USA > Missouri > St Louis County > St Louis City > History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men > Part 71
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The tract of land of which the stock-yards proper form a part was purchased by the St. Louis National Stock-Yards Company on the 1st of March, 1871, from John B. Bowman and J. L. Griswold, of East St. Louis. This tract, containing four hundred acres, is situated on both sides of the Cahokia Creek, about one mile north of the city of East St. Louis, in St. Clair County, Ill. On the east the track of the St. Louis, Vandalia and Terre Haute Railway affords communication, while the tract is bisected near its western limits by the track of the Toledo, Wabash and Western Railway. Between these two roads there is a connecting link which passes through the paved and improved yards, thus giving superior ad- vantages for the reception and shipment of stock. An addition to the original purchase was made subse- quently by a negotiation with E. Matthews for a tract of two hundred and fifty-two acres. The price paid for the first four hundred acres purchased was $145,- 000. The purchase from Mr. Matthews cost the company $50,000. The National Stock-Yards Com- pany is therefore the owner of six hundred and fifty- two acres of land, for which it paid $195,000.
The original capital of the incorporated company
-
1312
HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.
was one million dollars, but the charter confers the special privilege of increasing the capital stock as circumstances may demand.
This important enterprise was originated by the great New York and Chicago stock firm of Allerton, Dutcher & Moore, who are entitled to the credit of having suc- cessfully enlisted the attention of moneyed men and brought about a combination of some of the greatest capitalists of the nation to carry forward the great work. That these yards were located in Illinois in- stead of Missouri is due solely to the fact that the company found it impossible to purchase at any rea- sonable price a suitable tract of sufficient extent equally convenient to business on the Missouri side. Though situated in Illinois, the National Stock-Yards are essentially a St. Louis institution. The ground having been secured, work was at once commenced. A. M. Allerton, a gentleman of tact and energy, gave his personal attention to the work. About one hun- dred and fifty acres of the four-hundred-acre tract were surveyed, and the work of grading commenced. This was a vast undertaking, as mounds were to be leveled down and ponds filled up, but an immense amount of work was performed in a very short time. The whole ground was bisected by sewers placed six feet below the surface. Water-pipes were laid, and regular streets or avenues were laid out. All this was done before the work of constructing slieds, barns, and inclosures was commenced. But this work once completed a large force of men was at once employed in building above ground. Vast quantities of lumber were used in this work. The posts are all of red- cedar ; the, fencing, roofs, etc., are of yellow-pine. The offices, hotel, and exchange hall are lighted by gas manufactured at the company's own works, and two powerful engines supply the yards with an abun- dance of water.
The ground was platted, with avenues running north and south, cast and west, crossing at right angles. Those running from the south are three hundred and ninety-two feet apart. The first one, called Avenue A, is one hundred and ninety-six feet from the east line of the yard. Avenue F is onc hundred and ninety-six feet from the south line. The avenues are divided into yards or sheds for cattle. The original plan calls for two hundred and cighty- nine yards. These yards accommodate fifteen thou- sand horned cattle, and outside space with good ar- rangements for feeding and shelter is furnished for twenty thousand more. The yards and avenucs arc paved with the Belgian pavement.
On the west side of the yard, and near to the northwest corner, the eye rests upon an immense
frame structure, painted white, which is eleven hun- dred and twenty-two feet long and one hundred feet wide. Extending directly through the middle of the building, for its entire length, is a broad passageway, on either side of which are located the hog-pens, seventy in number, with a total capacity of holding twenty thousand hogs.
In the centre of the immense yard for herding stock are situated the offices of the company. The building is in the centre of a square, which has been laid off with avenucs extending towards the cardinal points of the compass. The structure is of brick, two stories, besides the basement, with sleeping ac- commodations for clerks, watchmen, and laborers.
