Biography
He was born on November 11, 1863 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Philip Danforth Armour, Sr. and Malvina Ogden. 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 in 1891. They married in Mexico in 1892, and had one daughter, also named Lola.
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 strikebreakers. 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 $1.47 billion in 2010 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.
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