Born on a farm in Stockbridge (now Oneida), New York—close to the Erie Canal—Philip Danforth Armour (1832–1901) was uniquely prepared to recognize and capitalize on the integration of agriculture, technology, and transportation systems. His foresight and entrepreneurial zeal made him a prototype for modern agribusiness and, along the way, changed the way Americans eat.
Armour Advertising. An advertising card for Armour Star meats.
Collection of Alice Ross
As a young man, Armour went to California in search of gold. He used the capital he acquired to open his first meatpacking plant, in Milwaukee in 1859. Business acumen was an essential part of Armour’s success. He sold barrels of salt pork to the Union armies during the Civil War—until he saw that the war was coming to an end. At that point Armour sold all his inventory at forty dollars a barrel, watched the market collapse, and then bought it back for five dollars a barrel. In 1879 Armour purchased 150,000 barrels of pork intended for foreign markets at eight dollars a barrel and then resold it in the United States for fourteen dollars a barrel. Armour learned early on to control the flow of key materials, and he became a major speculator in grain futures. He systematically eliminated his competition by cornering the markets in pork (during the Civil War) and grains, later. Recognizing that the Union Stockyards and the Chicago rail hub (which had opened in 1865 and 1870, respectively) made Chicago’s location pivotal in the transfer of goods from the Great Plains to the markets of the East, Armour relocated his operations there in 1875.
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