The chief attraction in the neighborhood of the St. Louis National Stock-Yards is the Allerton House, a five-story brick structure, containing over one hun- dred and thirty chambers, besides a dining-hall, bil- liard-room, wide halls, a large office, and parlors and sitting-rooms. The architectural appearance of the building is very imposing, and it is supplied with water and gas throughout, heated by steam, and fur- nished with all the comfortable appendages of a first- class hotel. Thomas Walsh was the architect, and Milburn & Sons contractors. The cost of the build- ing was about one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. The structure is one hundred and fifty feet front, and extends back two hundred and forty-eight feet. A portion of the back extension is only three stories high.
The yards werc formally opened on the 20th of November, 1873, on which occasion addresses were delivered by Hon. S. M. Kasc, Hon. E. O. Stanard, Mayor Bowman, of East St. Louis, N. M. Bell, of St. Louis, Hon. John Hinchcliffe, Hon. L. H. Hite, and Judge William G. Case.
The National Yards arc located about a mile beyond East St. Louis, in a district known in early times as " the Great American Bottom," and have a world- wide reputation for their completeness. Railway magnates have fostered the interest, and Jay Gould has become a large stockholder in the National Com- pany.
The Union Stock-Yards at Bremen are wholly a St. Louis enterprise, and utilize about fifty acres in terminal facilities for the handling of cattle, hogs, and sheep. The Venice and Madison County Ferry chiefly transports this stock over the river from Venice, and the delay of passing through East St. Louis is thereby avoided. A capital of three hundred and . fifty thousand dollars is employed by this establish- ment.
The St. Louis Union Stock-Yard Company was
.
1313
TRADE, COMMERCE, AND MANUFACTURES.
organized in March, 1874, and grounds, consisting of twenty-three and a half acres, were purchased in April for one hundred thousand dollars. No time was lost in pushing on the work, as the exchange was commenced in May, and the yards and pens in June. There are 127 hog-pens, capable of containing 25,000 hogs, and 65 cattle-pens, able to accommodate 2000 head of cattle.
There are also a number of private stock-yards in the suburbs on both sides of the river, but the bulk of the import and export trade necessarily gravitates toward the public yards, where dealing is only in large round lots or car-loads. During the last eigh- teen years the receipts of cattle, sheep, and hogs, and the exports of the same, have been as follows :
RECEIPTS.
SHIPMENTS.
YEAR.
Cattle.
Sheep.
Hogs.
Cattle.
Sheep.
Hogs.
1882
443,169
443,120
846,228
188,486
245,071
264,584
1881
503,862
334,426
1,672,163
293,092
170,395
889,909
1880
424,720
205,969
1,840,684
228,879
93,522
770,769
1879
420,654
182,648
1,762,724
226,255
88,083
6×6,099
1878
406,235
168,095
1,451,634
261,723
74,433
528,627
1877.
411,969
200,502
896,319
251,566
87,569
314,287
1876
349,043
157,831
877,160
220,430
67,886
232,876
1875.
335,742
125,679
628,569
216,701
37,784
126,729
1874.
360,925
114,913
1,126,586
226,678
35,577
453,710
1873
279,678
86,434
973,512
180,662
18,902
224,873
1872
263,404
115,904
759,076
164,870
29,540
188,700
1871.
199,527
118,899
633,370
130,018
37,465
113,913
1870
201,422
94,477
310,850
129,748
11,649
17,156
1869
124,565
96,626
344,848
59,867
12,416
39,076
1868
115,352
79,315
301,560
37,277
6,415
16,277
1867
74,146
62,974
298,241
26,799
19,022
28,627
1866.
103.259
64,047
217,622
24,462
15,194
13,368
1865
94,807
52,133
99,663
46,712
8,680
17,869
-
RECEIPTS AND SHIPMENTS OF LIVE STOCK FOR 1882.
RECEIPTS.
SHIPMENTS.
RECEIVED BY
Cattle.
Hogs.
Sheep.
Horses and Mules.
Cattle.
Hogs.
Sheep.
Mules.
Chicago and Alton Railroad (Missouri Division).
16,892
68,686
32,741
2,192
188
317
3,891
193
Missouri Pacific Railway.
