"The Real McCoy'' Moved The Cattle To The East

Joe McCoy was truly the Real McCoy. He was a cattle rancher who spread the cattle ranching industry from the Texas grasslands across the Midwest, He brought livestock to Chicago, which became one of the largest producers of beef in all of the country. By moving so much livestock to Chicago, he was able to move his business closer to New York and the more profitable eastern big cities. The profits were a lot larger on the east coast than they were in the Midwest, which was much less populated. It wasn't easy for McCoy because he had to do battle with the many homesteaders who lived in the Midwest and those folks were very upset about having their cattle moved across the state line. In also was a major concern that ticks were carried by the cattle that destroyed many other herds throughout the Midwest.

But McCoy was a smart man and he knew that the railroads that were only starting to boom in the Midwest would only become more prominent and he was smart enough to take advantage. With the Kansas/Pacific Railroad going straight through Kansas, McCoy jumped at the chance to build a hotel, a stockyard, an office, and a bank in the tiny village that was to be called Abilene, in the middle of nowhere in Texas. It was one of the first real cow towns, and McCoy took advantage of its obscurity by transporting cattle from the Midwest to Kansas, then using the railroad to move his cattle to the northeast. It was a brilliant plan and it worked right out of town that barely existed before the Civil War.

Once the Civil War was over, McCoy spent a fortune on advertising and riders, so much that he was able to make his fortune many times over. He made a lot of promises but always lived up to his word, hence the term, "The Real McCoy.'' You could trust him and he proved that his trust could help his fortune when he once sold 6,000 cows for $5,400 and sold them in Abilene for $17,000. He also sent more than 2 million cattle from Abilene to Chicago where they were later sent to the east coast.

The cattle trade reached its peak in the 1880s and a lot of it is due to McCoy and his genius. People trusted him and the advancement of the railroads made things easy for McCoy to accomplish his goals and make his fortune. It also led to the removal of much of the Native American population that had lived on the land for centuries.

In the late 1800s, the cattle industry virtually collapsed as the farmers began to experiment with different breeds of cattle that could not live on the open range. There was less grass available for grazing and in 1883, there was a drought that ruined the little remaining grass that was still in the heartland.

Source : By Blane Jackson,  About the Author:  The cattle ranching business is always changing and growing and www.clicrweight.com has information on new developments. Anyone that is wondering can become a ClicRinsider (http://www.clicrweight.com/pages/aboutus.php) to keep up with developments.