Jacob Conrad Shafer (from Germany),
learned the pork packing business from Peter Sweeney, eventually buying
Sweeney out. Jacob then founded the Jacob C. Shafer & Co. - Pork
Packers. Sweeney's old building was demolished and in 1870, at a cost
of $250,000, the new plant was located on Louisiana (Lexington) and Diamond
Streets (now a parking lot). It was noted for its 4-floor cellar depth
for curing meat and its four floors above ground, as well as an adjacent
curing plant on Clay St., both buildings connected by a tunnel. It
had mechanical refrigeration, and advances in storing and handling meat,
and was known in the trade as the "showplace of the East." There were
three articles and photos in the Sun (1940, 1951, 1986) regarding the "Meat-Packing
Plant's Four Floors of Cellar," the "Shafer's, Sweeney's Dispute - Origin
of Tunnels," and the "Caverns of Greene St.," respectively.
Jacob Conrad Shafer is the great grandfather of the submitter Mary Bahr
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