USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time > Part 156
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The preceding pages have given a history of the commerce of Chicago from its beginning to a time when it was primarily established; and had attained such magnitude and importance as to have evolved a com- mercial association, the Chicago Board of Trade, which thereafter became the exponent of mercantile thought and the representative of the executive force of trade in the city. The specific history of this organization will be given further on.
From the annual reports of the Chicago Daily Dem- ocratic Press, the less elaborate reports of other con- temporaneous journals, the reports of Federal officials, and from ail other accessible sources of information, the following tables have been compiled showing statistically the commercial progress of Chicago from 1848 to 1857.t
Jesse B. Thomas's Statistical Report.
t The tables, to insure perspicuity, have in some instances, been extended beyond the date mentioned,
LUMBER.
RECEIPTS.
YEAR.
SHIPMENTS.
Timber, Boards, Pianks, Etc.
Shingles.
Lath.
The exports from the port of Chicago during navi- gation season of 1847, were as follows :
Wheat, bushels 1,974,304
Flax Seed, bushels. 2,262
Flour, barrels.
32,598
Mustard Seed, bushels ... 520
Corn, bushels. 67,315
Timothy 5.36
Oats,
38,892
Hay, tons,. 415
Beef, barreis 26,504
Cranberries, bushels .. 250
Pork, 22,416
Buffalo Robes, bales .. 60
Hams and shoulders ..
47,248
Dry Hides.
8,774
Tallow, pounds.
208,435
Deer Skins, pounds.
28,259
Butter,
47,536
Sheep Pelts.
1,133
Beans, bushels. 440
Furs, packages
278
Wool, pounds.
411,08S
Ginseng, pounds
3,625
Tobacco,
28,423
Ashes, barrels. 16
Lard,
139,069
Bristles, pounds 4,548
Leather,
2,740
Glue,
. The receipts by teams, which some years were considerable, were never re- ported. It is estimated by old dealers that, during the years treated, there were oot less than 200,000 per year thus marketed in the city.
t This column shows the number of hides taken from the slaughter houses of the city, less the number manufactured into leather in the Chicago tanneries. The number thus consumed annually is not known.
$ During 1857 the local demand from the tanneries nearly equaled the local supply.
.
٠٠
1
- -
559
WHEAT.
FLOUR.
YEAR.
Receipts, bushels.
Shipments, bushels.
Local con- sumption, or left on hand, bushels.
Average price per bushel.
Receipts, barrely.
Mn'fd in Chicago. barrels.
Total stock of Boter, barrels.
Ship- mruts, barrels.
lacal luft an hansl, bls.
Average price per year.
Winter.
Spring.
1848.
2,160,800
So 80
$0 70
1849 ..
1.936,264
82
66
1850. .
...
.......
883,644
89
78
.
...
100,871
4 50 @ 4 75
1851 ...
437,660
62
65
68
40
124,316 131,130
70,978 82,883
195,294 214,013
70,88.4
3 75 00 5 25
1854.
3,038,955
2,300,925
732,030
I 30
1 00
234,575
66,590
301,165
111,627
189,538
6 98 (@) 7 48
1855 ..
7,535,007
6,298, 155
1,236,942
I 55
I 3I
320,312
399.962
163,419
103,419
7 12 40 8 14
1856. .
8,767,760
8,364,420
403,340
I 27
1 05
410,989
497,057
265,389
231,668
4 91 @n 6 26
1857.
10,554,761
9,846,052
708,700
1 17
93
489.934
96,000
585,934
250,648
335.286
(10 5 06
COARSE GRAINS.
CORN.
OATS.
RYE.
BARLEY.
YEAR.
Receipts, bushels.
Shipments, bushels.
Ificul consulOfi- tion or left on hand, bu.
Average price for the year.
Receipts, busheis.
Shipments, bushels
consump- tion, or Jeft on hand, bu.
Average price for the year.
Re- ceipts, bu.
Ship- ments, bu.
Konsump- finn, or left on hand, bu.
Average price for the year.
Re- ceipts, bu.
Shop- ments, bu.
Liem for life on hand, 1.1.
Average price for the year.
1848. ..
550,460 644,848
.
.
..
65,280
$0 26
...
