USA > Nebraska > Douglas County > Omaha > Omaha: the Gate city, and Douglas County, Nebraska, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 32
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PACKING HOUSES
The first meat packing was done in Omaha several years before any attempt was made to establish a stock yards. As early as 1871 David Cook began in a small way. Two years later O. H. Ballou became a partner and the firm of Cook & Ballou in 1873 packed 3,000 hogs. In 1877 Mr. Ballou withdrew and Mr. Cook carried on the business alone until a fire in December of that year caused a temporary suspension of the business. He rebuilt his packing house and erected a new smoke house and continued in business until he sold out to Joseph F. Sheely & Company in January, 1880. This firm killed about fifteen thousand hogs annually until the plant was destroyed by fire on December 3. 1886, when it closed up its affairs and went out of the packing business.
James E. Boyd began killing and packing hogs in 1872. The first year he was in business he handled 4.515 hogs. The next year the number of hogs killed was 13.546. From this time on his annual output varied. On January 18, 1880, his establishment was burned to the ground, but he immediately rebuilt on a larger scale, spending some fifty thousand dollars on his new plant, and con- tinued in business until 1887, when he sold out. The last year he was in business he packed 141,000 hogs.
J. P. Roe embarked in the packing business in the fall of 1874 and killed about two thousand hogs annually for several years. Other early packers were Sheely Brothers, Harris & Fisher, Aust & Knuth, F. Hickenstine, Joseph F. Sheely & Company, and perhaps a few others.
One of the objects of the men who organized the Union Stock Yards Company in 1883 was to make Omaha, not only a live stock market, but also a meat packing center. To carry out this object a building was erected at the stock yards for packing purposes. A little over sixty thousand dollars were expended on this building and as soon as it was certain that the stock yards were going to be a success, the company began to look around for some heavy packing firm to locate
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in the building. The firm of George H. Hammond & Company leased the prop- erty for three years on very liberal terms and established the first real packing house in Omaha. It was opened for business on May 23, 1885, with a daily capacity of 1,000 hogs and 500 cattle. The firm was afterward incorporated as the G. H. Hammond Company, purchased and enlarged the plant and carried on a successful business for several years, when the entire interests were sold to other parties.
Not long after the opening of the stock yards the Fowler Brothers built a much larger packing house than the one erected by the Stock Yards Company, but before it was finished it was leased to the Anglo-American Packing Company, which began business in November, 1885. In 1888 the company was reorganized as the Omaha Packing Company, which enlarged the plant and increased the output.
Thomas J. Lipton, the great English provision dealer, was one of the pioneer packers at the Union Stock Yards. His plant was completed in the fall of 1885, but was soon afterward sold to the Armour-Cudahy Packing Company. The coming of this company added a great stimulus to all departments of the market. The original Lipton plant was greatly enlarged and the increased buying power represented by the new concern was reflected in a better outlet for stock, which was quickly appreciated by the farmers and stockmen of the West generally. In 1890 the partnership between Mr. Armour and Mr. Cudahy was dissolved, the company then becoming the Cudahy Packing Company.
In 1887 Swift & Company built a large packing house at the stock yards and the coming of this great concern gave an additional impetus to the cattle and hog market. For several years after this no new packing establishments came to Omaha, but those already in the field spent considerable sunis of money in enlarg- ing their plants and increasing their capacity.
In the summer of 1897 Armour & Company began the erection of their large, modern packing house. This firm soon became a prominent factor in the devel- opment of a better market through their heavy buying of high grade cattle and hogs. New buildings were added and in 1915 one of the largest buildings in the history of the plant at South Omaha was erected. The improvements made by Armour & Company in that year involved the expenditure of $350,000, and included a sheep killing and cooling department, new engine room and machine shops and car shops.