162,683
152,427
91,639
4,558
293
975
5,505
1,272
St. Lonis and San Francisco Railroad
53,657
48,099
60,811
887
277
94
638
310
St. Louis, Wabash and Pacific Railroad (Western Division)
73,145
294.248
86,697
6,978
5,061
...
...
220
5,274
St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railroad.
65,427
7,557
28,947
8,873
266
41
40,835
1,239
Missouri Pacific Railroad (Kansas and Texas Division).
5,168
10,939
3,329
788
330
11
16,985
410
Cairo Short Line Railroad.
4,858
2,680
6,946
1,5×4
361
345
85
3,387
Lonisville and Nashville Railroad.
3,324
3,960
1,511
439
30
1,192
908
St. Louis and Cairo Railroad ..
3.323
1,325
5,524
151
.........
....
101
... ....
Ohio and Mississippi Railroad.
4,537
6,836
2,840
4,350
18,749
22,573
18,087
5,666
Chicago and Alton Railroad ...
6,641
54,812
32,123
3.694
21,727
20,628
7,134
2,363
Indianapolis and St. Louis Railroad ..
6,187
25,618
9,428
1,518
62,580
52,380
26,875
3,354
Vandalia and Terre Haute Railroad.
4,154
8,511
27,400
735
38,594
116,720
106,548
7,745
5,230
47,830
6,080
417
36,338
48.697
17,285
2,777
Keokuk and St. Louis Railroad
2,511
6,233
4,140
632
276
95
2,797
4,070
58,170
10,100
1,189
1,732
7,874
21,201
13,101
2,263
Upper Mississippi River boats.
3,604
3,051
6,0.39
6.9
Illinois River boats
2,761
17,990
3,692
596
1,681
482
787
5,941
Missouri River boats.
245
3,090
1,161
80
55
Driven in from country ..
6,875
2,965
8,579
60
.........
......
...
Totals.
443,169
846,228
443,120
42,718
188,486
264,584
245,071
46,255
How many million dollars annually are invested in live-stock dealings in this market is readily calculable, but the local consumption demand is not more readily ascertainable than the actual exports, for the latter are largely contingent upon the extent of the demand of the beef-canning companies, the proportion of stock exported alive being still comparatively inconsiderable in this valley.
In his paper on " St. Louis: Past, Present, and Future," Charles W. Knapp does not find the live- stock trade as encouraging as he thinks it ought to be.
"Though it has increased," he says, "during the last dozen years, the comparison with Chicago was more favorable in the matter of cattle ten years ago than to-day, while such gain upon Chicago as has been made in the matter of hogs is more than counterbalanced by the failure of our packers to take ad-
vantage of the increased receipts, as will be made plain by Ex- hibit No. 32. Connected with this most unsatisfactory record is the further fact that the receipts of packed incats at St. Louis have fallen off considerably in recent years, the receipts of bar- reled pork in 1861 having been about eighty-four per cent. greater than in 1881, and of mess-pork sixty per cent. greater, while of lard we only got twelve per cent. more in 1881.
EXHIBIT NO. 32-PORK-PACKING YEAR ENDING MARCH.
Chicago.
St. Louis.
Kansas City.
Cincin- nati.
Milwau- kee.
1878-79
4,960,956
771,261
987,793
....
1880-81
5,752,191
824,159
579,398
632,981
462,348
1881-82
5,100,484
556,379
800,928
508,458
486,066
EXHIBIT NO. 32-CATTLE RECEIPTS.
Chicago.
St. Louis.
St. Louis per cont. of Chicago.
1865
330,301
94,307
28.55
1870.
532,964
.......
1872
684,075
263,404
38.50
1877
1,096,745
411,969
37.49
1881
1,498,550
503,862
33.72
....
...
...
....
....
...
120
....
....
.........
........
Head.
Head.
Head.
Head,
Head.
Head.
Head.
Head.