.
20
.....
....
..
31.453
..
..
1850. ...
1,262,013
... .
..
36
005,727
28
.....
....
127,028
19,997
107,031
45
1852 ...
2,991,011
2,757,01I
244,000
40
2,089,94I
2,030,317
59,624
24
.....
17,315 82,162
4,000
$0 58
120,267
72,111
$8
1854. ...
7,490,753
6,626,054
864,609
48
4,194.385
3.229,987
964,398
30
85,191
44,038
70
192,378 201.764
148,41T
53.353
63
1855 ...
8,532,377
7,517,625
1,014,752
(,2
2,947,188
1,889,538
33
68,166 47,707 87,71I
48,848 47,116 87,71I ......
75
128,457
19,051
100,406 109.606
I 21
1857 ...
7,490,000
6,814.615
675,385
53
1,707.245
1,200,467
39
Total Value Bref Packed and P'ninlurts.
Number Received.
Range of Prices per 100 lbs.
Number Slapped.
NuIn- l'en krd.
wright
Average l'rice Miss Pork per liht.
- ---
185[ .. ...
*** ($3 75
21,800 24.03
542
40,305
..... $050,621
15.458
$4 000 @$5 00)
....
44.156
211
1853. .
4 75 ( 6 0)
2,657
25.431
563
57,5(x)
865,950
73,980
3 50 40 5 00
..
52.849
2.49)
10 00
1854 ..
5 50 ₩ 6 50
11,221
23,6ql
515
5.1. 108
865.773
38,515
3 25 VA 1 75
54.156
10,665
73.00)1
14 50
1855 ..
0 50 00 7 50
8,254
28,072
572
62,687
1,152,421
3 50 00 4 50
1711, 851
57,278
:11
1856 ..
5 50 (n 6 75
22,502
14.071
543
33,058 42,100
603, 113 656.508
108.5.39 220,702 214,223
4 50 00 7 00
103,074
43.028
74.4KM)
230
17 50
1857 ...
....
6 00 (₼ 7 00
25,502
34,075
5.40
1
( tabulation, so large a part of the receipts of cattle were driven in on foot that it was not attempted to enumerate the receipts.
TRADE FROM 1848 TO 1857.
PROVISIONS.
*CATTLE AND BEEF.
SWINE AND PORK.
YEAR.
٨ve٢٠
Range of Prices IR'r 100 lbs.
Numlx'r Shipped.
Number Packedl.
Aver- weight -Ils.
Number af Barrels Wwef Packed,
...
.
.....
.....
1852. . ..
3 50 ₥A 4 50)
77
43
..
45
158,084
...
40
.... .
. . .
.
22,872
....
1851.
.
3,221,317
2,869,339
2,729.552
139,787
47.
1,875,770
1,638,842
230,928
33
86,162
41,153 19 318 591
B7
201,875
98,011
103. 864
1 00
1856 .
11, 888,396
11, 129,668
758,728
36
2,919,987 1,014.637 506,778
127,689
17.993
I 12
...
937,496
635.496
302,000
2 75 ((0) 4 25
1853 ...
1,687,465
1,206,163
481,302
85
60
72,406 61,196
2 50 (@ 4 00
1852. .
134.008 143,129
...
. The statistics of the provision trade prior to tags were not sufficiently full or relish --
88,546
26,415
001. 200
15 50
$0 32
$0 40
1849
. .
......
26,849
. .....
....
70,818
....
1853
1,057,650 1,905,350
38
79
45,200 51,301)
$3 75 @·$4 00
3 75 4 4 00
.......
79,650 86,068
Number of Local
-
..... $14 50
5 25 42 8 50
BREADSTUFFS.
7
560
HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
PRIMITIVE MANUFACTURES.
Following, in good time, the ample supply of grain, cattle, hogs and other products of the field and farm, came the establishment of various branches of depend- ent manufacture-milling, slaughtering, packing, ren- dering, soap and candle making, brewing, distilling, tanning, glue making, etc., which, as distinguished from the more intricate and varied manufactures of wood
ucts, and were naturally the outgrowth of a bounteous supply of the raw products of the soil. Other manufact- ures are treated elsewhere. It will be interesting to note in future volumes the immense development of these primitive branches of manufacture, and to mark how largely the manufactures of the great city have sprung from the agricultural products of which it is the great mart.
