| The Union Stock Yard & Transit Co., or The Yards operated on the south side of Chicago for 106 years, beginning on Christmas Day in 1865 and closing in 1971 after several decades of decline brought on by the decentralization of the meat packing industry. The stockyards made Chicago the center of the American meat packing industry for decades; in the early 1900s, more meat was processed here than in any other place in the world. Timothy B. Blackstone was one of the incorporators and the first president of the Union Stock Yards and Transit Company. The size and scale of the stockyards, along with technological advancements in railcar refrigeration, allowed for the creation of some of America's first truly global companies led by entrepreneurs such as Gustavus Franklin Swift and Philip Danforth Armour. The mechanized process with its killing wheel and conveyors helped inspire the automobile assembly line. Reference |  |