The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1949-07-21

in Columbus, the syndicate spread
all over the country. Its agents went
everywhere and rapidly obtained
control of all the young hogs in the
market.
The syndicate was especially sue
cessful in southern Ohio and before
the magnitude of its operations was
discovered, had acquired nearly every
stock hog in sight.
Corner" Hits Feeders
The corner in hogs nearly ruined
the Emmitt & Davis distillery at
Waverly, Pike County, which always
needed stock hogs to feed its distil-
lery slops.
In desperation Emmitt got track
of nice bunch of young hogs which
could be bought in Franklin County.
They were held at a high price but
the distillers bought them anyhow
and Davis, mounted on his little
gray mare, began to drive the herd
of swine the go miles bask to Waver-
ly.
When night came the hogs were
quartered in an exposed field by the
side of the road. A heavy rain had
fallen and had changed to sleet which
covered everything exposed to it with
thick veneer of ice.
When Davis went to the field next
morning he kicked hog after hog in
an attempt to make them get up but
few of them got to their feet. The
others We're dead-frozen stiff. They
had been exposed to the full fury of
| the storm.
1t had been a terrible trip and
Davis arrived at Waverly with only
a small number of the hogs he had
bought. Old accounts relate that
though IAN old man, he complained
little about the hardship he had
undergone"
Rail Splitters"
First Ohio hogs were known as
rail splitters"-about the same va
riety which in woodland parts of
Arkansas still are called razor
backs" They were tough; so tough
that they barely could be eaten and
were able to put up good fight
against wild animals which killed
and loved pork. No other kind of
hog could have survived in the early
days nor lived on what fell from
forest trees.
Cincinnati, in its own early days
became the greatest pork market in
the country through processing and
shipment of meat from the rail-split-
ters. Flat-boats, keelboats and later,
steamers, went down the Ohio and
lMIsslssippi rivers to New. Orleans
laden with barreled pork and, other
than the flat-boats, came back loaded
with other merchandise for the North.
The flat-boats were built for one-way
travel-downriver. At New Orleans
they We're broken up and their timber
| too, sold.
While pork was once the richest
industry in Cincinnati. it also was the
cause of much of its sickness and
numerous early epidemics of cholera.
Sanitation and cleanliness were un-
heard of in the old butchering days
and pigtails, feet, pieces of scrap
pork and other refuse Uttered the
sidewalks and grounds, openly
decaying.
No Sanitary Regulations
In Ohio, Berkshire, Chester White,
Irish Graziers, Chinas, Neopolitans,
| Essex and Suffolk hogs were not in
troduced until the latter part Of the
lS00's. The Poland Chinas were
brought in by the Shakers, at Shaker
town, now Otterbein University Fx-
pertinent Station, Warren County.
The first exhibition of Ohio swine
was at the first Ohio State Fair,
September II, - and 13, 1856, at
| Cincinnati. With few exceptions, they
We're rail splitters." But with au-
thenticity in disregard, agriculturists
get thrill from tracing the gene
alogy of the Ohio hog back to Brown
lees sow, her six pigs and dozen
grand-piglets up in Trumbull County.