The Uncovering of a Jacksonville Slaughterhouse

[Metro Jacksonville]

The Uncovering of a Jacksonville Slaughterhouse



When one hears the term "Stockyards," Jacksonville may be the last city to come to mind.  However, it played a major role in the expansion of the American meat packing industry a century ago.  Today, Metro Jacksonville's Ennis Davis takes a look into the history of a forgotten Jacksonville industrial site still standing five decades after its closure:  The Beaver Street Stock Yards and Farris & Company Meat Packers slaughterhouse.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2012-may-the-uncovering-of-a-jacksonville-slaughterhouse

[Noone]

Another piece of Jacksonville history. I'll be driving by that location soon and will stop and just think of the vibrancy that once surrounded that location. Thanks again Ennis.

[aclchampion]

Great stuff Ennis. Really love learning more about the city.

[Tacachale]

Awesome article. Good work, lake.

[Ocklawaha]

Hanging out around the stockyards will certainly clear your sinuses. Our paper mills smelled like rotten eggs, but stockyards smell like... well... you know.

[MusicMan]

Jacksonville, City of Lost Smells............................

[floridaforester]

I've always wondered what that building was.  Now I know. Kind of a foreboding place from the road.  I guess for good reason. Thanks for the story!

[rmfarris]

From my understanding and memories.... my father, Emmett Farris, was the President for the final years. My great uncle Najeeb had passed on. I was a young child, and remembering my father getting a phone call that a fire had broke out in the building. It was found that someone had tried to break into the onsite safe. They were unsuccessful in looting the safe, but the fire destroyed the offices and other parts of the interior. All the meats were ruined. We were unable to fulfill our contracts with Armour and Hormel, and were forced to close the business. I believe that was in 1965. Again, this is from memory. I reserve the right to be inaccurate.

[thelakelander]

^Welcome to Metro Jacksonville and thank you for sharing your memories.  Do you remember how may people were employed there at the time?

[rmfarris]

We had a family gathering yesterday, and the topic of this article came up. I do not know how many employees total there were. I do know that there were a number of family members that worked there, and we had a very large family. I do know of at least  8-10 family members, and in addition there were butchers, warehouse personnel, truck drivers and others. At one time, Farris and Company (or a subsidiary, Farris Brothers Meat) had a plant in Jacksonville, another in Tampa and a third in Miami. Overall, I have no clue of how many employees there were in total.

[BridgeTroll]

Read the article again and this sentence caught my eye... anyone know anything about this?

Because most of the Syrian immigrants were Catholics, they were especially visible as targets of both racial and religious prejudice in a city that had become a center of anti-Catholic agitation between 1910 and 1917.

[BridgeTroll]

Apparently Mr Claude L'Engle had a part in fomenting the agitation...

[thelakelander]

Very interesting. We rarely hear that version of why Dignan Park was renamed Confederate Park. All of this also coincides with the era where many of our early 20th century black progressives started heading North and many of the movie companies beginning to expand west. This period also saw the Florida State Senate pass a bill prohibiting all racetrack gambling, leading the the closure of Moncrief Park (the Belmont of the South). One can't help but wonder what Jacksonville would resemble today if that one decade was handled differently from a cultural/social standpoint locally.

[BridgeTroll]

apparently a newspaper called "Dixie" also...  From Wiki...

Claude L'Engle (October 19, 1868 - November 6, 1919) was a United States Representative from Florida. He was born in Jacksonville, Florida where he attended the public schools and Duval High School. He engaged in mercantile pursuits and later became the editor and publisher of Dixie, a weekly newspaper.
 
L'Engle was elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-third Congress (March 4, 1913-March 3, 1915) but was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1914 to the Sixty-fourth Congress. After leaving Congress, he again engaged in journalism. He died in Jacksonville, Florida in 1919 and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery.

A slaveholder as well...

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/clementsmss/umich-wcl-M-4315len?view=text

Biography

John Claudius L'Engle (1800-1864) was a lawyer, slaveholder, and well- known resident of Jacksonville, Florida. In 1830 L'Engle married Susan Philippa Fatio (1806-1895) from the prominent Fatio family. They had eleven children including Edward McCrady, a Confederate Captain, and Francis Philip, father of Claude L'Engle, a newspaper muckraker and U.S. House Representative.

With his eldest son Francis, also a lawyer, John L'Engle founded L'Engle and Son. L'Engle involved Francis in his business deals, and kept notes on Francis' many business transactions.

L'Engle kept sporadic accounts on food, and, less often, on household goods he purchased. He wrote more detailed notes on larger transactions and what he owed and was owed, often trading in bonds, notes, and sometimes railroad bonds. As well as being a lawyer and businessman, L'Engle planted crops and owned property which he refers to as "2 lots" and "100 acres." In addition he bought and sold many properties.
 

Collection Scope and Content Note
 

In this small 86-page account book, John Claudius L'Engle recorded many of his business transactions from 1858 until his death in late 1864. The first 27 pages of this book are filled with detailed accounts of transactions, many written in paragraph form. Mostly these pages concern lending and borrowing money, occasionally through his business, L'Engle and Son. Often these transactions involved his oldest son Frank. At least one claim against L'Engle is listed, and a few pages concern food he or Frank bought. One page lists house hold goods. L'Engle owned 15 or 16 slaves in 1860 and 1861, five of which he refers to by name as Simon, Harry, Adam, Mooser, and Clarissa. Six pages are records of renting out these slaves including information on who rented the slaves, how long they were rented, and what was paid. He only once mentions selling a slave, when in 1859 he records that he"sold Jim for $150 cash." After a gap of 20 blank pages, two pages record crops planted in 1859, including sweet potatoes, okra, corn, and "Irish potatoes."
 
L'Engle also wrote from the back of the book starting with seven pages of line accounts, then three pages which included a paid account, the wages paid to a hired worker, and more details about lending out his slaves.

[BridgeTroll]

two different L'Engles, Bridge Troll.

Dixie was the school newspaper for Duval High, and I think there are a few copies of the paper in the library as well.  Some fairly terrible poetry of the era abounds, but still surprisingly informative.

Both the L'Engles and the Fatios had been slave owning plantation families.

ah... I see... John Claudius vs Claude

John Claudius L'Engle (1800-1864) was a lawyer, slaveholder, and well- known resident of Jacksonville, Florida. In 1830 L'Engle married Susan Philippa Fatio (1806-1895) from the prominent Fatio family. They had eleven children including Edward McCrady, a Confederate Captain, and Francis Philip, father of Claude L'Engle, a newspaper muckraker and U.S. House Representative.