McCoy, Joseph Geating

McCoy, Joseph Geating, 1837–1915, American cattle-trade pioneer, b. Sangamon co., Ill. He selected Abilene, Kans., as the site for a railroad shipping center for the marketing of Western cattle. In 1867 he purchased a tract of land, built stockyards and facilities, and advertised his plan, which resulted in the shipment of 350,000 cattle the first year and of tens of millions of cattle in succeeding years. In 1881 the Cherokee employed him as their agent for the collection of revenue on tribal lands. His Historic Sketches of the Cattle Trade (1874, rev. ed. 1940) is an important source book.