two hundred and fifty fat

steers.

The most noted breeder of pure Berkshire swine in the state is N. H. Gentry, whose splendid farm of six hundred acres lies six miles northeast of Sedalia. This farm is noted for its fertile soil, beautiful location and the convenience and completeness of its arrangement. The entire 600 acres are laid in blue grass, and the sun never shone on finer pastures. Water, pure and abundant, is supplied by living streams and a steam pump, and the appliances and buildings connected with the breeding and raising of stock, cost a large sum. Mr. Gentry has a splendid herd of twenty-five Short-horns, led by a bull of superb form and qualities; two hundred and fifty Merino and Southdowns from imported stock, and sells annually over three hundred pigs at fancy prices.

Two miles east of Hughesville, in a flourshing agricultural district, is the excellent stock farm of Wm. Lowry. It consists of one thousand acres, all under substantial fence, and divided into convenient fields. Onehalf is seeded down to blue grass pasture and timothy meadow, and the balance is reserved for the cultivation of miscellaneous crops. The buildings are of the most substantial character, costing over $7,000, and water is obtained by means of bored wells with wind pump attachment. Mr. Lowry has a number of fine horses, brood mares and breeding cows,

two hundred sheep, mostly improved grades, two hundred Poland-China and Berkshire hogs, and a large number of miscellaneous stock of mixed breeds.

M. H. Seibert owns a handsome, well cultivated farm three miles west of Sedalia. It contains six hundred and eighty acres, properly sub-divided for convenience in the management of stock, is exceedingly fertile and is in the midst of a very flourishing agricultural district. Three hundred and twenty acres are laid in blue grass pasture and timothy meadow, and the balance is in plow land, orchard, etc. Mr. Seibert has a herd of thirty registered cattle-Dutchess and Maries-a number of breeding cows of mixed breeds but high grade, twenty-five Berkshire hogs of the best species, one hundred fine sheep, Merino, Southdown and Cotswold, and gets as high price for his wool as any sheep breeder in the state. He keeps also one hundred and fifty to two hundred stock cattle of good breeds, and fattens and ships to market annually one hundred head of choice steers.

SHEEP HUSBANDRY.

Among other industries for which Pettis county is becoming noted, Sheep Husbandry is fast assuming perhaps the most prominent place.

As early as 1830, Richard Gentry, the father of R. W. Gentry, president of the Missouri Wool Growers Association, began paying special attention to sheep. On his large farm of over 6,000 acres, lying northeast of Sedalia, he kept a flock of Merinos, varying in number from 2,500 to 5,000, and in quality unsurpassed by any flock in the state. This flock was a mixture of Spanish, French and Saxon blood.

Mr. Gentry was known throughout the state as the great sheep man. of his day, and strangers often came long distances to see his farm and sheep. Mr. Gentry was at his death the wealthiest man in the county; and he always claimed to have made most of his money in handling sheep. He handled Merinos exclusively, and his wool, on account of its quality and condition, always brought the best market price. His clip one year during the war brought him $12,000.00.

A flock of 800 sheep, descended from the flock Mr. Gentry left at his death, are now the property of R. W. Gentry, above mentioned, who lives on the old home place. In addition to these, Mr. Gentry has 200 sheep imported from Vermont, than which there are none better in the

state.

Mr. Gentry is president of the State Wool Growers Association, secretary of the Pettis county Association, a member and secretary of the Missouri State Board of Agriculture, and a young and thoroughly progressive man.

He has a farm of 1,100 acres highly improved, lying northeast of

Sedalia, on which he proposes to keep a flock of 2,000 registered Vermont sheep. He has now four large barns, and is making improvements every year. His residence is connected with Sedalia by telephone, and all letters and telegrams are promptly received. Mr. Gentry was the first president of the State Wool Growers Association, and is now president for the third time. He is ambitious to make Missouri the sheep state of the Union, and Pettis the sheep county of the state. He is not at all selfish, but is doing all he can to induce others to embark in the business; and he is weekly answering letters from other states from parties desiring to move to Missouri, to embark in the sheep husbandry. Parties in Pettis having farms for sale or rent would do well to keep Mr. Gentry informed of the fact.

Pettis county has by no means reached its full development in the matter of sheep husbandry. It has but fairly made a beginning. Over 3,000 blooded sheep were shipped out of the country last year, and the number is annually increasing. Mr. Gentry is shipping bucks in large numbers to Texas. Mr. John S. Woods and the Deweese Bro's are also shipping Merino bucks and ewes to various points in large numbers.

Messrs. Wm. M. Gentry and N. H. Gentry, who have hitherto been raising various kinds of blooded stock, the latter especially Berkshire hogs, have concluded to give special attention to sheep. They propose to keep Merinos; and have already very choice flocks. They are half brothers of R. W. Gentry, and the three, living on adjacent farms, hope to control a large trade.

