Jackson County (Mo.) Historical Society

Historical Perspective

by David W. Jackson

Cattle led the area’s growth

If today’s terrorist, biological and environmental threats agitate you, imagine how our forbearers handled the hostilities of the American Civil War, which paralyzed most day-to-day operations across our country with the decimation of communities and industries.

Union and Confederate soldiers surviving the horrors of the battlefield had to subsist between skirmishes. Often fending for themselves, they confiscated foodstuffs and livestock. A scarcity of commodities after the War included beef, but sizeable herds of Texas longhorn cattle grazed in the southwest.

Getting cattle to hungry eastern markets saw the advent of cattle drives and the American cowboy, who herded longhorns out of New Mexico and Texas and up through Oklahoma to the nearest railhead at Abilene, Kansas. Cattle buyers would then load their commodities on train cars headed east toward Kansas City.

The Missouri River was the next major obstacle transporting goods from Kansas City to eastern markets. Fortunately, local promoters and politicians managed to get the first railroad bridge across the Missouri here, rather than upriver. The Hannibal Bridge was dedicated in 1869, and Kansas City steamed forward full-throttle to become the second largest rail center in the country (after Chicago). The railroad bridge and the “stampeding” cattle industry helped transform the small “Town of Kansas” into metropolitan Kansas City, overtaking Independence, though remaining dependent on it and other outlying farming communities.

As cattle from the southwest were shipped from Abilene into Kansas City they were transferred to other rails heading out in every direction to eastern markets. The holding pens constructed to transfer cattle became the famed Kansas City Stockyards . . . Jackson County’s first million-dollar industry that soon generated a million dollars a day. After the advent of refrigeration, packing houses could provide “prepared” meat-to-market.

Having overcome transportation challenges, producing better quality beef became a priority for the industry. One inferior trait of Texas Longhorn cattle was that their slender hindquarters made tough meat, particularly cuts of steak. Jackson County farmers responded to the demand for better steak by trying to breed a better bull. To protect money generated by the new cattle industry, bankers and corporate leaders began establishing vast farm estates across eastern and southern Jackson County in an attempt to be the first to develop a new breed of beef cattle.

Suddenly, livestock breeding became fashionable, and each ranch or estate competed to outdo the other. Cattle were imported from Europe and the United Kingdom and crossbred as breeders searched for perfection. Jackson County became the “Cattle Capitol” of the country.

Simpson and Gudgell, an Independence outfit, finally made the right connection with a bull obtained in England named “Anxiety IV.” Much of the beef available today is American Polled Hereford, the product of the perfect beef first sired by Simpson and Gudgell on their expansive ranch along Noland Road, south of 23^rd Street.

It’s hard to imagine in today’s sprawling Kansas City metropolitan area that cattle and agriculture were once vital to Jackson County. What happened to those huge livestock, dairy and produce farms, some of which were still in place in the mid-1960’s? Little primary documentation has yet been donated, and the Jackson County (Mo.) Historical Society welcomes additions of written historical information and original photographs that “corral” for future citizens this area’s rich livestock lineage and agricultural heritage.

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