Artist: Robert Wadsworth Grafton (1876–1936)
William E. Skinner
SKINNER, WILLIAM EDWARD LOCKE (1865–1931), inducted by 1920
One of the founders of the International Live Stock Exposition, and the show’s first general manager, William E. Skinner was born in Waterdown, Ontario. At age twenty, he moved to Chicago to work for Union Stock Yards. He soon accepted a position with the Street’s Stable Car Line in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and then in 1887, went to work for the Omaha Stock Yards Co. In 1892, he helped establish the Fort Worth Stock Yards, returning to Chicago when Robert Ogilvie, Mortimer Levering, and G. Howard Davison started to conceive of a new major show. Skinner promoted their efforts during the 1899 Toronto livestock show, and this helped establish the global character of the International from the beginning. After overseeing the first six Internationals, W. E. Skinner took a position as assistant to the president of the Denver Stock Yards Company. He was also president of the Denver Chamber of Commerce but continued his connection to the ILSE, serving as president of the International Live Stock Exposition Association, 1910–1912. In 1911, he was lured back to Chicago, where he organized the National Dairy Show and the National Dairy Council, serving as its first secretary.
Source: Saddle & Sirloin Guidebook 2026, p. 180