St. Louis, Wabash and Pacific Railroad (Eastern Division) Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad ( East. Division) Illinois and St. Louis Railroad.
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (North Division) Lower Mississippi River boats.
2,619
Ohio, Cumberland and Tennessee River boats ...
2
292
...
.......
1879-80
4,680,637
IIorses and
1314
HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.
HOG RECEIPTS.
St. Louis per
Chicago.
St. Louis.
cent. of Chicago.
1865
757,072
99,663
13.16
1870 ..
1,693,158
310,850
18.36
1880
7,059,355
1,840,684
26,22
1881
6,494,844
1,672,153
25.76"
St. Louis Beef-Canning Company .- A promi- nent factor in the enlargement of the provision trade of St. Louis is the St. Louis Beef-Canning Company, whose base of operations is the National Stock-Yards, East St. Louis. This establishment-which in its Europcan exports has with its cooked meats super- seded the "roast beef of Old England," according to a consular report-was organized in 1876, with a capital stock of four hundred thousand dollars, and occupied its present packing and warehouses, covering four acres, in 1879. Its successive presidents have been R. D. Hunter, H. L. Newman, Isaac H. Knox, and G. L. Joy, the latter being the present executive, with the following board of directors : Messrs. Knox, Joy, J. B. Dutcher, A. M. White, T. C. Eastman, S. W. Allerton, and R. W. Donnell.
Beginning with packing twenty-five beeves a day, the company has now a capacity to handle one thou- sand head, and employs from eight hundred to one thousand hands daily, according to the season. For two years it did not intermit a single day, although it is unusual for packers to operate continuously through the year. The aggregate packing during the three years ending May, 1882, was two hundred and one thousand one hundred and thirty-seven head, about one-half of which product was exported.
The cash value of the daily product is over fifty thousand dollars, and the establishment is the second largest of its kind in the world.
The company buys the choicest cattle at the adja- cent National Stock-Yards, where they are cooled and rested before slaughtering. After this the sides of beef are perfectly chilled by an improved process ; they are then "cut down," the ribs and loins shipped all over the country, supplying dealers in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and the remainder prepared for curing. The curing cellars of the company extend under the main build- ings, and cover about three acres. The bulk of the meat is cured, cooked, and packed in cases in duc time; the hams are smoked and turned out under the "Star of the West" brand, and the balance packed in barrels as " rolled" and " plate beef." The tin can department-as an illustration of the magnitude of the business-employs, in addition to numerous labor- saving machines for stamping, soldering, etc., from onc hundred to one hundred and fifty hands, and manufac- tures daily tin cans enough, when filled, to load from
six to ten cars, according to the size of the cans. The company imports its own tin and manufactures its own solder. Another interesting feature is the "fertilizing department," which is located at some distance from the main works, and utilizes all the refuse, converting it into valuable fertilizers,-azotine, dried blood, bone- meal, etc. The horns and large bones are sorted, treated, and sold to manufacturers of buttons, combs, fancy toilet articles, etc. This department employs about twenty-five hands, and produces about six car- loads of material per day. The chief business of the company is the packing and sale of canned cooked meats, and the correspondents of the company are in all countries. The first operations were the packing of corned beef, but rapid extension has been made, until the list now compriscs corned, roast, and boiled beef, whole and compressed beef tongue, lunch tongue, ham, ox-kidney, ox-tail, pigs' feet, and English brawn, or head cheese. These are all packed in tins ranging from one to twenty-eight pounds in weight, and are ready for instant use. The company also packs a beef or lunch sausage cooked. The goods of the company have been exhibited and tested in the fairs of the world, and have gathered trophies at Paris, London, the American Institute of New York, and elsewhere.
