J. Ogden Armour
Encyclopedia
Jonathan Ogden Armour was an American
meatpacking
magnate in Chicago
, and owner and president of Armour and Company
. During his tenure as president, Armour & Co. expanded nationwide and overseas, growing from a small regional meatpacker to one of the largest food products companies in the United States.
to Malvina B. and Philip Danforth Armour, Sr. He was the couple's first child; a brother, Philip Danforth Armour, Jr., followed. The year he was born, his father became a partner in the meatpacking firm of Plakington & Armour. The family moved to Chicago in 1865. In 1867, Armour's father decided to move the company's primary meatpacking operations from Milwaukee to Chicago. His business partner disagreed, and sold his interest in the company to the senior Armour. The firm moved, and changed its name to Armour & Co.
Armour attended Yale University
, but dropped out in his senior year in order to assist his father with the family company. He became a partner in the firm in 1884.
He met the former Lola Sheldon (she later used the name "Lolita") in 1891. They married in Mexico
in 1892, and had one daughter, also named Lolita.
As his father's health declined, he took over more and more responsibility for the direction of Armour & Co. His younger brother, Philip, Jr., died in 1900. J. Ogden Armour took over as company president in 1901. During his tenure, sales skyrocketed from $200 million to $1 billion.
In July 1904, the year after Armour took over the company, the Amalgamated Meat Cutters
struck all meatpackers in Chicago. Armour and the other employers broke the union by hiring thousands of unemployed African American
strikebreaker
s. The hiring of the strikebreakers provoked a riot involving 4,000 union members and their families on August 19, 1904. The strike collapsed in mid-September. Social reformer Jane Addams
met personally with Armour to secure a contract which helped the union survive.
In 1911, Armour and nine other meatpackers were sued by the federal government for violations of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Armour convinced the other owners to let the case go to the jury without offering a defense; Armour and the other meatpackers were acquitted.
To finance the company's growth during World War I
, Armour sold $60 million in bonds
to the public in 1917. These bonds were converted to stock in 1919, making Armour & Co. one of the first publicly-traded meatpacking firms.
In the post-war slump, Armour & Co. sales collapsed and the company went $144 million in debt. Armour lost most of his family fortune—at $100 million (about $1 billion in 2007 dollars), then the second-largest in the world—in the downturn. The company lost $125 million between 1919 and 1921. Armour, owner of $100 million in stock, suffered the most. During the worst period, Armour lost a million dollars a day for 130 days. He was unable to reinvigorate the company, and was ousted as president in 1923. His successor was F. Edson White.
, England
, and fell ill with typhoid and then pneumonia
. As his condition worsened, he was attended by Lord Dawson of Penn
, personal physician to King George V
. Armour died of heart failure at 4:30 p.m. London time on August 16, 1927. He had less than $25,000 in cash in his accounts, although his stock holdings in the Universal Oil Products Company were estimated at $3 million.
and the Metropolitan Street Railway, also of Kansas City
. He sold his interests in both companies in 1923. He was also a significant investor in the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway and the Illinois Central Railroad
.
He was a co-owner of the Armour Grain Company. During a market panic on the Chicago Board of Trade
in August 1914, he helped avoid a spike in wheat prices by selling hundreds of thousands of bushels of grain.
In 1901, the same year he took over Armour & Co., Armour donated $1 million to the Armour Institute
, the college his father had founded. Additionally, he was a founding director of the South Shore Country Club in Chicago.
In 1909 he was silent partner for Frederick Gilmer Bonfils
and Harry Heye Tammen in the purchase of the Kansas City Post
.
Armour played a role in aviation history when he bankrolled the pioneering transcontinental flight of Cal Rodgers
. Armour used the flight to promote the introduction of a grape-flavored soda called Vin Fiz. The plane, and its accompanying railroad cars, were painted with Vin Fiz logos.
