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National Stock Yard Anecdotes
I originally went to Longfellow school, but then my parents moved to 1631 John Street in the Lansdowne area. My came to East St. Louis in 1924 and my mother worked for my dad at Swift Packing Co. before they were married.
The Stock Yards were started in 1873 by Colonel Ed Morris in a joint venture with the Swift and Armour families. During World War I the Marcellan family in Spain began its business of buying and selling mules to the Army in Europe. Their base of operations in the U. S. was the Stock Yards. From 1960-70, distinguished gentleman could be at the yards, reigning over night security. He was armed with a huge ring of keys. He made his nightly rounds with an air of aristocracy. Timotao Marcellan was the last of the Marcellan Mule Co., finally retiring at age 80.
Through fires, floods, labor uprisings, a depression and several wars, management held a steady course, paying dividends to its faithful stockholders all over the country. Terminal markets are in decline since the rise of smaller, more modern satellite meat packing sites. Direct buying by more meat packers from the livestock producers, as well as operating their own feed lots has made fierce inroads into the receipts of all terminal markets throughout the country. This also hurt the profit margin of livestock producers since they no longer enjoyed the advantages of competitive bidding.
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