Philip Danforth Armour

Lore & Background

Philip Danforth Armour was born on a farm in upstate New York, one of eight children, and was descended from colonial settlers of Scottish and English origin. At age 19, he joined the California gold rush, walking most of the way from New York with about thirty others, and financed the party with several hundred dollars from his parents. In California, he started a business employing out-of-work miners to build sluices for controlling water flow in mined rivers, earning about $8,000 by age 24. He then moved to Milwaukee, starting a wholesale grocery business, and later partnered with John Plankinton in meatpacking, forming Plankinton, Armour & Company. During the Civil War, Armour capitalized on selling meat to the Union army, making millions. Near the war’s end, he predicted heavy Confederate losses would drop pork prices, contracting to buy at $40 per barrel before prices fell to $18, netting a profit of $1 million to $2 million. In 1875, he moved his base to Chicago, where he and his brothers formed Armour & Company, which packed hogs exclusively for its first eight years. Armour’s innovations included bringing live hogs to the city for slaughter, inventing an assembly line for disassembly, canning the product, and systematically using waste products, boasting he used “everything but the squeal.” He introduced refrigerated rail cars, opening a national market, and by 1900 his plants employed 15,000 workers, with his wealth around $50 million. He also raised funds for stranded Exodusters in Kansas during the winter of 1879–1880.

Reader's Guide

Armour’s transformation of the meatpacking industry rested on a series of practical innovations. He brought live hogs directly to Chicago for slaughter, devised an assembly-line system for disassembling them, and canned the resulting product. His operations achieved enormous economies of scale and meticulous attention to detail; he systematically used every waste product, famously claiming to utilize “everything but the squeal.” The introduction of refrigerated rail cars, following the lead of rival Gustavus Swift, allowed Armour to open a national market; by 1900 his private refrigerator car fleet had grown to over 12,000 units, all built in his own plant. His company became the world’s largest food processing and chemical manufacturing enterprise, and was the first to produce canned meat and among the first to employ assembly-line methods. Armour also expanded into banking and futures speculation on pork and wheat. By 1900 his plants employed 15,000 workers, and his personal wealth reached about $50 million. His career began with an $8,000 profit from the California gold rush, followed by a wholesale soap business in Cincinnati and a move to Milwaukee. During the Civil War he sold meat to the Union army, making millions; his most famous early coup came when he predicted falling pork prices after the war, contracting at $40 per barrel before prices dropped to $18, netting $1–2 million. In the winter of 1879–1880, disturbed by the plight of Exodusters stranded in Kansas, he raised $1,200 from Chicago businesses to aid them. After retiring in 1899, he focused on philanthropy, including low-cost housing for workers and founding the Armour Institute of Technology.

Did You Know?

• He famously declared that his company used 'everything but the squeal' from hogs.