USA > Nebraska > Douglas County > Omaha > History of the city of Omaha, Nebraska > Part 98
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738,186
Hogs, 1892.
1,705,687
Sheep, 1892
185,457
Horses and mules, 1892
14,183
Cars, 1892
58,644
The following facts are gleaned from the Eighth Annual Live Stock Report of the yards, made by J. C. Sharp, secretary of the Union Stock Yards Company, at the close of 1891:
Twenty miles of railroad track traverse the yards and six locomotives are kept in almost constant service day and night. The switch tracks are the property of the Stock Yards Company. They are connected with all the various railroads centering here, and all switching, both of live stock, dead freight and packing house products to and from the packing houses and yards are done by the employes of the company. The four leading dressed meat and packing concerns of the United States have houses here,* with capa- cities only limited by the amount of stock received, while shippers, speculators and buyers for eastern and western houses are always on the market in direct competition with the buyers for local slaughterers, ship- pers being thus assured of a sure and ready sale for their stock at the market value. The same is true of the hog market.
In addition to the local packers, Boston, New York, New Haven, Indianapolis, Cleve- land, Baltimore, St. Louis and other eastern cities as well as Denver, Salt Lake City, Helena and others on the west are liberal purchasers of live hogs here. South Omaha is at present second to no market west of Chicago, and in a few years at most will be second to none in the country. As a dis- tributive point for stockers and feeders, this market has no superior; its position in the heart of the best stock raising and feeding country under the sun, making it the natural trading point for stockmen. The number of feeding cattle shipped to the country from
* Of these, a particular account is given in a subsequent chapter.
608
HISTORY OF SOUTH OMAHA.
this point during the past year is more than double the number shipped last year, each succeeding year witnessing the development of this branch of trade and recording addi- tional tributary territory. The horse mar- ket has been placed in charge of gentle- men who will conduct it on a " strictly com- mission " basis. They are thorough horse men, having an extensive business acquaint- ance both east and west, and their facilities for handling horses here are nnexcelled.
The revenue of the stock yards company is derived entirely from yardage charges and the sale of feed for stock. When stoek is sold, yardage charges are: for cattle and horses, 25 cents a head; hogs, 8 cents a head; sheep, 5 cent's a head; calves, 10 cents a head. Feed charges are, for hay, $1.00 per hundred; corn, $1.00 per bushel; oats, $1.00 per bushel.
Looking at the yards on the first day of July, 1892, and extending our view in ret- rospection to the commencement of that year, and certainly in no previous six months in the history of the yards, could improvements have been so extensive, nor at any time were the prospects for the de- velopment of an immense live stock market at this point more promising. The Stock Yards Company were expending something over two hundred thousand dollars in the erection of new pens and better equipment of the older portions of the yards. Nine acres of the ground north and east of the Exchange building had been recently graded and covered with cattle pens, completely surrounding it. This brought the total area of the yards up to fifty acres, and the capacity to 10,000 cattle, 20,000 hogs, 5,000 sheep and 600 horses and mules. Of the new pens, twenty-eight were paved with vitrified brick. Forty-one new loading and unloading chutes were being constructed for the new division, and another new scale house, No. 6, was about completed. Two miles of track had been added to the yards equipage, and another locomotive bought and placed in service. Old division B had been completely remodeled-changed from cattle yards to hog pens. There had also been several changes in the Exchange build- ing itself. The old dining-room had been ent up into several new office rooms, and the dining room and kitchen re-located in the basement. In fact a person who had not seen the yards for a year or so would
hardly have been able to recognize them now. These extensive improvements and alterations were not made without good reason, as the record of receipts for those six months with the same period for the years 1890 and 1891, abundantly attested. It was to be noted that the supplies of all kinds of stock had steadily increased for the previous three years :
1890.
Cattle.
Hogs.
Sheep.
January
43,985
99,509
10,987
February
41,437
66,194
15,009
March
55.980
75.351
18.311
April
52,778
92,581
11.969
May
63,054
127,698
10,956
June
48,991
153,599
5,135
Total
306,215
614,932
72,267
1891.
Cattle.
Hogs.
Sheep.