Of the branches above enumerated, the most impor-
-...
'25PM 95
FROM AN
ANDROTYPE
FAT CATTLE FAIR IN 1856.
and metal, may be termed primitive manufactures. Of these there were in Chicago, in 1857, well-estab- lished, the following branches, with capital invested, value of manufactures, and number of hands employed, as below stated:
Description of Business.
Capital Invested.
Annual Product.
Hands Employed.
Flour .
$325,000
$ 636,569
73
Beef and pork.
154,100
1,250,000
175
Soap, candles, lard, etc ..
206,000
525,021
100
Glue and neats-foot oil
20,000
25,000
I
Starch ,
15,000
75,000
25
High wines, beer and ale .
497,000
1, 150,320
165
Leather
332,000
432,000
120
Total.
$1,639,100
$4,006,910
679
The above statistics are only of such branches of manufacture as spring directly from agricultural prod-
tant up to 1857 were: milling, packing, brewing and distilling, and tanning hides; and their gradual devel- opment is deemed worthy of further specific mention.
PACKING HOUSES AND MEAT PRODUCTS .- The first slaughter-house was built on the south bank of the North Branch of the Chicago River, south of the Blooming- dale Road and opposite the North Chicago Rolling Mills. The site of the original log slaughter-house, built by Archibald Clybourne in 1827, for the killing of such cattle as were required by the garrison at Fort Dearborn, is now ,1883 occupied by an old frame building that was used by Archibald Clyhourne, also as a slanghter-house, now falling into pieces from sheer old age and dry rot. In October, 1832, George W. Dole packed one hundred and fifty-two head of cattle for Oliver Newberry, of Detroit, which were purchased of Charles Reed, of Hickory Creek, at $2.75 per hun- dred pounds; the hides and tallow being a perquisite of the slaughterers, who, in this instance, were John and Mark Noble, and the cattle were killed on the prairie,
561
PRIMITIVE MANUFACTURES.
near what is now the corner of Michigan Avenue and Madison Street. The packing-house was near the southeast corner of Dearborn and South Water streets; the barrels in which the beef was packed being brought from, and the beef shipped to, Detroit. In December, 1832, three hundred and thirty-eight hogs were killed and packed by Mr. Dole; they were purchased from John Blackstone for $3 per one hundred pounds net, and were killed in the back yard of the warehouse and salted and stowed away in bulk until barrels could be made during the winter. Elias Colbert states, in his History of Chicago, that these meats were sent to New York from Detroit; also that in an old account book of Mr. Dole's was an entry of a sale of a barrel of mess- pork at $6 and of a barrel of "one hog pork " at $14. The following year Archibald Clybourne, the Govern- ment butcher for the Pottawatomies, engaged in the packing business, at his log slaughter-house on the east side of the North Branch, where he packed some two hundred and fifty head of cattle and about two thousand hogs; at this place also George W. Dole packed two hundred and fifty head of cattle and one thousand hogs; the average cost of the cattle was $2.So, and of the hogs $3 per hundred pounds net. In 1834, Oliver Newberry and George W. Dole had a slaughter-house erected on the South Branch of the river, where some three hun- dred head of cattle and fourteen hundred hogs were packed during the year. Gurdon S. Hubbard also commenced packing during 1834 in the old bank build- ing, corner of Lake and La Salle streets, but, in conse- quence of the lack of barrels, the five thousand hogs killed had to be stowed away in bulk until the ensuing spring, when barrels were brought from Cleveland at a cost of Și apiece. In 1837-38 Mr. Hubbard built a packing-house on Kinzie Street, near Rush Street, where he carried on business umtil 1840, when he built a house on South Water Street, between Clark and LaSalle streers. There he continued the packing busi- ness until 1848, when he removed to the North Branch. In 1836, Sylvester Marsh, who packed with Mr. Hub- bard from 1833 until 1834, built a packing-house on Kinzie Street, near Rush Street, and in 1838, or 1839, entered into partnership with George W. Dole.
