Joseph McCoy (1837-1915) was a 19th century cattle baron. In the 1860's, cattle ranchers in Texas were facing difficulties getting their Longhorn cattle to market. Kansas homesteaders objected to the cattle crossing their land because the cattle might carry ticks which could spread a disease called Texas Fever fatal to some types of cattle. McCoy expected that the railroads companies were interested in expanding their freight operations and he saw this as a good business opportunity. He built a hotel, stockyard, office and bank in a little village along the Union Pacific. This village became known as Abilene, Kansas - one of the first cow towns. His plan was for cattle to be driven to Abilene from Texas and taken from there by rail to bigger cities in The Midwest and The East. He was also the author of Historic Sketches of the Cattle Trade of the West and Southwest (1874).
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
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History of the cattle trade, 1866-1874,
By Bomojaz (South Central PA, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Historic Sketches of the Cattle Trade of the West and Southwest (Paperback)
Joseph McCoy was the founder of Abilene, Kansas, and chief promoter of the town as a railhead for the cattle trade. After building stockyards in the town and laying out a trail stretching south to Corpus Christi (later known as the Chisholm Trail), he convinced Texas cattlemen to drive their cattle to Abilene. In its first year of existence (1867), 35,000 head of cattle made their way to the new town. Within only a few years Abilene was a boomtown with hundreds of thousands of cattle being shipped from it yearly. Seven years later McCoy penned this comprehensive history of the western (mainly Texas, but including Colorado and New Mexico as well) cattle trade. Although chiefly concerned with the business aspects, McCoy describes many components of the trade, from the life of the cowboy on the trail to the packing houses in Kansas City. There are chapters on the difficulties with the railroads (especially the Kansas Pacific, which reneged on its contract with McCoy in the 1870s), the "Spanish fever" which infected many of the Texas herds, the prejudice against longhorn cattle because they spread disease among the other cattle, the effect of the Panic of 1873, stock ranching, and the famous Drovers Cottage in Abilene, the hotel built for stock buyers and cattlemen. McCoy's account is authoritative and interesting. Just as good is the long introduction by editor Ralph Bieber, which expands on McCoy's treatment time-wise, and is a concise though thorough history of the cattle business from early Spanish days to 1867, and includes a detailed biographical sketch of McCoy. Highly recommended.
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