Smaller packing companies doing business in connection with the stock yards are the Higgins Packing Company, Hoffman Brothers, Mayerowich & Vail, Roth & Sons, and the South Omaha Dressed Beef Company. Then there are a number of outside packing companies who buy on orders at South Omaha. Foremost among those may be mentioned The St. Louis Independent and Krey Packing Companies, of St. Louis ; Cudahy Brothers Company and the Layton Company, of Milwaukee; Sulzberger & Sons Company, of Chicago; the Evansville Packing Company, of Evansville, Ind .; Hammond, Standish & Company, of Detroit, Mich., and the H. Kohrs Packing Company, of Davenport, Iowa. The wide territory over which these orders are distributed shows the far-reaching influ- ences of Omaha as a live stock market, as well as a market for dressed meats. As stock moves eastward from the great cattle ranges, the Omaha packers have the first choice, and "packed in Omaha" is a synonym for good quality.
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WALK-OVER
VIEW OF SIXTEENTH STREET FROM HARNEY NORTH, OMAHA
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SOME SPECIAL FEATURES
The Live Stock Exchange is a voluntary association of men doing a live stock business at the Union Stock Yards, and on January 1, 1916, numbered about two hundred and fifty members. The purposes of the exchange are "to establish and maintain a commercial exchange, not for pecuniary gain or profit, but to promote and protect all interests concerned in the purchase and sale of live stock at the Omaha Stock Yards; to promote uniformity in the customs and usages at said market ; to inculate and insure correct and high moral principles in the trans- action of business; to inspire confidence in the methods and integrity of its members ; to provide facilities for the orderly and prompt conduct of business ; to facilitate the speedy and equitable adjustment of disputes; and, generally, to promote the welfare of the South Omaha market."
The Live Stock Exchange is, in fact, a medium by which any shipper, who feels that he has not received fair treatment from any member of the exchange, can have redress by simply placing his case, with the evidence, in the hands of the secretary. It is then referred to the arbitration committee, and if that com- mittee's finding in the case is not satisfactory he has the right of appeal to the appeals committee, whose decision is final. Within recent years the arbitration and appeals committees have heard but very few cases, the influence of the exchange being sufficient to assure fair dealing in nearly every case. The organ- ization occupies a handsome brick structure known as the "Live Stock Exchange." Over fifty live stock commission firms are engaged in business at the stock yards, and most of these have a representative in the Exchange Building.
Connected with the stock yards is a hotel with a dining room that can com- fortably seat 400 people at a time. Although this hotel has proved to be self- supporting, it was established by the Union Stock Yards Company, not so much as a revenue producing venture as to provide for the comfort and convenience of the shippers, commission merchants and others having business at the yards. The menu at this hotel compares favorably with those of the leading hotels, and no one has ever been heard to complain of "outrageous prices."
Government inspection is rigidly enforced at the yards and the company has provided ample facilities for "dipping" both sheep and cattle, as well as comply- ing with all the other Government regulations, thus insuring to the buyer clean, healthy animals. During the years 1914-15, when some of the large eastern markets were closed on account of the foot and mouth disease, the Union Stock Yards at Omaha kept on doing business. The company placed an embargo on animals from infected or suspicious districts and every precaution is constantly taken to keep the yards in a sanitary condition that will bear the most rigid inspection.
The officers of the Union Stock Yards Company (Limited ) for 1916 were as follows: H. J. Dunham, of Chicago, president ; Everett Buckingham, vice presi- dent and general manager; J. C. Sharp, secretary ; J. S. Walters, superintendent. Vol. 1-10
CHAPTER XVIII
TRANSPORTATION, RAILROADS, ETC.
MISSOURI RIVER NAVIGATION-THE RAILROAD ERA-A WISE SCHOOL BOARD)- GOVERNOR CUMING'S FIRST MESSAGE-THE UNION PACIFIC- CREDIT MOBILIER -CENTRAL PACIFIC-COMPLETION OF TIIE TRANS-CONTINENTAL RAILWAY- BRIDGING THE MISSOURI-MISCELLANEOUS FACTS ABOUT THE UNION PACIFIC- CHICAGO & NORTHWESTERN-ST. JOSEPHI & COUNCIL BLUFFS-CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND & PACIFIC-OMAHA & SOUTHWESTERN-OMAHA & NORTHWESTERN- FREMONT, ELKHORN & MISSOURI VALLEY-CHICAGO, BURLINGTON & QUINCY- MISSOURI PACIFIC-OMAHA BELT RAILROAD-ILLINOIS CENTRAL-CHICAGO GREAT WESTERN-MISCELLANEOUS RAILROAD HISTORY.
