Businessman. He was a co-founder of the meatpacking firm of Armour & Company. He was born the seventh of eight children whose parents were farmers and little is known of his early life. In 1865 he partnered with John Plankinton and established the New York syndicate of Armour Meats under the name Armour, Plankinton & Co. In 1867 he, along with his brother Philip Danforth Armour, entered the grain business and formed Armour and Company, which would soon become the world's largest food processing and chemical manufacturing enterprise with its headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. His company was the first to produce canned meat and also the first to employ an assembly-line technique in its factories to speed up production. The company also reduced the tremendous amount of waste involved in the slaughtering of hogs, taking advantage of the potential resale value of what had previously been waste products, such as fertilizer, glue, and pepsin. To ship meat products, the company utilized refrigerated railcars, establishing the Armour Refrigerator Line in 1883, which soon became the largest private refrigerated railcar fleet in the United States with over 12,000 cars by 1900. The company fought to keep unions out of their meatpacking plants and was successful in breaking three major strikes directly concerned their factories. Additionally, the company's reputation was further tarnished by the scandal of 1898-1899 when it was charged with selling tainted meat, providing fodder for the bestselling novel by Upton Sinclair entitled "The Jungle" which exposed the dark side of the meatpacking industry. He died at his home in New York City, New York at the age of 64.
Businessman. He was a co-founder of the meatpacking firm of Armour & Company. He was born the seventh of eight children whose parents were farmers and little is known of his early life. In 1865 he partnered with John Plankinton and established the New York syndicate of Armour Meats under the name Armour, Plankinton & Co. In 1867 he, along with his brother Philip Danforth Armour, entered the grain business and formed Armour and Company, which would soon become the world's largest food processing and chemical manufacturing enterprise with its headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. His company was the first to produce canned meat and also the first to employ an assembly-line technique in its factories to speed up production. The company also reduced the tremendous amount of waste involved in the slaughtering of hogs, taking advantage of the potential resale value of what had previously been waste products, such as fertilizer, glue, and pepsin. To ship meat products, the company utilized refrigerated railcars, establishing the Armour Refrigerator Line in 1883, which soon became the largest private refrigerated railcar fleet in the United States with over 12,000 cars by 1900. The company fought to keep unions out of their meatpacking plants and was successful in breaking three major strikes directly concerned their factories. Additionally, the company's reputation was further tarnished by the scandal of 1898-1899 when it was charged with selling tainted meat, providing fodder for the bestselling novel by Upton Sinclair entitled "The Jungle" which exposed the dark side of the meatpacking industry. He died at his home in New York City, New York at the age of 64.
Bio by: William Bjornstad
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