Armour built an Italian-style estate on 1,200 acres (4.9 km) of farmland at Mellody Farms in Lake Forest
, Illinois
, in 1908. The estate was designed for his daughter, who was crippled as a child. This former estate is now part of the campus of Lake Forest Academy
.
J. Ogden Armour wrote two books: The Packers, the Private Car Lines, and the People in 1906 and Business Problems of the War in 1917.
's classic novel, The Jungle
. The 1904 strike against Armour & Co. figures in the novel's plot.
Armour and Mellody Farms appear (under pseudonyms) in Arthur Meeker, Jr.
's1949 social satire Prairie Avenue. The novel is about the foibles of wealthy Chicagoans and their move away from Chicago's South Side
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
meatpacking
Meat packing industry
The meat packing industry handles the slaughtering, processing, packaging, and distribution of animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep and other livestock...
magnate in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, and owner and president of Armour and Company
Armour and Company
Armour & Company was an American slaughterhouse and meatpacking company founded in Chicago, Illinois, in 1867 by the Armour brothers, led by Philip Danforth Armour. By 1880, the company was Chicago's most important business and helped make the city and its Union Stock Yards the center of the...
. During his tenure as president, Armour & Co. expanded nationwide and overseas, growing from a small regional meatpacker to one of the largest food products companies in the United States.
Biography
He was born on November 11, 1863 in Milwaukee, WisconsinMilwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...
to Malvina B. and Philip Danforth Armour, Sr. He was the couple's first child; a brother, Philip Danforth Armour, Jr., followed. The year he was born, his father became a partner in the meatpacking firm of Plakington & Armour. The family moved to Chicago in 1865. In 1867, Armour's father decided to move the company's primary meatpacking operations from Milwaukee to Chicago. His business partner disagreed, and sold his interest in the company to the senior Armour. The firm moved, and changed its name to Armour & Co.
Armour attended Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, but dropped out in his senior year in order to assist his father with the family company. He became a partner in the firm in 1884.
He met the former Lola Sheldon (she later used the name "Lolita") in 1891. They married in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
in 1892, and had one daughter, also named Lolita.
As his father's health declined, he took over more and more responsibility for the direction of Armour & Co. His younger brother, Philip, Jr., died in 1900. J. Ogden Armour took over as company president in 1901. During his tenure, sales skyrocketed from $200 million to $1 billion.
In July 1904, the year after Armour took over the company, the Amalgamated Meat Cutters
Amalgamated Meat Cutters
The Amalgamated Meat Cutters , officially the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America, was a labor union that represented retail butchers and packinghouse workers.-History:...
struck all meatpackers in Chicago. Armour and the other employers broke the union by hiring thousands of unemployed African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
strikebreaker
Strikebreaker
A strikebreaker is a person who works despite an ongoing strike. Strikebreakers are usually individuals who are not employed by the company prior to the trade union dispute, but rather hired prior to or during the strike to keep the organisation running...
s. The hiring of the strikebreakers provoked a riot involving 4,000 union members and their families on August 19, 1904. The strike collapsed in mid-September. Social reformer Jane Addams
Jane Addams
Jane Addams was a pioneer settlement worker, founder of Hull House in Chicago, public philosopher, sociologist, author, and leader in woman suffrage and world peace...
met personally with Armour to secure a contract which helped the union survive.
In 1911, Armour and nine other meatpackers were sued by the federal government for violations of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Armour convinced the other owners to let the case go to the jury without offering a defense; Armour and the other meatpackers were acquitted.
To finance the company's growth during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Armour sold $60 million in bonds
Bond (finance)
In finance, a bond is a debt security, in which the authorized issuer owes the holders a debt and, depending on the terms of the bond, is obliged to pay interest to use and/or to repay the principal at a later date, termed maturity...
to the public in 1917. These bonds were converted to stock in 1919, making Armour & Co. one of the first publicly-traded meatpacking firms.