When Omaha was founded in 1854 there were no manufacturing establish- ments of consequence west of the Mississippi River. Those who came to Douglas County came either by water, over the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, or overland in wagons. No matter which method they adopted, the amount of manufactured goods they brought with them was extremely limited and one of the most serious problems that confronted the pioneers was to obtain new supplies. The first merchants of Omaha brought a few wagon loads of goods, but to replenish the stock by making overland trips to the nearest market centers involved consider- able labor and expense; hence, for more than a decade after the first settlement of Omaha, the people depended chiefly upon
MISSOURI RIVER NAVIGATION
Thirty-five years before the beginning of Omaha, Captain Nelson, a veteran river man, ascended the Missouri River as far as the Town of Franklin, Mo., arriving there on May 15, 1819. His boat was called the Independence and its arrival at Franklin was made the occasion of a celebration, the citizens of the town tendering Captain Nelson and his passengers a dinner, at which a number of toasts were offered. One of these was a tribute to Captain Nelson, "propri- etor of the steamboat Independence; the imaginary dangers of the Missouri vanished before his enterprising genius." The old Town of Franklin, where these festivities occurred, was afterward washed away by the constantly changing Missouri.
On May 3, 1819, the steamer Western Engineer left Pittsburgh, Penn., carry- ing Maj. Stephen H. Long and his party of topographical engineers on what was known as the Yellowstone Expedition, an account of which is given in another chapter of this work. On September 16, 1819, the Western Engineer passed
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the plateau upon which the City of Omaha now stands, being the first steamboat to ascend the river to that point. The voyage of the adventurous Nelson and the successful trip of Major Long demonstrated that the Missouri was navigable for boats of light draft and for many years the Missouri and American Fur com- panies sent steamers up the river with supplies for their trading posts and goods for the Indian trade. In 1834 the former company built and equipped a steam- boat called the Assinniboine, which made a successful voyage to the trading posts, but the next year she was burned to the water's edge, causing the company a loss of about seventy-five thousand dollars. In 1843 the Omega, Capt. Joseph A. Sire, master, went up the river supplying the posts of the American Fur Company, and the next year he ascended the Missouri with the steamer Nimrod on a similar mission. On both these occasions his pilot was Joseph La Barge, one of the best known of the Missouri River navigators. As late as 1877, while in command of the steamer John M. Chambers, Captain La Barge spent some time at Omaha, assisting in the rebuilding of the railroad bridge. He then stated that he had been on the river for fifty years, having made his first trip in 1827, when only thirteen years of age.
In 1849, during the rush of immigration to the California gold fields, the steamer El Paso was engaged for several weeks as a ferry boat at Council Bluffs, carrying the gold seekers across the Missouri and landing them near the foot of the present California Street in Omaha. William P. Wilcox was clerk of the El Paso at that time and one day while the boat was tied up on the west side of the river, accompanied by Charles M. Connoyer, took a walk over the site of the present City of Omaha. As a boy he had been a passenger on the Independence, when Captain Nelson ascended the river to Franklin, thirty years before. In 1865 he became a resident of Omaha as the junior partner in the firm of Stephens & Wilcox, dealers in general merchandise.
For thirteen years after Omaha was founded, the Missouri River was the principal artery of commerce. In 1857 there were about fifty steamboats run- ning regularly between Omaha and points farther down the river, some of them going as far up the stream as Fort Benton, Mont. Among these steamers may be named the West Wind, E. A. Ogden, T. C. McGill, D. A. January, Omaha, Watossa, D. E. Taylor, Amazon, Kate Kinney, Martin Graham, Platte Val- ley, Yellowstone, Fontenelle, Morning Star, Chippewa, Spread Eagle, Emigrant, Fannie Tatum, Katie P. Kountze, Deer Lodge, Polar Star, J. M. Converse, Monongahela, Fanchon, Kate Howard, Sultan, Prairie State, A. B. Cham- bers, Star of the West, William Campbell and Lizzie Bayliss. The last named was used for some time as a ferry boat between Omaha and Council Bluffs.
