There had always been some small-scale movement of cattle as long as there had been ranches, but rarely more than a few dozen at a time, and never over very long distances. Some beef was available in the Eastern States, but as most of the farms were mainly arable, it was pretty expensive. But this was set to change in 1868, the year a far-sighted businessman named Joseph G McCoy settled in a small, 6-year-old Kansas hamlet called Abilene!.   Later that year, he was to write a book entitled 'Historic Sketches of the Cattle Trade in the West and South-West', in which he described Abilene as 'a very small, dead place, consisting of about one dozen log huts - low, small, rude affairs, four-fifths of which were covered with dirt for roofing; Indeed, but one shingle roof could be seen in the whole town'.   McCoy, having prior knowledge of the proposed westward spread of the railroads, set to work building his first cattle-shipping yard, capable of holding some 3,000 head at a time and, being the shrewd businessman he was, he also, at the same time, built a three-storey hotel, a bank, and a large livery stable.   While building was in progress, he sent a man named W.W. Sugg  south into the Indian Territories, then East to the cattle-trail currently in use, to tell the cattlemen they now had an alternative destination: Abilene!. No more problems, then, neither from the 'Jayhawkers', (rustlers), or the Texas-Fever-fearing farmers.   But, hang on a sec!...what about the recent law that had been passed restricting the movement of Texas cattle to a narrow 'alleyway', I hear you ask?. The law stated that 'beeves originating from Texas had to remain 'West of the first guide meridian West from the sixth Principal meridian', which ran about a mile west of the town of Ellsworth. That placed Abilene about 60 miles too far East!. Well, an addendum had been passed, allowing the movement of cattle East of the designated trail, providing that the drover was prepared to post a $10,000 bond, to cover any damages caused by his 'beeves'. This, they reasoned, would deter the drovers, ensuring that the cattle stayed on the existing trails, but McCoy, using this to his advantage, was happy to post the bonds on the drovers behalves and, in his book 'The Cattle Towns', author Robert R. Dykstra says that, McCoy, in 1869, did indeed pay out more than $4,500 for that purpose.   And so the trail was opened!.   The first herd to arrive at the newly-opened railhead in Abilene was started in Texas by a rancher named Thompson, but sold en route in the Indian Nations to three businessmen named Smith, McCord & Chandler, but what should have been the very first herd to arrive, McCoy states in his book, was a joint herd driven up from Texas by Col. O.W.Wheeler and two neighbouring ranchers named Wilson and Hicks, but they'd stopped to rest up the herd for a coupla days 20 miles from Abilene, and so, were narrowly beaten...by just one day!.   McCoy went on to say, 'Their herd was really the first that came up from Texas, they broke the trail, but they were soon followed by increasing numbers of herds, making Abilene the most successful, if not the first, cowtown in Kansas'.   McCoy's shipping yard handled in excess of 35,000 head that first year, but it wasn't long before both he and many other enterprising businessmen had built many more, and during the following 20+ years that the great cattle-drives of the Old West continued, Abilene never lost it's title of  'The Greatest Cowtown in the West'.

 

 
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