In the post-war slump, Armour & Co. sales collapsed and the company went $144 million in debt. Armour lost most of his family fortune—at $100 million (about $1 billion in 2007 dollars), then the second-largest in the world—in the downturn. The company lost $125 million between 1919 and 1921. Armour, owner of $100 million in stock, suffered the most. During the worst period, Armour lost a million dollars a day for 130 days. He was unable to reinvigorate the company, and was ousted as president in 1923. His successor was F. Edson White.
Death
Armour retired to California. In the summer of 1927, he traveled to LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, and fell ill with typhoid and then pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
. As his condition worsened, he was attended by Lord Dawson of Penn
Bertrand Dawson, 1st Viscount Dawson of Penn
Bertrand Edward Dawson, 1st Viscount Dawson of Penn, GCVO, KCB, KCMG, PC, FRCP was a physician to the British Royal Family and President of the Royal College of Physicians.-Early life and education:...
, personal physician to King George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
. Armour died of heart failure at 4:30 p.m. London time on August 16, 1927. He had less than $25,000 in cash in his accounts, although his stock holdings in the Universal Oil Products Company were estimated at $3 million.
Other interests
Armour also owned the Kansas City Power & Light CompanyGreat Plains Energy
Great Plains Energy Incorporated is a holding company based in Kansas City, Missouri that owns electric utility Kansas City Power and Light Company and Strategic Energy, LLC, an energy management company....
and the Metropolitan Street Railway, also of Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
. He sold his interests in both companies in 1923. He was also a significant investor in the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway and the Illinois Central Railroad
Illinois Central Railroad
The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, is a railroad in the central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois with New Orleans, Louisiana and Birmingham, Alabama. A line also connected Chicago with Sioux City, Iowa...
.
He was a co-owner of the Armour Grain Company. During a market panic on the Chicago Board of Trade
Chicago Board of Trade
The Chicago Board of Trade , established in 1848, is the world's oldest futures and options exchange. More than 50 different options and futures contracts are traded by over 3,600 CBOT members through open outcry and eTrading. Volumes at the exchange in 2003 were a record breaking 454 million...
in August 1914, he helped avoid a spike in wheat prices by selling hundreds of thousands of bushels of grain.
In 1901, the same year he took over Armour & Co., Armour donated $1 million to the Armour Institute
Illinois Institute of Technology
Illinois Institute of Technology, commonly called Illinois Tech or IIT, is a private Ph.D.-granting university located in Chicago, Illinois, with programs in engineering, science, psychology, architecture, business, communications, industrial technology, information technology, design, and law...
, the college his father had founded. Additionally, he was a founding director of the South Shore Country Club in Chicago.
In 1909 he was silent partner for Frederick Gilmer Bonfils
Frederick Gilmer Bonfils
Frederick Gilmer Bonfils , U.S. publisher who made the Denver Post into one of the largest newspapers in the United States....
and Harry Heye Tammen in the purchase of the Kansas City Post
Kansas City Journal-Post
The Kansas City Journal-Post was a newspaper in Kansas City, Missouri from 1854 to 1942 which was the oldest newspaper in the city when it folded....
.
Armour played a role in aviation history when he bankrolled the pioneering transcontinental flight of Cal Rodgers
Calbraith Perry Rodgers
Calbraith Perry Rodgers was an American pioneer aviator. He made the first transcontinental airplane flight across the U.S. from September 17, 1911 to November 5, 1911, with dozens of stops, both intentional and accidental...
. Armour used the flight to promote the introduction of a grape-flavored soda called Vin Fiz. The plane, and its accompanying railroad cars, were painted with Vin Fiz logos.