While these boats and their sister steamers were in commission the levee at Omaha presented a lively picture upon the arrival or departure of some steamboat. For a number of years the firm of Porter & Deuel, composed of John R. Porter and Harry Deuel, did a large business as steamboat agents, and John A. Horbach also did a large business in that line. The completion of the Chicago & North- western Railroad to the Missouri River in 1867 marked the beginning of the decline of the river traffic, with its romance and picturesque characters, though there are still a few steamers on the river. During the spring, summer and fall months the Julia makes regular trips between Decatur, Neb., and Sioux City, Iowa ; the Ada Belle plies between Decatur and Omaha, and on April 14, 1916,
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R. H. Manley, commissioner of the Commercial Club of Omaha, announced that arrangements had been completed for the opening of a line between Omaha and Kansas City, Mo., with the stcamer Julius F. Silber as the boat to run between the two cities. Concerning this boat the Omaha World-Herald of the above date said :
"The Silber will pull a 150-ton barge. Her captain is J. B. Neff and she carries a crew of eight men. The present plan is for the Julius F. Silber to make two trips a month between Omaha and Kansas City and to connect at Kansas City with a boat from there to St. Louis. Boats are now running between Kansas City and St. Louis. The trip between Omaha and Kansas City will require about ten days coming up and four days going down.
"The present plan of the Decatur-Omaha Navigation Company is for the Julia to operate this year between Decatur and Sioux City, Iowa. With the Julia going between Sioux City and Decatur, the Ada Belle between Omalia and Decatur, and the Julius F. Silber between Omaha and Kansas City, the Missouri River will be open from Sioux City to St. Louis. Later in the season the Julius F. Silber may be used for a short time between Omaha and Decatur to help the Ada Belle move the grain crop from the vicinity of Decatur."
THE RAILROAD ERA
The first railroad of practical utility in the United States was a short line, only nine miles in length, connecting the City of Mauch Chunk, Penn., with some coal mines. The rails used in the construction of this road were of wood, with a strap of iron nailed on the top. Sometimes these nails would work loose, the iron strap would become displaced and the engine would drop off the track. The locomotive used was about the size of some of the engines used by threshermen at the present time, and the cars would not carry over five tons of coal each. Yet a railroad even of this crude character awakened capitalists to the possibilities of steam as a means of land transportation and through their influence the legislatures of several states granted charters to railroad companies during the next twenty years after the completion of the Mauch Chunk line.
In this year 1916, when the entire country is covered by a net-work of rail- roads, it seems almost incredible that any intelligent person should ever have opposed their construction. About 1828 some young men of Lancaster, Ohio, organized a debating society and asked the school board to permit them to use the schoolhouse in which to discuss the question of whether railroads were feasible as a means of transportation. To this request the school board (men selected 110 doubt for their wisdom and sagacity) replied as follows :
"We are willing to allow you the use of the schoolhouse to debate all proper questions in, but such things as railroads we regard as rank infidelity. If God had ever intended His creatures to travel over the face of the country at the frightful speed of fifteen miles an hour He would have clearly foretold it through His holy prophets. It is a device of Satan to lead immortal souls down to hell."
This incident is mentioned here to show how some people regarded railroads less than a century ago. The railroad of today that could run its trains at no greater speed than fifteen miles an hour would neither receive nor deserve a great amount of patronage. Yet this rate of speed was considered "frightful" in 1828
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McKEEN GASOLINE MOTOR CAR The pioneer of steel railroad equipment
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by a board of leading citizens of Lancaster, Ohio, charged with the education of the young people of that city. The people of Nebraska looked upon the subject in a different light in 1855, as may be seen by the following extracts from Acting Governor Cuming's message to the first Territorial Legislature :
"One of the principal subjects of general interest to which, next to the enact- ment of your laws, your attention will be directed this winter, is that of a Pacific Railroad. You have acquired, in respect to this an acknowledged precedence; and the expression in your representative capacity, of the wishes of your constit- uents, throughout the vast extent of your territory, may have a potent influence, together with the efforts of your friends, in promoting the construction of such a road up the Valley of the Platte.