January
50,972
162,105
11,364
February
47,057
130,681
12.421
March,
49,923
145,223
16,351
April
35,945
106,842
18,682
May
31.576
120,991
8,456
June
34,066
142,105
5,095
Total
249,539
807,947
72,369
1892.
Cattle.
Hogs.
Sheep
January.
58,138
201,557
11,774
February
55.563
127,549
17.620
March
61.105
102,334
20,071
April
61,563
97,826
17,283
May
62,102
149,574
12.013
June
44,230
202.913
7,923
Total. .
343,761
881 652
86.684
On the whole, then, the first half of the year 1892 was a most prosperous season for the South Omaha stock market. Within the history of the Union Stock Yards no period (we may repeat) can be recalled when the improvements made had been so extensive, the receipts so large, and the prices paid so good, as has characterized those six months.
When it is recalled that more than $1,000,- 000 was being expended in improvements by the packers ( whose extensive plants will be found described in a subsequent chapter) and the Stock Yards Company, the fact was apparent that a large and successful stock market and packing center was being reared in South Omaha. When, there- fore, at the beginning of the year, the packers gave notice of their intention to expend several hundred thousand dollars in improving and enlarging their mammoth establishments, no one seemed surprised. Later, when the Union Stock Yards Com- pany began improvements costing $200,000, to meet increased business, it was regarded
609
PROGRESS OF THE UNION STOCK YARDS.
as a natural consequence. When new terri- tory was opened up, and the stock shipped to South Omaha, it was no more than was expected. When the differential rate on stock from Indian Territory points was reduced to $12.50 per car, it was re- ceived with the feeling that justice had been done, and that the railroads desired to get into the South Omaha column of progressiveness and enterprise; and every new improvement, each day's increase in receipts and slaughterings, and the whole general prosperity were calmly considered and attributed to the fact that it was but the natural acquiring of all that was neces- sary in the grand march for second place which South Omaha was (it was believed) so rapidly and gloriously accomplishing. There had been no loud sounding of trumpets, no pyrotechnical display of accom- plishments, but a calm, determined, enter- prising effort on behalf of all to take advantage of the opportunity, and place, within a short time, the Magic City where she properly and naturally belonged.
The large improvements then making by the Union Stock Yards Company were made necessary by the increase in the receipts of stock and in the outlook for increased busi- ness in the future.
The Union Stock Yards Company and the Union Stock Yards Railroad Company have the same officers, who are the same as previ- ously given, but with W. N. Babcock, gen- eral manager. The board of directors con- sists of W. A. Paxton, John A. McShane, John A. Creighton, A. C. Foster, Milton Rogers, E. A. Cudahy, B. F. Smith, of Omaha, M. C. Keith, of North Platte, and P. A. Valentine, of Chicago.
Of the two hundred and fifty acres of grounds owned by the company, thirty-seven and one-half acres were covered by stock pens January 1, 1892, twelve acres being allotted to hogs, twenty and one-half acres to cattle and five acres to sheep. Fif- teen additional acres have since been graded at an expense of $15,000 in removing 60,000 yards of earth, and have been cov- ered with pens. Of these, five acres are for hogs and ten acres for cattle. Many of the new pens have been paved with vitrified brick, which will make the yards among the finest in the world. Every pen in the yards has ample supply of good fresh, pure water. The supply is received through two eight-
inch mains, two miles long. A standpipe eighty-five feet high and twenty feet in diameter, situated seventy-five feet above the level of the Exchange, insures ample pressure at all times. Twoadditional scales for weighing stock have been added, making six in all. A storm water sluice twelve by fourteen feet and four thousand feet long, has been constructed during the year at a a cost of $40,000. This connects with the sewerage system. A tunnel six by six and 1,700 feet long, costing $23,000; ten miles of sewers through every alley and connect- ing with every stock pen in the yards, at a cost of $25,000; and a sewer two miles long to the Missouri river; make the sew- erage system absolutely faultless. Fifty- five new loading and unloading chutes have been built, thirty-one of them single and eighteen double. The new Union Stock Yards office building is 44 by 67 feet, cost- ing $40,000.
