Artist: Robert Wadsworth Grafton (1876–1936)
Philip Danforth Armour Sr.
ARMOUR, PHILIP DANFORTH SR. (1832–1901), inducted by 1920
Philip Danforth Armour demonstrated strong entrepreneurial qualities at age nineteen, when he left his hometown of Stockbridge, New York, for the California Gold Rush. Seeing little opportunity in panning, he established an operation to build sluices (washing cradles), and within five years, he had accumulated several thousand dollars. Armour took his fortune to one of the gateways to the West—Milwaukee—in 1859 and launched a partnership selling fresh produce and smoked and pickled meat. Plankinton & Armour expanded the Milwaukee packing business in 1863, and four years later, he and his brothers formed Armour & Company, packing hogs at Union Stock Yards in Chicago.
Philip Armour moved to Chicago to take over the helm of the company in 1875, expanding the business to include cattle and sheep. A visionary, Armour established a network of factories to process many major by-products of the slaughterhouse—glue, fertilizer, soap, etc.—gaining strength in the market by keeping meat prices low. When the refrigerated railcar was invented, he built his own fleet. He also positioned the company to gain control in the grain trade, adding several grain elevators to Chicago’s skyline. Starting with a bequest left by his brother, Philip Armour founded a mission house that grew into the Armour Institute of Technology, a technical college providing training in mechanical, electrical, civil, and chemical engineering. When Armour died in 1901, Armour & Co. was Chicago’s largest enterprise, and the company’s national operation was one of the largest employers in the world.
Source: Saddle & Sirloin Guidebook 2026, p. 40