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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
CHAPTER X.
DAIRYING, STOCK-GROWING AND MANUFACTURES.
A REVOLUTION IN INDUSTRIES-DECLINE IN AGRICULTURE AND RISE OF THE DAIRYING INDUSTRY
INTRODUCTION AND GROWTH IN CHICAGO
IMPROVED BREEDS OF DAIKY STOCK ORIGIN OF
ELGIN DAIRY BOARD OF TRADE STATISTICS OF
BUTTER AND CHEESE TRADE OTHER STOCK-
GROWING INTERESTS-ELGIN WATCH COMPANY
AND OTHER MANUFACTURING ENTERPRISES
AGGREGATE CAPITAL AND NUMBER OF EMPLOYES
FOX KIVER VALLEY CITIES BANKING BUSI
NESS AND PROPERTY VALUATIONS.
The settlers in the new county were, of necessity, too deeply absorbed in producing crops capable of giving quick returns with which to meet their immediate and pressing needs, and to pay for and improve their lands, to give much attention to agricultural methods, perhaps more profitable but requiring longer time in bringing financial returns. During the first fifteen or twenty years of the county's settlement, the new land gave a bounteous and reliable yield of excellent wheat; and it was practically the only source of cash revenue for all the people, for, as yet, there was no manufacturing industry in the county except of individual workmen in the common trades to meet strictly local needs. Every financial transaction depended upon the yield and price of wheat.
Early in the '50s, however, the yield began to decline and the entire failure of the crop to become more frequent, thus forcing the people into more varied productions and industries. Chicago's enormous handlings of wheat were creating a great lake commerce and attracting the attention of capitalists. Its future as a great railway and commercial center was becoming clearly apparent, and its hotels were crowded with brainy men intent on large business plans and projects. The young urban giant of the century was fairly entering upon Its marvelous career. Its demand for food supplies that must of necessity be fresh and wholesome each day, was rapidly outgrowing the ability of local producers to furnish promptly and reliably. The hotels, especially, found it difficult to obtain pure sweet milk, with punctuality and certainty, each day. The effort to supply this daily necessity opened a new industrial era in the Fox River valley and throughout the great Northwest. On February 12, 1852, Mr. Phineas H. Smith shipped from Elgin, over the old Galena & Chicago Union Railroad to the late J. Irving Pierce, then the genial landlord of the "Adams House" in Chicago, the first can of milk ever sold out from the county of Kane. Little did he, or any other person, then realize the vast industrial revolution being inaugurated. Years later, as Elgin was rapidly becoming the center of an immense trade in dairy goods and supplies, when its products were sought and prices quoted in both domestic and foreign markets, that battered old can was traced and found; and it is now in the possession of. Mrs. A. M. Stewart, the daughter of Mr. Smith. It has been exhibited at Dairymen's Associations in this and neighboring States, and was given an honorable place at the World's Columbian Exposition, as a significant relic of the opening of a most wholesome, profitable and widely-distributed industry. Many persons now claim the cow to be, of all the animal creation, man's best and most constant friend from his cradle to his bier. In Kane County she is certainly the gentle queen of safe and profitable investments.
Other Chicago hotels soon made contracts with Elgin farmers for their daily supply of milk, and the peddlers of the city quickly sought the same source of supply. The movement seemed extremely popular and, in a short time, nearly every milkman's wagon in Chicago was labeled, "Elgin Dairy." They received their cans of milk at the cars each day on the incoming of the morning trains; and the scores of these wagons, crowding toward the milk-cars almost before the train stopped-each driver struggling to secure his cans and hurry away-attracted the attention of hundreds of travelers each day, and spread the fame of Elgin as a dairy center far and wide. This continued many years after Elgin ceased to ship a can of milk, and to quite an extent is still practiced. Naturally, conditions upon the farms changed to meet this new demand, and dairying became the dominant interest of the county, although in Big Rock, and in portions of the adjoining townships, many fine steers and hogs are still raised and fattened for the
