The Hogs of Madison County

Thomas Bewick: Engraving

What was life like Madison County Arkansas in 1870 and 1880, the Laird and Howerton home county?  Occasionally if you look hard you run across a scrap of information that can do a lot of talking.  This is Madison County as the assessor saw it.

Madison County counted its wealth in horses, mules, and cattle.   The big winner in sheer numbers is hogs. In 1887 the hogs of Madison County number 27,000 plus, outnumbering people by a factor of about three to one.  

Tax Assessor list Madison County from Goodspeeds History (see source below.)

Goodspeed's History of Benton, Washington, Carroll, 

Madison, Crawford, Franklin, and 

Sebastian Counties, Arkansas *

Add up all the money and outstanding credit in this rural county, and you see that livestock outweigh it by a factor of five.   Fine italian linens,  silver table service and fine art are ignored on the assessor's survey.  Perhaps this column would get more use in a more sophisticated city like Little Rock.

Still, some fancy goods are indeed represented: 43 silver and gold watches exist in Madison County... or at least are counted by the tax assessor in 1877. Ten years later the number of watches explodes to 219.   Four pianos are resident in 1882.  Economic times seem to be good in the 70’s and 80’s as the population of watches and pianos explode thru the decade. Perhaps these statistics describe the recovery after the Civil War. 

Driving seems to be as desirable then as now, carriages being on the increase.  It is likely that carriage sales increased as the county installed more drivable roads.  

If you consider hogs the 1887 currency , hogs are worth about $1.25 each. That would be around $30 in today's dollars. Using this measure a gold watch would cost about $12 (1887 dollars) or 10 hogs. But the real luxury item is not a carriage or a pianola. A mule would set you back around $50. How much is that in hogs? That would  be about 40 hogs to equal the price of a single long eared luxury item, a mule.   

Source: History of Benton, Washington, Carroll, Madison, Crawford..Counties