To the eighteen miles of railroad trackage, costing $250.000, more than two miles were added during 1892, at a cost of $20,000. The sixth locomotive engine was received during the year, thus furnishing motor power for almost any needs. To the immense new brick barn of the horse market, 62 by 260 feet, costing $18,000, a new horse shed, 54 by 300 feet has been completed, with a capa- city of two hundred head and costing $5,000. Between the exchange and the horse barn a fine race track, one-eighth of a mile, has been constructed and fenced, and an elegant pavilion, with a seating capacity of four hundred, has been constructed for the benefit of buyers and sellers of horses and for the pleasure of those who delight in seeing fine and fast horses. Not the least successful and gratifying of the additions to the yards is the horse and mule department. The re- ceipts of horses and mules in 1891 were 8,592, while the receipts of 1892 were 14,183, an increase of 5,591, or 65.79 per cent. Of the receipts 9,218, or 65 per cent., were sold at this market. This, too, in less than a year, for the horse and mule department has been in operation only ten months, while nearly half that time was spent in preparation for the promised business. The sheep pens burned last summer are being rebuilt and will cost $8,000.
Another sewer, one thousand feet long, eight feet in diameter, is being constructed from the Exchange building to connect with
39
610
HISTORY OF SOUTH OMAHA.
the sewer at the south side of The G. H. Hammond Company packing houses. This sewer will be circular, built of brick, and will cost $20,000.
Fifty men are now (January 1, 1893,) at work on the new interlocking switch, which promises much benefit to the yards and the packing plant. The switch will be 1,300 feet long and will be located west of the Union Pacific Railway tracks, with the center about opposite the Union Pacific Depot, and will be under the control of the Union Pacific Railway Company. It will cost $65,000, and will enable the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad Company to run all of its trains via this point and over its union cut-off, and likewise the Missouri Pacific all trains over its fort cut-off. The tracks will be laid by the middle of this month.
South Omaha has gained a standing among the very first as a feeder market. During 1892 the sales of feeders increased from 91.500 to 131,231, or 46 per cent.
During the same year, 255,500 cars were handled by the Union Stock Yards Railroad Company, an average of 816 for every work- ing day in the year, equal to forty-one trains of twenty cars to each train.
The feed-master's report shows that nearly $100,000 was expended during 1892 for feed. Eight thousand five hundred tons of hay, costing, on an average, $6.50, were required, entailing an outlay of $55,250; and 90,000 bushels of oats, averaging 35 cents a bushel, cost $31,500.
Eleven teams, with teamsters, averaging ten loads per day, are now (January 1, 1893), required to clean the yards. Three to four cars per day are used, averaging about 1,000 cars per year, to remove the gather- ings, while 7,600 cart-loads are annually thrown in the dump.
The water system is among the best in the country, and the supply inexhaustible. Four meters are used, and all the water con- sumed is accurately accounted for. Abont 15,000,000 gallons are consumed per month or 250,000,000 gallons per year.
The present pay-roll contains the names of 351 persons, and the salaries amount to $155,000 per year.
The South Omaha Live Stock Exchange has now (January 1, 1893), a membership of 202. During the past year just one hundred new members were added to the roll. On May 22, 1892, the initiation fee
was increased from twenty dollars to $500, and the transfer fee raised to $100. It is regularly chartered under the laws of Ne- braska, and is a member of the national asso- ciation. The regular election of officers occurs on the first Monday of January of each year. The present officers are: Presi- dent, J. A. Hake; vice-president, M. R. Murphy; secretary, A. L. Lott; treasurer, HI. C. Bostwick; directors, David L. Camp- bell, Jerome B. Blanchard, J. E. Byers, L. C. Redington, and Walter E. Wood .*
The secretary of the Union Stock Yards Company, J. C. Sharp, in the Ninth Annual Report of the yards made at the close of 1892, says :
" With less than a decade of years to its credit, the position occupied by the Union Stock Yards, of South Omaha as the third largest live stock market in the country, is an excellent example of the wonderful pos- sibilities of the country and the age.
" In August, 1884, the yards were first opened for business. The start was in a comparatively small way, but the country naturally tributary to this point, was filling up with settlers and rapidly developing, and the projectors of the scheme, with character- istic foresight and energy, having made ample preparations in the way of securing grounds and the location of new packeries, now have the gratification of seeing the in- fant industry of 1884, the third packing center of the country, with possibilities second to none.