Armour built an Italian-style estate on 1,200 acres (4.9 km) of farmland at Mellody Farms in Lake Forest
Lake Forest, Illinois
Lake Forest is an affluent city located in Lake County, Illinois, United States. The city is south of Waukegan along the shore of Lake Michigan, and is a part of the Chicago metropolitan area and the North Shore. Lake Forest was founded around Lake Forest College and was laid out as a town in...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, in 1908. The estate was designed for his daughter, who was crippled as a child. This former estate is now part of the campus of Lake Forest Academy
Lake Forest Academy
Lake Forest Academy is a college preparatory boarding and day school for grades 9 through 12 located on the North Shore in Lake Forest, Illinois, United States. As of the 2008-2009 school year, students at Lake Forest Academy come from 20 states and 28 countries. The current Head of School is Dr....
.
J. Ogden Armour wrote two books: The Packers, the Private Car Lines, and the People in 1906 and Business Problems of the War in 1917.
In popular culture
Armour was the inspiration for one of the meatpacking plant owners in Upton SinclairUpton Sinclair
Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. , was an American author who wrote close to one hundred books in many genres. He achieved popularity in the first half of the twentieth century, acquiring particular fame for his classic muckraking novel, The Jungle . It exposed conditions in the U.S...
's classic novel, The Jungle
The Jungle
The Jungle is a 1906 novel written by journalist Upton Sinclair. Sinclair wrote the novel with the intention of portraying the life of the immigrant in the United States, but readers were more concerned with the large portion of the book pertaining to the corruption of the American meatpacking...
. The 1904 strike against Armour & Co. figures in the novel's plot.
Armour and Mellody Farms appear (under pseudonyms) in Arthur Meeker, Jr.
Arthur Meeker, Jr.
Arthur Meeker, Jr. was an American novelist and journalist.Meeker was born in Chicago to a prominent, wealthy family on November 3,1902. He had three sisters. His father retired from his position as an executive with Armour & Co. in 1928 and died in 1946. His mother Grace Murray Meeker died in 1948...
's1949 social satire Prairie Avenue. The novel is about the foibles of wealthy Chicagoans and their move away from Chicago's South Side
South Side (Chicago)
The South Side is a major part of the City of Chicago, which is located in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Much of it has evolved from the city's incorporation of independent townships, such as Hyde Park Township which voted along with several other townships to be annexed in the June 29,...
.
Quotes
- "I lost money so fast, I didn't think it was possible."
- "I have had some of the finest friendships any man ever had, although mine probably have been the most expensive friends anyone ever enjoyed. My friends have cost me a great deal of money, yet there is not one of them whom I can hate for it."
- "I don't suppose I shall ever be happy. Perhaps no one ever is. But the thing that would make me happiest just now would be to know that I could get roaring drunk and wander about the loopChicago LoopThe Loop or Chicago Loop is one of 77 officially designated Chicago community areas located in the City of Chicago, Illinois. It is the historic commercial center of downtown Chicago...
for two days without anyone paying any attention to me."
Further reading
- Barrett, James R. Work and Community in the Jungle: Chicago's Packing-House Workers, 1894-1922. Champaign, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1990. ISBN 0252013786
- Coventry, Kim; Meyer, Daniel; and Miller, Arthur H. Classic Country Estates of Lake Forest: Architecture and Landscape Design 1856-1940. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2003. ISBN 0393730999
- "Death of Armour." Time. August 29, 1927.
- Downey, Sarah. "Old Glory." Chicago Magazine. April 2006.
- Lebow, Eileen F. Cal Rodgers and the Vin Fiz: The First Transcontinental Flight. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989. ISBN 087474704X
- Leech, Harper. Armour and His Times. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1971. ISBN 0836966570
- Mather, O.A. "Armour A Leader In Vast Growth of Meat Packing." Chicago Daily Tribune. August 17, 1927.
- Meeker, Arthur. Prairie Avenue. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1949.
- Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. New Sub ed. (uncensored original edition). Tucson, Ariz.: Sharp Press, 2003. ISBN 1884365302
- Steele, John. "J. Ogden Armour, Dead in London, to Be Buried Here." Chicago Daily Tribune. August 17, 1927.
- "Stockyards Meeting." Time. September 11, 1933.