1893 Stock Certificate - Stockyards "Hog Butcher for the World" in Chicago, Illinois For Sale

Red serial-numbered authentic xxxx stock certificate issued by the Chicago Packing and Provisions Company located at Union Stockyards in Chicago and began as a meatpacking plant opened by Benjamin P. Hutchinson in xxxx. By the mid-xxxxs, when its several hundred employees handled 400,000 or more hogs per season, Hutchinson's Chicago Packing & Provision Co. was the leading meat processor in the United States. In xxxx, the company employed as many as 1,600 people at once to produce over $8 million worth of meat during the year. In the late xxxx's other major Stockyards packers such as Armour and Swift began to surpass Hutchinson's company both in size and importance.
Certificate has a dollar-bill green border and a large green underprint in the middle stating ORDINARY to denote common stock shares. Small graphic in upper left corner depicts two black and two white hogs grazing in a pen. Bottom of document contains hand-signed signatures of both the Company cashier and its president. Document produced by Western Bank Note Company of Chicago.
The Stockyards officially opened on Christmas Day xxxx as a consolidation of older stockyards scattered around the city. Known as Packingtown, Stockyards covered a huge area from Halsted to Ashland and 39th to 47th Streets. In xxxx, there were over 1.6 million people living in Chicago, the country's second largest city. Of those 1.6 million, nearly 30% were immigrants. Most immigrants came to the United States with little or no money at all, in hope of making a better life for themselves. A city like Chicago offered these people jobs that required no skill. However, the working and living conditions were hazardous and pay was barely enough to survive on.
At its peak in xxxx, the stockyards and allied industries employed 40,000 workers and processed 18.6 million cattle, hogs and sheep which produced a terrible stench, but for some Chicagoans it was OUR stench. After a long, slow descent, the slaughterhouses shuttered in xxxx.
Certificate is in Excellent condition and still has most of its original crispness. Measures 8 11/16 X 13 7/16 inches and suitable for framing.