Horse and Mule Marts .- Long antedating the history of the army mule the patient beast " without pride of ancestry or hope of posterity" had contrib- uted largely to the cominercial growth and importance of St. Louis. In 1856 the firm of A. Shulerr & Co., predecessors of Reilly & Wolfort, commenced the es- tablishment of sale-stables which now outrival in number and capital employed the sales-yards of Lon- don, and give to Broadway for many blocks a national reputation as the location of the largest horse and mule market in the United States, and with respect to dealings in mules, the largest in the world. The extent of the trade in the supply of these animals for the Southern plantations and the Western plains, as well as for use by local carrying companies, had becn generally known, and there was some knowledge too of the fact that the United States government was a large purchaser of horses and mules in this market ; but it remained for the accredited represen- tatives of a foreign government to demonstrate a few years ago, and beyond cavil, that St. Louis leads the world in the number, quality, and monetary valuc of its mules. Large purchases were made here by both combatants in the Franco-Prussian war. The British found the Mississippi valley mule best adapted by hardihood to service in India; the Turks discovered the same quality of adaptation for the Orient; and the French government, after purchasing here large
1315
TRADE, COMMERCE, AND MANUFACTURES.
numbers of fine horses for its cavalry, added still larger orders for mules for service in the Tunisian campaign.
But while the attainable statistics show a trade of nearly ten millions of dollars annually, it is doubtful whether this sum really represents the actual trans- actions in horses and mules within forty per cent., for the reason that the larger portion of the stock imported from the vicinage, or within perhaps a hun- dred miles, is driven direct to the sale-stables, and does not therefore appear upon the tabulated returns of the railroads and transportation companies. For example, a compilation of the returns to the Mer- chants' Exchange for 1881 shows the receipts of horses and mules to have been forty-two thousand three hundred and sixty-five, and the shipments to exceed that number largely. The same anomaly is exhibited in the reports of former years. Indeed, a single one of the ten larger houses engaged in the business shipped in 1881 upwards of half the num- ber thus recorded, and in the first four months of 1882 the shipments exceeded seven thousand, a large portion of the stock being exported to England, Scot- land, and the West Indies. A fact not generally known in this connection is that fine mules bring a higher price than fine horses for exportation, although the home demand keeps the prices of inferior or sec- ond-class animals about even. Foreign buyers will pay for choice mules from two hundred and fifty to three hundred and fifty dollars a head, in round lots, and even more, while they would expect to pay for the same grade of horses not more than from two hundred to two hundred and fifty dollars. The longevity and hardi- hood of the mule is rated a third higher by foreign purchasers. The United States government is the most exacting of American buyers, and the French are the most particular of the purchasers from abroad.
The receipts and shipments of horses and mules at St. Louis from 1874 to 1882, inclusive, were :
Year.
Receipts.
Shipments.
Head.
Head.
1882
42,718
46,655
1881.
42,365
43,794
1880.
46,011
44,416
1879.
33,289
36,947
1878 ...
27,878
30,867
1877.
22,652
25,157
1876.
22,271
26,301
1875.
27,516
28,675
1874
27,175
30,202
Hides and Leather .- There are more domestic hides shipped from St. Louis than from any market in the United States, the aggregate value of the transactions in this commodity approximating four million dollars. The hide product is not only exten-
sively employed in the manufacture of boots and shoes, but is necessarily an important factor in the making of saddles, harness, belting, and a variety of other articles of commerce. In St. Louis there is not only a large product of hides from the cattle slaugh- tered for local consumption, but the receipts from the cattle-growing regions are immense, this being the natural centre of that interest, which includes in ex- tent of territory Illinois, Missouri, the Indian Terri- tory, Texas, Mexico, New Mexico, Colorado, Dakota, Montana, Utah, and Arizona. The establishment of extensive slaughtering houses, such as that of the Beef-Canning Company, producing 4000 hides a week, and the butchers' yield, about the same figure, greatly increases the product derived from imports, which in 1881 aggregated 20,079,814 pounds. The exports were 28,082,036 pounds, and the amount utilized in local manufacture was nearly as large as both sums together, or upwards of 40,000,000 pounds. In 1834 and earlier there were also large receipts of bison hides from the plains, and this formed an im- portant element in the freightage of the " overland route ;" but of late years the extermination of the American buffalo has been so nearly completed that few are now received, or even desired, for bison hide makes very inferior leather as compared with the product of the domestic cattle.