Sedalia is the place at which are held the annual conventions and shearings of the State Association, and the meetings of the County Association; so that Pettis county, on this account as well as on account of its railroad facilities, may be regarded as the sheep centre of the state. The County Association is composed at present of the following named gentlemen:

Wm. Baker, Greenridge; John S. Banks, Sedalia; Fenton Barnett, Dresden; E. C. Bouldin, Georgetown; Dr. J. L. Cartwright, Longwood; V. T. Chilton, Smithton; J. W. Cole, Sedalia; Oliver Elmore, Longwood; Major Wm. Gentry, Sedalia; Wm. M. Gentry, Sedalia; N. H. Gentry, Sedalia; R. W. Gentry, Sedalia; Joshua Gentry, Dresden; F. C. Hayman, Longwood; T. S. Hopkins, Georgetown; J. B. Hopkins, Dresden; C. C. Jackson, Hughesville; J. M. Jackson, Hughesville; Henry Jones, Longwood; S. T. Lupe, Lamonte; James McCampbell, Greenridge; Wm. McDaniel, Houstonia; H. L. Quisenberg, Sedalia; H. B. Scott, Sedalia; J. E. Scott, Houstonia; J. M. Sneed, Sedalia; B. P. Smith, Smithton; John Thomas, Dresden; Hebrew Tivis, Houstonia; David Thompson, Sedalia; J. W. Walker, Sedalia; J. S. Woods, Sedalia.

There are quite a number of sheep men in the county besides the above, whose names no doubt will soon be enrolled. This association has thous

ands of sheep, and clip annually over 100,000 pounds of wool. The officers are J. M. Sneed, president; R. W. Gentry, secretary; John S. Woods

treasurer.

Most of these gentlemen sell their wool to local dealers, some ship to St. Louis; while the most enterprising ship directly east to commission houses, thus doing away with all profits of middlemen except one, thus realizing a good round price. Mr. R. W. Gentry shipped this year to Walter Brown & Co., No. 98 Federal Street, Boston, and realized for his clip of 7,000 pounds, 27 cents per pound over and above all expenses.

CONCLUSION. The foregoing by no means comprises the entire number of persons engaged in stock raising in Pettis county. Every where may be found magnificent farms, stocked with thoroughbred animels of the finest species, or of mixed breeds of excellent qualities. Every farmer raises stock for sale in proportion as his means and the facilities of farm affords. Every farmer boy is being trained in the best methods of stock husbandry by careful experienced fathers, and granger mothers are instructing their daughters in the art of butter making, poultry raising, and the various domestic duties so essential to successulf husbandry. The various conditions essential to the propogation of animal life, and its growth and development to the highest possible standard and of excellence exist, effecting alike both brute and human, and nowhere under the sun can be found finer types of the human race than those "to the manor born, "and reared in the pure air, the healthful clime, and upon the fertile soil of matchless Pettis county.

CHAPTER XIV.-RAILROAD HISTORY.

Introduction. First Enterprises in this Direction.-Sketch of the Inventor of the Locomotive. Some of the First Railroads. --Building of the Pacific Railroad.-Prominent men in Railroad Enterprises of the County.-The Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad. -Narrow Gauge.--Lexington Branch.

In this age of great, unprecedented progress and advancement in all that pertains to the elevation and enlightenment of mankind, nothing in all the domains of science and art has been more effective in bringing about these results than the invention of railroads. The imagination of men, stimulated by the most gorgeous scenes of beauty and grandeur, could never have conceived the marvelous and unparalleled changes that have been wrought in this country by the introduction of railroads. Men living in the present generation can distinctly remember when the ironhorse first breathed from his nostrils, the dark, wavy columns of smoke that hailed his appearance in the world. Nothing in all the realms of truth or fiction has ever before surpassed the rapid strides the world has made,

in every department of literature, in every field of art, and in all the ramifications of science, since the year 1830, when steam locomotion, for the first time in the history of the world, was made a veritable fact. It need not be claimed that this degree of advancement is due alone to the great advantages brought on by railroads, but it may be shown that they have contributed to these results more than any other factor; nay perhaps, more than all the other factors that make up the civilization, refinement, and prosperity of the present day. All nations have become neighbors The wealthy merchant in New York can spend his summer vacations with his relatives or friends on the distant shores of the Pacific, surrounded by all the beauties and delicacies of a tropical clime. The northern citizen may spend the day with his southern neighbor, and return to his home in the same length of time. All civilized nations are brought into close connections with one another in the various relations of business and pleasure.

Time is almost annihilated, and space made as naught, by the grand and mighty railroad and the attendant luminary, or satellite, the telegraph. Within the last few years the telephone has added new and cheaper means of communication of thought, especially in cities. By these rapid means of inter-communication and exchange of products, all the learning, discoveries and inventions of the world are brought together, as one vast motive power to lift up the world and make it what it is. It has been by the united effort of mankind, brought on by our grand systems of railroads and telegraphs, that such an impetus has been given to every department of human activity, destined, perhaps, to continue to elevate and ennoble the human race for coming ages, until they shall have risen to a height so grand, so lofty, and so transcendant in all its aspects, as would cast in the dark shades of barbarism, the boasted civilization of to-day.

As early as 1602 railways are mentioned in history, and are thus described: The manner of the carriage is by laying rails of timber from the colliery to the river, exactly straight and parallel; and bulky carts are made with four rollers fitting those rails, whereby the carriage is so easy that one horse will draw down four or five caldron of coals, and is an immense benefit to the coal merchants. The first iron railway was laid down near Sheffield, England, by John Curr in 1776, but was destroyed by the colliers. In 1786 considerable railway was laid at Colebrook Dale, England; however, the railway system was not sanctioned until 1801. Up to this time the cars were drawn by horses. In 1802, a patent was applied for and granted by the government for high pressure locomotive engines to Trevethick and Vivian. In 1813, Wm. Hedley built the first travelling engine or substitute for animal power. It was not till George Stephenson in 1814, constructed his locomotive that speed amounted to much, and that was only six miles per hour, but by 1829 the speed was accelerated to