Early settlers grew crops and raised animals mostly for their families to eat but also some for them to sell. Most farms had cows for milk, chickens, sheep, mules or horses (or oxen), and pigs that roamed freely. By selling extra animals at local markets or to people who moved livestock (called drovers), farmers could buy things they couldn't grow or make themselves.

From the late 1700s to the early 1800s, livestock was a big business in the Eastern Panhandle. Counties like Hampshire, Hardy, and Pendleton were known for raising and moving large groups of cattle. One historian has compared cattle owners in the South Branch of the Potomac to wealthy plantation owners in other areas. By 1786, Hardy County raised more cattle than any other county in Virginia, making it one of the top cattle producers in the country. By the 1820s, it wasn't unusual to see cattle drives of 5,000 animals in the Potomac Valley.