The Arkansas Tick Eradication Murder: Rethinking Yeoman Resistance in the "Marginal" South

Primarily a general farmer who reported sixteen cattle of his own in 1921, Jeffery had been hired to inspect the area's quarantined cattle and enforce local compliance with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) tick eradication program, designed to eliminate Texas fever or babesiosis...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Arkansas historical quarterly 2011-12, Vol.70 (4), p.363-397
Main Author: Perkins, J. Blake
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aging
Agriculture
American history
Animal diseases
Beef
Beef cattle
Cattle
Censuses
Disease control
Family farms
Farmers
Herds
History
Pest control
Ticks
Tobacco chewing
Towns
Verbal aggression
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Summary:Primarily a general farmer who reported sixteen cattle of his own in 1921, Jeffery had been hired to inspect the area's quarantined cattle and enforce local compliance with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) tick eradication program, designed to eliminate Texas fever or babesiosis.1 En route to supervise the cattle dipping at a nearby vat, Jeffery met local farmer and fellow inspector Lee Harper on Hutchinson Mountain around 7:30 A.M. Harper, who was also supposed to dip cattle that morning, expressed concern to Jeffery about talk of anti-dipping threats that had been circulating through the community. While native "scrub" cattle in the South had developed immunity to the fever, southern cattle bound for slaughter in the North and Midwest might carry the deadly and contagious disease, threatening the herds of northern and midwestern cattlemen whose higher-grade breeds remained vulnerable to it.\n J. W. Scoggins, for instance, was still listed as a farm laborer in the community in 1930 but had likely taken over the leading role in running the family farm from his aging father.
ISSN:0004-1823
2327-1213