Mr. Marsh remained in business in Chicago until 1855. He was, in the fall of 1883, still alive, and a resi- dent of Concord, N. H. On October 22, 1883, he appeared before the United States Senate committee on education and labor, then in session at Boston, and, prompted by the questions of the members, told the interesting story of his long and busy life. From the published interview the extracts below are taken :
Q. Where were you born ?
A. In Campton, V. 11.
Q. That is about how far north from here ?
A. By the old stage route it would be about one hundred and seventeen miles.
Q. You may state the places where you have since resided. without, at present, giving any particulars with regard to your resi- dence.
A. I was born in ISn3, and resided in New Hampshire until I was nineteen.
Q. At Campton ?
A. Yes. From Campton I came to Boston : from Boston I went to .Ashtabula County, Ohio ; from Ohio to Chicago ; (1 was in Davenport, Iowa, in 1552-53, but did not stay there much); from Chicago I came back to Jamaica Plain, near Boston, in 1:55: was there six years; went back to Chicago and staid there three years, until 1863. In 1863 I went to Brooklyn, N. Y .. and was there from 1863 until 1864. I went from there to Littleton, N. II .. for the purpose of building the railroad up Mount Washington. I lived there fifteen years and then came to Concord, where I now live.
Q. You are the inventor and constructor of the Mount Wash- ington Railroad?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. My object in taking your testimony is, by the statement of your experience during your lifetime, to be enabled to give the people of the present day an idea nr picture of the industrial life of the American people, and of their development during your lifetime and within your recollection, Vour father was a farmer, was he not ?
A. Yes.
Passing over the period of his life prior to his reach- ing Chicago in 1833, the interview continued as fol- lows :
0. How long did you remain there ?
A. From 1828 to the winter of IS33-34.
Q. Where did your go then ?
A. To Chicago.
Q. In what condition was Chicago then ?
A. Chicago then had about three hundred inhabitants, besides Fort Dearborn, which had eighty soldiers and their officers, mak- ing it amount to about one hundred. There was no business done in the winter. Provisions were all taken from Ohio for them to live on.
Q. What made you go there ?
A. Well, I heard of it, looked at it, and saw that it was a good point. I had faith in the growth of the country, and went there to open a market. There was no slaughter-house there, no place to kill a beef, and for sixty days I led the cattle out to an old elm tree that stood on Monroe Street, about where the court-house is, and there I took a tackle and swung them up on the elm after killing them.
Q. What animals did you kill ?
A. Beef, principally; there was not anything else there to kill, the first little while that I was there. They had hardly any sheep.
Q. Were there any hogs ? .
A. Very few hogs. The hogs had all to come from Wabash, one hundred and fifty miles down. I went into that business after- ward, and went down to Wabash and drove them up.
Q. You killed those animals to ship to the East ?
A. No; I kilied those for the local market, as much beef each day as was needed for home consumption.
Q. Did you commence the meat business there ? A. Yes, sir.
Q. . V'ou were the first one that established it ? A. Yes, sir.
Q. Tell us something of its development afterward.
A. Chicago grew very fast and in 1835 there must have been two thousand five hundred people there. We then went down to the Wabash country, as we called it, and bought cattle and hogs and drove them up for market. We did not ship them then. In 1836 they commenced building the canal, and in that year I packed six thousand hogs there, mostly for home consumption. They were building the Illinois & Michigan Canal then, and the contractors in 1837-38 took the pork for their men. The State failed to pay in 1838-39, and work on the canal was stopped. State bonds went down to twenty-five cents on the dollar, and the State issued what was call "canal-scrip" to pay the contractors what they owed them for work that they had done. That was afterward redeemed dollar for dollar. In 1836 the old town of Chicago was sold. The Government gave the State of Illinois every alternate section for fifteen miles wide, to aid in building the canal from Chicago to the Illinois River-Peru. I think, is at the end of the canal-and one sectinn nf that canal was right in the heart of old Chicago. It was sold in June, 1836, by the State of Illinois for a quarter down, and the balance in one, two and three years, and 1 think there was but one man in the city that made his second pay- ment. That was P. F. W. l'eck. The thing all burst up, and there was but that one man that made his second payment, They had all paid one-quarter down and given notes at interest for the rest. 1 did so myself, and so did others ; but only one made the second payment.