"Geographic, agricultural and climatic conditions have been all that could be de- sired for the building up and maintenance of a great live stock market, while the con- struction of the great net-work of railroads, of which Omaha is the center, and the constant changing of the face of the country from rolling prairie to fruitful farm and
* Adapted from the Omaha Bre of Sunday, Jaouary 1, 1893. " To supply the market with live stock, the Union Stock Yarda Company occupies 275 acres of ground, and has a capacity for 10,000 cattle, 20,000 hogs, 5,000 sheep, 500 horses and mules. Its Stock Yards Railway now has forty-five miles of tracks, six engines and other facilities for hauling stock. Au inter- locking switching plant, costing $65 000, is being constructed, which, it is claimed, will be the most complete in the United States. All the switches in the yard will be operated by one man, in a high tower, and electricity will be the power used. The tracks of the company connect with the Union Pacific, Burlington & Missouri 'River ; Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley ; Missouri Pacific; Chicago, Burlington & Quincy ; Chi- cago & Northwestern; Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha ; Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul ; Chicago, Rock I-land & Pacific; Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs; Wabash; and the Belt Line Railroad Tbe principal aources of supply for thia market are the States of Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa ,Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and the two Dakotas. Arizona, New Mexico and Texaa furnish considerable especially for stock and feeders."-South Omaha Daily Tribune, December 31, 1892.
611
PROGRESS OF THE UNION STOCK YARDS.
ranch, only improved the situation, and made doubly sure the success of the enter- prise. With a live stock market, situation is everything, and in this respect South . Omaha certainly has no superior to-day. The vast, rich cattle and sheep ranges of Colorado, Wyoming, the two Dakotas, Montana, Utah, New Mexico and the Pan- handle of Texas, furnish an almost limitless supply of beef and canning cattle for the slaughterers, while they also furnish thous- ands of young animals to be fattened and finished in innumerable feed lots on corn, the staple product of the great state of Ne- braska, as well as of her sister states, of Kansas and Missouri, on the south, Iowa on the east, and South Dakota on the north.
" At present the yards cover an area of about fifty-five acres, while nearly as many acres more are already graded and ready for the construction of pens as soon as the necessities of the situation demand it. The present capacity of the yards is estimated at 600 cars of cattle, 13,000 head ; 375 cars of logs, 25,000 head ; 50 double decks of sheep, 10,000 head, and 25 cars of horses, abont 500 head. Over twenty miles of railroad tracks traverse the company's property; these switching tracks being owned and operated entirely by the Stock Yards Company. They connect with all the various lines of railways centering at this point, and six locomotives are required in switching the live stock and packing house product to aud from the stock yards and packeries.
" Water from the city mains traverses the entire yards, and a complete system of sew- erage and drainage makes these yards second to none in this respect. The yard com- pany's employes yard, feed and water all stock on arrival as well as look after the weighing when sold. Every shipper is as- sured of the best of treatment for his stock, whether he accompanies his shipment or not. But one charge for yarding is made, this to cover the entire time the stock remains in the yards, however long, and in no case to be collected unless the stock sells here. Western shippers thus have an opportunity to stop off here and try the market on their way east without any additional expense for yarding. All through billed stock that stops off here is taken care of entirely by the com- pany's employes, and the only charge made
is for such feed as may be ordered.
*
*
*
" The position of this market, situated as
it is in the very heart and center of the greatest corn belt in the world, makes it of necessity a natural distributing point for stock cattle and feeders. The vast breeding grounds of the west and southwest furnish the feed lots of the states further east with thousands of cattle, which in turn find their way back here again ready for the butcher's block, the refrigerator car, or often to make a journey across the Atlantic ' on the hoof.' This branch of the business has increased rapidly from year to year, and the increase must, in the very nature of the case, con- tinue.
"A new feature has been added to the business of the yards during the past year in the way of a horse market. * * * Thesc sales [auction sales of horses] are at- tended by buyers from all over the country, although it has been practically demonstrated that Omaha alone demands enough good horses of all kinds to support a very respec- table sale stable."
