fine capital to start business upon. In fact sonic of the then "old
settlers," would have been glad to possess so much capital in ready money
as a reserve fund.

But even in those days of primitive simplicity, three dollars would not
support a man for any great length of time if there were no other sources
of supply. Mr. Blair recognized the fact that no time must be wasted, and
at once turned his attention to a chance for speculation. An opportunity
immediately offered itself. An old Quaker, with speculation in his eye,
entered Cleveland with two hundred and fifty fat hogs, expecting to find a
good market. In this he was mistaken, and as hogs on foot were expensive
to hold over for a better market, he determined to convert them into salt
pork. Mr. Blair offered to turn pork-packer for a proper consideration;
the offer was accepted, and this was Mr. Blair's first step in business.

Pork-packing, as a steady business, offered but little inducement, so Mr.
Blair decided on establishing himself on the river as produce dealer and
commission merchant. The capital required was small, and the work not
exhaustive, for the facilities for shipping were slight and the amount to
be shipped small; warehouses were of the most modest dimensions, and
docks existed only in imagination. When the shipping merchant had a
consignment to put on board one of the diminutive vessels that at
intervals found their way into the port, the stuff was put on a flat boat
and poled or rowed to the vessel's side, Business was conducted in a very
leisurely manner, there being no occasion for hurry, and everybody
concerned being willing to make the most of what little business there
was. The slow moving Pennsylvania Dutch who had formed settlements in
northeastern Ohio, and drove their wide wheeled wagons along the
sometimes seemingly bottomless roads to Cleveland, plowed through the mud
on the river bank in search of "de John Blair vat kips de white fishes,"