Q. Why so? 1. Because everybody burst up-the banks and everybody cise went up.
Q. What became of the canal ?
N. The canal went along for awhile. Contracts were enterer into by the State, and work went along until 1539. the State trying in every way to pay, and about that time they stopped. There was an appropriation of 84,000,000 made by the State for internal improvements, but when the canal and railroad were partly done. it all burst up, and these improvements were not again begun until about 1847 or 1848.
1. What was the condition of the people around there then 3 Ibow were they claud, and how were they housed, and what was the condition of their wages ?
36
562
HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
Well, from 1836 to 1842, when the United States bank- rupt law was passed, there was no responsibility. No man had anything, hardly, that he could call his own at the time the law was passed in 1842.
Q. You think that the bankrupt act was necessary, do you ? A. Oh, yes ; they never would have started in the world, if it had not been for that.
Q. During that time how were prices ?
A. In IS38 I paid $6 a hundred pounds for pork in Chicago. In 1841, with a view of finishing the canal next summer, I bought pork for $2, that is to say, I paid $2 for all pork that weighed two hundred; for all hogs that did not weigh two hundred, I paid $1.50 a hundred. I bought beef there for barreling in IS43-44 for $2 a hundred, for the fore-quarters of the beef, if the ox weighed six hundred pounds, and $1.50 per hundred pounds if he fell under it. That is the lowest price I ever heard of it being sold fur.
Q. That was owing to the condition of credit and of the currency ?
A. Yes, and then there was more of this stuff raised than was needed up to about 1846 or 1347, when the famine in Ireland cleaned out the West almost entirely. Wheat was worth twenty- five cents a bushel in 1844 in Chicago. Produce commenced ris- ing from that time, and, you might say, has kept on rising since. Cattle and pork rose a good deal from a small price until in 1850 cattle were worth $4 to $5 a hundred pounds, and hogs were worth the same. There has been a steady increase each year. I made money for the reason that everything was going up.
Q. That comes down to when ?
A. From 1844 to IS50.
Q. Y'ou still remained at Chicago ?
A. Yes.
Q. I suppose Chicago was developing all the time ? A. Yes.
Q. Do you recollect about the price of wheat or corn in those days ?
.
A. In 1848 corn was worth twenty-five cents a bushel. Q. That is, at Chicago?
A. Yes. Freight then was as high as twenty-five cents a bushel to Buffalo.
Q. And from Buffalo on to Boston what was it ?
A. I do not know what freight was to Boston then. I stayed in that provision business until I killed one hundred and eighty-five head of large cattle and five hundred hogs for a day's work, and that is not, comparatively speaking, more than a teaspoonful to what they have come to since I left the business. Chicago had no start, no life, until the Legislature passed what we called the relief law, that is, they gave us as much of the land as we had paid for. If a man had bought four lots and paid the full value of one, the relief law gave us one lot, and then gave us up our notes. That was the first sign of life after the break-up in Chicago. Then, you see, a man who was cleared through bankruptcy, if he could only raise a hundred dollars, had credit, but up to that time, when we were all in debt, nobody could trust his brother. In 1851 and 1852 I spent most of my time in northern New York and Vermont. In January, 1851, I received an appointment as agent for the Ogdens- burg & Lake Champlain and Burlington & Kutland railroads. My business was to procure freight and passengers from the West over these roads, for the Boston market. In the fall of 1850, I shipped a propeller-load of about three thousand barrels of provisions to Ogdensburg, which were stored there till the railroad was com- pleted in January, 1851. I bought seven thousand kegs of nails at the Keeseville Iron Works, on Lake Champlain, as return freight for Chicago. Nails were worth only $2. 8712 per hundred, but during the next six months they rose to $4 per hundred. These northern railroads were not successful in getting much business for the Eastern markets for a few years, as they could not compete with the New York Central Railroad and the Erie Canal.
Q. From Chicago where did you go ?
A. I went from Chicago to Davenport, Iowa, in 1852. I was there two years.
Q. Did you follow the same business there ?
A. No; I was in the grain business there.
Q. How were the prices of provisions there ?
A. Well, hogs were 83 a hundred in Davenport in 1852. Q. What are they worth now ?
A. I don't know what they are worth now. They vary. They have been as high as eight, ten and twelve cents a pound, though they are down now, I believe.
