Part 5

Population: Whites 3989 Colored 160 Males 2579 Females 1570 ------ Total 4149

Buildings: Dwellings 398 Drygoods stores 29 Grocery stores 26 Hardware stores 5 Drug stores 3 Churches 5

There were two weekly papers published in Chicago at this time: The American, a whig paper, and the Democrat.

The first market in the way of stock yards in Chicago was located on the north branch of the Chicago river. These yards were used chiefly for swine. In 1836, the first cattle yards were opened on a tract of land near twenty-ninth street and Cottage Grove avenue. A few pens had been erected here to accommodate the cattle trade. The first scales for weighing livestock ever used in that country were used in these yards.

In 1855, there were two regular stock yards in Chicago; one, called the Merrick Yard, is now known as the Sherman Yards, and the other was called the Bullshead Yard. A great many eastern people came to Chicago at this time to buy fat cattle to take back east. Most of the cattle they bought were driven over into Indiana to Michigan City, to be shipped on east. John L. Hancock was the only packer in Chicago at this time. Ice was not used, and packing was done during the cool seasons of the year.

One element of the success of Chicago as a market was the fact that stock might be pastured without charge on the prairies near the city, while the owners awaited favorable market conditions in the eastern states. The cattle were herded on the open prairies just outside of the city, and the buyers of Chicago rode out each day and bought the cattle in such numbers as they needed.

In 1865, the growth of the livestock traffic had increased so rapidly that the several railroad companies that centered in Chicago, together with the managers of the stock yards already existing, combined for the erection of the Union Stock Yards. These were opened for business on Christmas day, 1865.

"The meat industry of Chicago, from the purchase of the livestock to the shipment of the meat, in either the fresh or the cured condition, is carried on at the Union Stock Yards, which are located near the outskirts of the city. The yards cover exactly a square mile of ground. One-half of this area is covered with cattle pens, and the other half by huge establishments of the packing houses. The pens are surrounded by strong stockades, about shoulder high, and they are laid out in blocks with streets and alleys, in much the same fashion as an ordinary American town. The whole of this area, a half mile in width, and a mile in length, is paved with red brick; and here we see the first notable evidence of the effort to maintain the stock yards in a sanitary condition.

"The brick paving makes it possible to thoroughly clean both pens and streets, and this is done at regular and frequent intervals."

"Whatever may have been the conditions in the past, it is a fact that today the greatest care is exercised in the shipment and handling of the stock from the time they leave the farms until they reach the packing houses. The price that the animals will bring in the pens depends upon the conditions they present under the eye of the buyer, who represents the packing houses, and it is to the interest of the farmers, the cattlemen, and the commission men, to whom the cattle are consigned at the yards, that they shall receive the best food and the most careful attention up to the very hour at which the sale is made. They are shipped in special stock cars, in which they are carried as expeditiously as possible to the stock yards, where they are unloaded and driven to the pens. Here they are at once fed and watered, each pen containing a feeding trough and a water trough, into which a stream of fresh water is kept running.

"The cattlemen consign their stock to the various commission houses, and for receiving and selling the stock, there is a charge of, respectively, twenty-five cents and fifty cents a head. The purchase of the cattle is made by buyers, of whom each of the packing houses maintain a regular staff."

"About 1845, a bold editor left Buffalo, New York, then the greatest lake part of the country, and bravely ventured as far into the rowdy west as Chicago. Possibly the people here received him with generous hospitality; perhaps they treated him with something even more warming to the inner man; or it may be that as they filled him with solid chuck and, perhaps, with less solid refreshments, they took occasion to remark, with that modest and restrained hopefulness for which Chicago people have justly received credit, that Chicago was destined to become a town of some importance. Be that as it may, when that editor luckily found himself once more safe within his sanctum, he gave vent to his joy and overflowing gratitude by writing wild, enthusiastic predictions concerning the future of the town, which was then aspiring to rise above the rushes and wild rice of the Chicago river.

"Reckless of the opinion of the readers of his paper, perhaps trusting to their ignorance of the conditions of the out of the way place, this bold editor predicted that the day would come when Chicago would have an elevator capacious enough to hold 25,000 bushels of grain, and that in a single winter season, 10,000 cattle, and as many hogs, would be slaughtered and packed there.

"Beef packing was the leading industry of Chicago at that time, but no trustworthy statistics relating to the cattle traffic previous to 1851 have been preserved, and from 1851 until 1856 no account of the receipts of cattle were kept. This was probably due to the fact that a large number of those cattle that were brought to Chicago were held on the open prairies until sold to butchers to supply the requirements for local consumption. No accurate count of cattle disposed of in that way could well be obtained."

Statistics of the receipts of cattle at the Chicago Union Stock Yards from 1851 to 1913, inclusive, and the shipments from 1852 to 1884, inclusive:

Year Receipts Shipments 1851 22 566 1852 25 708 77 1853 29 908 2 657 1854 36 888 11 221 1855 39 865 8 253 1856 39 950 22 205 1857 48 524 25 502 1858 140 534 42 638 1859 111 694 37 584 1860 177 101 97 474 1861 204 579 124 146 1862 209 655 112 745 1863 300 622 187 048 1864 303 726 162 446 1865 333 362 301 637 1866 393 007 263 693 1867 329 188 203 580 1868 324 524 215 987 1869 403 102 294 717 1870 532 964 391 709 1871 543 050 401 927 1872 648 075 510 025 1873 761 428 574 181 1874 843 966 822 929 1875 920 843 696 534 1876 1 096 745 797 724 1877 1 033 151 703 402 1878 1 083 068 699 108 1879 1 215 732 726 903 1880 1 382 477 886 614 1881 1 498 550 938 712 1882 1 582 530 921 009 1883 1 878 944 966 758 1884 1 817 697 678 341 1885 1 905 518 1886 1 963 900 1887 2 382 008 1888 2 611 543 1889 3 023 281 1890 3 484 280 1891 3 250 359 1892 3 571 796 1893 3 133 406 1894 2 974 363 1895 2 588 558 1896 2 600 476 1897 2 554 924 1898 2 480 897 1899 2 514 446 1900 2 729 046 1901 3 031 396 1902 2 941 559 1903 3 432 486 1904 3 259 185 1905 3 410 469 1906 3 329 250 1907 3 305 314 1908 3 039 206 1909 2 929 805 1910 3 052 958 1911 2 931 831 1912 2 652 342 1913 2 513 074 1914

St. Louis Stock Yards

In April, 1869, a charter was granted by the state of Illinois to the East St. Louis Stock Yards Company. This company was authorized to issue stock to an amount not to exceed $200,000. The original charter of the company, which later operated the National Stock Yards, fixed the capital stock thereof at $1,000,000, which was, subsequently, raised, by a vote of the stock holders, to an amount of $250,000, to meet the requirements of the rapidly growing business. When the National Stock Yards were completed, they were more convenient than were any others of their kind in the country.

FOOTNOTES:

Wallaces' Farmer, 1913, and thesis by Garver, "History of Dairy Industry in Illinois."

The Breeder's Gazette, July, 1913.

Lecture by Professor H. P. Rusk on "Beef Production."

The Breeder's Gazette, Feb. 1894.

Thesis "History of the Dairy Industry in Illinois" by Garner, 1911.

"Facts and Figures," by Wood Brothers, Live Stock Commission Merchants, Chicago, 1906, and Report of Bureau of An. Ind. 1884.

Prairie Farmer, 1887, p. 160.

Life of Tom C. Ponting.

Scientific American--The Meat Industry of America, 1909.