"Many reasons lead to the conclusion that such a memorial from you will be of practical efficacy in contributing to the speedy consummation of such an enter- prise-an enterprise of such aboslute necessity as a means of intercommunica- tion between the Atlantic and Pacific States and as the purveyor of a lucrative commerce with India, China and the Pacific Islands. Among these reasons are the facts that the Valley of the Platte is on the nearest and most direct continuous line from the commercial metropolis of the East by railroad and the Great Lakes, through the most practical mountain passes to the metropolis of the West; that it is fitted by nature for an easy grade; and that it is central and convenient to the great majority of grain growing states, and of the northern portion of the Union, being situated in latitude 41 degrees north, while the majority of the people of the whole country are between the 38th and 46th degrees of north latitude. It seems to me that it will be the desire of the friends of this great enterprise-one of the most prominent and important of all the measures of national development upon this continent now under consideration of the people of the United States-to act immediately in the selection of routes, and to establish a permanent policy, the details of which may be practically prosecuted in the coming spring; and I sincerely hope and believe that your legislative memorial in Congress may have its legitimate weight in the decision of a question of such momentous interest.
"In view, however, of the uncertainty arising from the sectional conflict with which the subject is surrounded, I would respectfully suggest that such a memorial should urgently, if not principally, ask for a preliminary provision, from granting which the general Government will scarcely be deterred by con- siderations of policy or economy. I refer to a proposition presented to Congress eight years ago for 'Telegraphic and Letter Mail Communication with the Pacific,' including the protection of emigrants and formation of settlements along the route through Nebraska, Utah, California and Oregon; the promotion of amicable relations with the Indians, and facilitating intercourse across the Amer- ican continent, between Europe and Asia and the islands and American coasts of the Pacific.
"The plan is substantially, that instead of or in addition to garrisons at isolated points, parties of twenty dragoons shall be stationed at stockades twenty to thirty miles apart, on a route designated by the Executive of the United States as a 'Post Road' between the Missouri River and the Pacific; that express mails shall be carried by said dragoons riding each way and meeting daily between the
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stockades, and affording complete supervision and protection of a line of electric telegraph constructed by private enterprise.
"By such an arrangement, in which every detail is subject to free competition, a line of telegraph may be opened within one year to the Rocky Mountains and a largely increased mail transported in half the time now required, and with perfect security, between the Atlantic and Pacific States; at the same time giving complete protection to the thousands who annually travel on the route, and con- clucing not only to the settlement of Nebraska, but also of the vast regions between us and our fellow pioneers upon our western coasts.
"Such an emigrant highway would afford one of the best and speediest mail lines in the world, giving efficiency to troops already in service for the purposes of protection, encouraging emigration and making a continuous series of settle- ments and cultivated farms around the stockades, between which individual or corporate enterprise will the more speedily construct the long desired 'Pacific Railroad.'
"The location of Nebraska, remote from, but intermediate between the Atlantic and Pacific, indicates the necessity of facilitating intercourse between its inhabi- tants and their fellow citizens on the shores of both oceans. It is the duty' of governments to defend life and property ; to protect and quicken communication between all portions of their domain; and this requirement is especially impera- tive upon the Federal and State governments of our widely extended Union in respect to territories where civilization is struggling for a foothold, and the farms and firesides of whose pioneers have a just claim upon the protection of a power, whose fleets are traversing every sea, for the defense of its citizens.
"Aside, too, from the direct practical blessings of such a system faithfully carried out in all its details, and its immense effect on the correspondence and business of the world, the project acquires additional importance from the fact that it will contribute to bind together states far separated and of diverse interests, in the commercial fraternity and sympathy of an inseparable Union.
"We may reasonably expect that a memorial advocating the advantages of the Platte Valley as a route for the Pacific Railroad, and urging especially and strenuously the immediate adoption of a policy similar to the above, would not be without its influence upon the deliberations of Congress."
In response to Governor Cuming's suggestions a memorial was prepared and referred to a joint legislative committee, which reported favorably upon its adoption and said :
"The Valley of the Platte is well known to the West, it being the great high- way through which nine-tenths of the overland emigration passes enroute to the Pacific. Those coming via St. Louis travel by water up the Missouri River to Independence, Weston, St. Joseph and Council Bluffs and, uniting at these points with those who come from the East, pursue their way westward by converging lines that unite in the Platte Valley at various points within two hundred miles, a little north of a due line west from Omaha, Bellevue and Florence.
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