Q. You do not know the price of other kinds of meat-beef and mutton, at Davenport at that time, du you ?
A. No.
Q. You were in the grain business mostly ?
A. Yes.
Q. Du you recollect about the prices of grain there ?
A. Corn was worth twenty to twenty-five cents a bushel; wheat from forty to fifty cents; oats about twelve cents.
Q. Did you ship to the East ?
A. I did, from Chicago to Buffalo. I did not ship much from Davenport. In 1852 I went into the grain drying business, making kiln-dried meal for the West India Islands, from a process of my own invention. I made hve hundred barrels of kiln-dried meal a day, and shipped it to the West India Islands.
Q. What sort of market did you get for it ?
A. A very fair market. The negroes in the West India Islands ate it.
Q. Did you ship it down the Mississippi ?
A. Some of it, but most of it by way of New York. I made money the last year that I sent kiln-dried meal there, by my own process.
Q. Is the invention still in use ?
A. Yes: much of the article is put up now for the European markets under my same brand, " Marsh's Caloric Dried Meal." I have five patents for drying grain. There is not so much of this kind made as there used to be, because farmers take care of their own corn now. and if the corn begins to heat they will put it into cars. When I began it they would put it in their warehouses and let it stay there awhile, and it would heat.
Q, From Davenport where did you go ?
A. I went to Chicago. I did not really move to Davenport.
Q. You went back then to Chicago. How long did you remain there ?
A. I remained in Chicago until 1855, all the time.
Q. There was no special change in the condition of things in Chicago, I suppose, during that time, that you remember ?
A. No.
In 1839, Oramel S. Hough and R. M. Hongh were with Sylvester Marsh. In 1837-38, D. H. Underhill came to Chicago and engaged in the packing business for a brief period, killing his hogs near Absalom Funk's butcher-shop, corner North Water and North State streets. About 1841, Eri Reynolds commenced pack- ing in Dole's packing-house. In the winter 1841-42, Oren Sherman and Nathaniel Pitkin, a dry-goods firm, packed several hundred hogs, pork being then at the lowest price ever known in Chicago; Charles Cleaver stating that several loads of hogs were bought by him at that time for $1.25 per hundred. Archibald Clybourne during the winter of 1842-43 slaughtered and packed for Wilham and Norman Felt-William Felt & Co .- about three thousand head of cattle for shipment to New York City; alleged to be the first beef packed in Chicago for an eastern market. In 1843-44, Thomas Dyer and John P. Chapin commenced packing in Rey- nolds' house, associating with them Julius Wadsworth, in 1844, and then built a packing house on the South Branch near North Street: being succeeded in 1845 or 1846, by Wadsworth & Dyer. During the season of 1844-45 this firm packed the first tierce of beef ever put up in Chicago for the English market; the barrels for the firm's use were furnished by Hugh Maher. In 1843, George Steel packed hogs on South Water Street, near . the corner of Franklin Street. About 1849, William B. Clapp entered the pork packing arena. In 1850, Oramel S. and R. M. Hough built a packing house on the South Branch at a cost of $3,000; in 1853, they built a large stone packing-house costing $20,000, which was burned in the fall of 1856. They rebuilt in 1857 at a cost of S25.000. In 1852, Orville H. Tobey and Heman D). Booth commenced packing pork; and, in 1854, John L. Hancock-as agent for Craigin & Co., of New York- built a packing house on the South Branch at a cost of $45,000, and did what was then deemed an enor- mous business, In 1853-54. Andrew Brown & Co. commenced packing, as did Moore, Seaverns & Co., in the fall of 1854. The following table exhibits the capar- ity and valuation of the packing houses in 1858, not including the value of the real estate.
563
PRIMITIVE MANUFACTURES.
Capacity Per Day.
Cattle.
Hogs.
Cost of Erecting Packing Houses.
G. S. Hubbard & Co.
200
1,000
$10,000
Hough & Co.
225
1,000
25,000
Cragin & Co.
400
1,000
45,000
Thomas Nash ( afterward Brunt & Watrous).
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