[Harris Cattle Company]:

$975 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

PROSPECTUS OF THE HARRIS CATTLE COMPANY [caption title]. An unrecorded prospectus for a North Dakota ranching operation. The Harris Cattle Company was incorporated in Maine by a dispersed group of officers including President William Reynolds (a Massachusetts state senator and banker); William Haley of Boston-based hardware and railroad supply producer Dodge, Haley, & Co.; and North Dakota's own Herbert A. Harris. The company, advertising a four thousand acre ranch located in the Mouse River Valley and "ten thousand square miles of the finest grazing and hay land in the United States," proposes to breed livestock at a ranch in Texas, ship them up to North Dakota to be raised safely and cheaply, and then sell them in Chicago ("the great central beef supply depot of the continent") for a steep profit. The first page includes an illustrated masthead and a map of the North Dakota ranch, which encompasses the entirety of Girard Lake and nearby Petrified Like and otherwise denotes hay and timber lands on the property. The remainder of the text provides figures on costs and prices for beef cattle, calculates projected profits, and solicits subscribers for 250,000 shares at $5 each. We can find no copies listed in OCLC, and no mention of the Harris Cattle Company in Adams, HERD. A rare prospectus documenting the finances and operations of a large cattle company at the turn of the century.

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