Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1901-01-10

semipublc affairs.
His life work was his packing,
house. which he guarded with such
! Jealous care that he would not re.
/ linuuish il to a corporation until after
the death Of his eldest son. Then, re.
signed to the end that he believed was
not very remote, he personally al.
rected the creation of corporation
whose financial standing is so firmly
rooted as to insure an indefinite con
/ tinuance,
| Mr.. Armour's death will not make
Z any change in the business interests OF
which he was the moying spirit. His
only individual enterprise is the
/ Armour Elevator company whose IN
corporation probably will follow. J,
Ogden Armour is vice president of the
/ Packing company and undoubtedly
will succeed his father as president as
| the family interests comprise nine
tenths of the $S0,0O00O0 invested
Mr.. Armour's only pretensions were
that he was a business man. He kept
out of everything that might distract
his attention from his interests. Be,
ginning as a grain merchant and com
mission broker in Milwaukee, he never
abandoned the line and ut his death
! he was the greatest grain dealer in
the world He entered the packing
business, in which he had been pre-.
coded by his brother, H. 0. Armour
who survives him, and eventually be.
came the owner of the Chicago plant
The local branch brought the name
of Armour into Chicago business in
the early COS. Today the packing house
has its branches in every important
city of the United States. Between
the grain trade and the packing trade
there was not much of a gap, The step
from the one to the other was not diff
ficult.
The packing-house in Chicago grew
in Importance and the grain business
outgrew the small city of milwaukee,
till in 1875 Philip d. Armour brought
his two interests together in Chicago,
The grain business took him into the
railroads and his financial affairs into
the banks. He was accustomed to say
that he was led insensibly by the de.
velopment of his affairs into the cor
related lines with which his name was
associated.
His Life.
Philip d. Armour was born ut
St0ckbridge, Madison county, n. Y, in
1882. His father was DanfOrth Armour
a farmer of old New England stock,
and his mother, whose maiden name
was tulane Brooks, traced her an
cestry back to the early days of the
Puritans. Married in Union, Conn, in
1925, Danfoth Armour and his bride
moved to New York and reared their
large family of six boys and two girls
in the hills of Madison county and
gave them the advantages of the edu'
cation of the neighborhood-the dis,
trict school and the academy of the
county seat.
Philip ID. ATmOur's bOyhOOd was like
that of the average country boy of
that period. He worked about the farm
and attended the school and academy.
At 20 years he was a strong, robust
young man, the leader of his associ.
ates, a shrewd trader at the store and
noted for his industry and his help
fulness to the family. He had the gold
fever in 1S49, but his services at home
were needed and the keen young
farmer, schooled by a sturdy father
learned to hold himself in restraint
before the duties of life.
Three years later in 1852, when the
other boys had grown old enough to
be of support to their father and a sur
plus of labor was apparent, Philip an
nOunCed to his father that the way
was now open for the journey to Cali
fornia and the approval Of his father
was cheerfully given to the boy who
had demonstrated strong sclfTeliance
independence, courage and self-cOntroL
In the spring of 1852 Philip was one of
a party of thirty people that left
Oneida, n. Y, and six months later the
toilsome journey over the plains was
completed and the farmer boy became
miner
Here again his industry shone out
among his fellows The best claims
had been gathered up before young
Armour reached the golden state, but
while others were fitting from place to
place hoping to make a strike the
broad-shouldered New Yorker stuck to
his claim and worked over every bit of
earth. Four years Of mining, quietly
and unostentatiously enabled him to
gather a few thousand dollars. He
returned home in 1856. He did not
boast of his earnings; in fact, he was
just as reserved about the results of
his four years in California as he was
in his latter days about a wheat deal,
The humdrum life Of a country dis.
trict in New York offered no induce.
ments to the active spirit OF Philip d.
Armour. He had seen wider hori-
zon in the world and the limitations Of
the hills Of his native county could not
hold him and again he went west, but