June 29, 1891 – Chicago’s Health Department
files six suits against the establishment of Benzo and Pieper, a livestock
fattening concern located at the intersection of Addison Street and the north
branch of the river. Benzo and Pieper,
situated on nine acres, is typical of many such enterprises located all along
the river. The Chicago Daily Tribune describes the grounds, “In a long, low
shambling shed there are now kept eighty head of steers, though as many as 250
are at times fattened in this one building . . . rows of fattening bullocks,
standing ankle deep in filth, bloated through overeating until they can hardly
stand, and chained to one spot for five months without being able to take
exercise.” One thing that made this
particular company noteworthy was that it held a contract for removing the
garbage from “all the principal hotels” in the city with six teamed wagons
collecting refuse from the alleys of those establishments. In front of the cattle shed described earlier
stood a building with nine tanks, each holding 45 barrels. Again from the Tribune’s copy, “The garbage wagons drive alongside these tanks and
empty their contents into them. Water
from the river is pumped into the tanks until the mass reaches the required
consistency when fires are started underneath and the swill is kept boiling for
some ten hours . . . And this is the stuff which goes to put flesh on the lean
bones of scraggy steers . . “ The article points out the incredible
fattening qualities of this concoction by describing one of those scraggy
steers, “ . . . so fat, in fact, that its legs could not support its body for
any length of time, and in consequence it lay down nearly the whole time, this
proving no interference to its eating, as the troughs are so low that they can
be reached by the cattle without getting up.”
Such a bull would gain 100 pounds a month during the time it was
confined. August Benzo, one of the
owners, “a good-natured German who owns a saloon at Clybourn place and Elston
avenue” says that he will fight the cases in court. The photo above shows the same area as it appears today.
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