Philip Danforth Armour

Philip Danforth Armour, Sr. was an American meatpacking industrialist who founded the Chicagobased firm of Armour amp Company. Born on an upstate New York farm, he made 8000 in the California gold rush, 185256. He opened a wholesale grocery business in Cincinnati, then moved it to Milwaukee. He made millions selling meat to the United States Army during the Civil War. In 1875 he moved his based to Chicago. Armours innovations including bringing live hogs to the metropolis for slaughter, inventing an assembly line system for the disassembly of hogs, canning the product, economy of scale and efficiency in detail. He systematically utilized waste products, boasting that he made use of everything but the squeal. The introduction of refrigerated rail cars opened a national market for him and competitors such as Gustavus Swift. Armour expanded into banking and speculation on the futures market for pork and wheat by 1900, his plants employed 15,000 workers his own wealth was in the range of

Armour was born in Stockbridge, New York to Danforth Armour and Juliana Ann Brooks. He was one of eight children and grew up on his familys farm. Armour was descended from colonial settlers of Scottish and English origin, with his surname originating in Scotland. He was educated at Cazenovia Academy in New York until the school expelled him for taking a ride in a buggy with a girl. Among his first jobs was that of Driver on upstate New Yorks Chenango Canal which ran through Madison County at that time and would have been a busy thoroughfare. At the age of 19, Armour left New York with aboutother people for California, joining the great California gold rush. Before the journey, Armour had received several hundred dollars from his parents, making him, for the most part, the financier of the party, according to biographer Edward N. Wentworth. In California, Armour eventually started his own business, employing outofwork miners to construct sluices, which controlled the waters that flo

Source: Wikipedia