The expenditure, during 1892, of $200,000 in enlarging an improving the yards was only deemed necessary for the future growth and needs of the stock business at this point. But with this immense sum of money, judic- iously handled, so rapid has the growth of business been, that the improvements have scarcely kept ahead of the needs. The Union Stock Yards Company has increased its cap- ital from time to time until it has now re- solved to make it six million dollars. The stock is considered an excellent investment, as it now sells at fifty-three cents above par, and the character of its officers is a gnar- anty to the holders, and the public generally, that all is well at the Union Stock Yards in South Omalia.
In a most reliable published work, just issued, is this statement:
" In the entire history of the live stock business * * * there has been nothing to compare with the building up of the mar- ket at South Omaha. The magnitude of Chicago, as a live stock center, is the result of over twenty-five years of effort. St. Louis and Kansas City are both compara- tively old markets. But here, on a spot where eight years ago [this was written in July, 1892] the corn was growing Inxur- iantly, has sprung up the third largest mar- ket in the country. A glance at the condi- tions and circumstances will show that the building up of a trading center here, for live
612
HISTORY OF SOUTHI OMAHA.
stock of all kinds, has been as much a neces- sity as a commercial enterprise.
" Corn is the cheapest and best ration yet discovered for fattening stock, and the gen- ial clime and rich soil capable of producing this cereal are also particularly adapted to the raising of cattle, hogs and sheep. No country under the sun can compete, in this respect, with the territory surrounding South Omaha. There are Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and the Dakotas-all rich agricul- tural States, which find this a market for a good share of their live stock. In addition to furnishing beef cattle for the slaughterers, the ranges of Wyoming, Colorado, Utalı, New Mexico and Texas, furnish unlimited numbers of feeders for the corn States. Numerous railroads, whose facilities are being constantly increased, bring the live stock from all points of the compass to this place, to be slaughtered and distributed to the world. The establishment of a market here was a convenience, even a necessity, for the surrounding naturally tributary country, and its situation in the very center of the greatest corn belt in the world, places its permanence beyond question."*
The Union Stock Yards Company, at its last annual meeting, decided to expend at least $200,000 in improvements during the coming year (1893). . The interlocking switching system, now in course of con- struction, and the building of an eight-foot square tunnel, to connect with the main sewer, for the better drainage of the yards, will be pushed to completion. Sometime during the year about sixteen acres of the original hog and cattle pens, at the south side of the yards, will be torn down, and the area covered with new and improved hog houses and sheds for cattle, hogs and sheep. The new pens will be paved with brick, as, in fact, will be the entire yards at no distant day. Additional cattle pens are all the time being built. About fifty acres of ground is now graded, ready for pens, in addition to what is already occupied.
The Union Stock Yards Company shows what capital, enterprise and persevering en- deavor can do when rightly and thought- fully directed. Experiments, as every busi- ness man knows, made in the line of at- tempted progress, are to be entered upon
with great caution, especially where large sums are necessary to carry them forward. It is, then, really a matter of wonder that so many of Omaha capitalists should have so quickly and unreservedly invested large amounts, in 1883 and in the next two years, in broad acres south of the city, which were then little else than corn-fields, following up their purchases by starting and urging forward with great energy and forethought, the Union Stock Yards, of South Omaha.
But our wonder is greatly increased when we reflect that, in less than nine years of development, their very purchases-these very yards-have brought to the " Magic City " the Union Stock Yards and all the industries connected therewith. Can the live stock industry in the Great West make, anywhere, a better (or even as good), a showing as this? We think not. The suc- cess of the "experiment" las, really, been unparalled. And what is also gratifying to everyone interested, is the fact that there is an undoubted permanency in all this -as lasting as the extensive ranges and grass- fields of the growing states now stretching away from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean.
A great live stock market carries with it not only millions of capital, but an over- shadowing display of bewildering activity. Any one doubting the truth of this, has only to spend a few hours at the Union Stock Yards of South Omaha, to be thor- oughly convinced that such is the fact. But South Omaha does not alone feel the im- pulse-it is carried into Omaha-into Ne- braska - into the entire West .*
But to particularize: It is not alone that the stock yards proper disclose activities such as are an evidence of success. There are the many commission merchants, of honorable dealings, to aid in all that gives prominence and character to the extensive transactions carried on there; and there, also, and in the city near by, are the national banks, to help carry forward the great work. And last, but not least, we hear the busy hum of four large packing industries,} which add wonderfully to the lively scene, and to the greatness and dura- bility of South Omaha.
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