Of the two methods of preparing hides for the St. Louis market, the salting is preferred above drying, although not always practicable, as nearly all the hides coming from the Southwest and West are already cured by drying, after the primitive manner in vogue on the plains. Texas hides rank, in excellence of quality, second only to those of South America.
Up to a very few years ago nearly all the hides re- ceived in the St. Louis market werc shipped hence to Eastern tanneries, but now St. Louis boasts of several tanners and curriers with establishments possessing the requisites of capital and capacity and doing a thriving business. Indeed, these already outnumber the dealers in hides and pelts, one of them having a capacity of over five hundred hides a week.1
The hide dealers, however, are among the most solid and prosperous business men of St. Louis, and represent an aggregate capital of nearly two million dollars. In earlier times the custom-begun perhaps almost as early as the settlement of St. Louis-of buying hides directly from the butchers and selling to the tanners was in vogue, but in 1864, B. H. Newell, one of the
1 " Forty dollars per ton," stated an advertisement in the Missouri Gazette of July 2, 1814, "will be given for well-saved shomac (sumac) at the subscriber's morocco manufactory in St. Louis."
1316
HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.
largest buyers in the St. Louis market, originated the brokerage system, by which the brokers act as agents for the tanners, and now nearly all the business be- tween dealers and tanners is thus conducted, and, it is claimed, with great advantage to all parties con- cerncd. With the growth of the St. Louis saddlery trade to pre-eminence over that of any other market in the world, the dealings in hidcs and leather have necessarily increased in proportion, and the establish- ment of numerous boot and shoe factories has con- tributed to swell the total dealings in leather for all purposes to the sum of nearly ten million dollars.
The following statistics exhibit the growth of the trade :
HIDES.
Receipts.
Exports.
Peltries, Receipts.
Pieces.
Bundles. 106,641
Pieces.
Bundles.
Bundles.
1874
184,458
65,976
247,941
16,636
1873 ..
165,917
83,234
102,252
158,162
15,158
1872
161,902
56,703
110,890
92,693
18,560
1871.
112,675
31,092
116,630
62,500
14,175
1870
120,739
37,425
55,896
132,321
12,903
1869
103,906
17,170
66.173
81,048
11,584
1868
150,245
16,362
81,546
47,083
11,278
1867
146,421
11,910
85,291
45,113
10,278
1865
160,470
6,981
165,580
22,481
1864
187,591
7,310
267,119
...
......
HIDES.
Receipts.
Exports.
1882.
Pounds. 22,135,538
26,744.094
1881.
20,079,814
28,08%.636
1880
20,042,734
26,719,928
1878.
20,001,031
26,258.113
1876.
21,261,245
29,520,487
1875
19,851,947
32,457,805
LEATHER.
Rolls.
Receipts in 1881.
52,002
1880
54,398
1879
38,386
1877
26,804
Saddlery Trade .- St. Louis leads the world in saddlery, although the fact is not known outside of strictly commercial circles.1 The market is usually most active, but there is no exchange or central depot for the compilation of statistics. As an exclusive business, saddlery and saddlery hardware date back only to 1859, and not much was done in that line
until 1866. Prior to that time the general stores that abounded in St. Louis, as elsewhere throughout the Southwest, dealt in 'saddlery to some degree in connection with other wares. The territory then sup- plied by St. Louis was very limited, but now saddlery of St. Louis manufacture is supplied to Missouri, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessce, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, Colorado, the Indian Territory, Wyoming, Montana, Arizona, Dakota, and Now Mexico, most of which States and Territories use this ware to so large an extent that the St. Louis export trade in this line in 1881 aggregated in value over three million five hundred thousand dollars. Upwards of fifteen hundred hands arc employed in the trade here, and the wholesale firms alone number twelve, while the retailers and the exclusively " tree" manufacturers aggregate twenty-two more.
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