Philip Danforth Armour

Philip Danforth Armour Sr. (May 16, 1832 – January 6, 1901) built a meatpacking empire from a farm in upstate New York. He made his first fortune—about $8,000—during the California gold rush between 1852 and 1856 by hiring unemployed miners to build sluices. After that, he opened a wholesale soap business in Cincinnati. During the Civil War, he sold meat to the Union army and earned millions. One of his smartest moves came near the war’s end: he predicted Confederate losses would crash pork prices, so he locked in contracts at $40 a barrel. When prices dropped to $18 after the Union victory, he pocketed $1–2 million. He moved to Chicago around 1863–1865, and by 1867 Armour & Company was already based there. In Chicago, he revolutionized meatpacking by bringing live hogs into the city for slaughter, inventing an assembly line for disassembly, canning the product, and squeezing out every bit of efficiency. He boasted that his plants used “everything but the squeal.” Refrigerated rail cars—following rival Gustavus Swift’s lead—opened a national market. By 1900, his company employed 15,000 workers, and his personal wealth hit about $50 million. He also dabbled in banking and futures speculation on pork and wheat. During the Spanish–American War in 1898, the army’s urgent need for meat led to public complaints about “embalmed beef.” Armour retired in 1899 and turned to philanthropy in Chicago, funding low-cost housing for workers and founding the Armour Institute of Technology, now part of the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Armour was born in Stockbridge, New York, to Danforth Armour and Juliana Ann Brooks, one of eight children on a family farm. His ancestors were colonial settlers of Scottish and English stock. He attended Cazenovia Academy until he was expelled for taking a buggy ride. His first job was driving on the Chenango Canal in upstate New York. At 19, he left for California with about 30 others, walking most of the way. His parents gave him several hundred dollars, making him the party’s financier. In California, he hired out-of-work miners to build sluices for gold mining, earning $8,000 by age 24. He then moved to Milwaukee and partnered with John Plankinton in a grain and commission business. In 1859, he partnered with Frederick Miles in grain, then with John Plankinton in meatpacking, forming Plankinton, Armour & Company.