By MICHAEL BUSHNELL
Northeast News
May 31, 2017
Patrick Cudahy started in the meat packing business as a carrying boy for the Roddis Packing House in Chicago in 1862. Cudahy was barely 13 years old at the time. The meat packing houses typically shut down between March and October because there was no way to keep the meat cold through the summer months.
During that time Cudahy worked in tree nurseries and actually began a stone cutting apprenticeship when he was 17 years old. By the time he was 25, he had worked his way up to a superintendant position at the Milwaulkee Armour Packing house.
Three short years later, with Armour’s backing, Patrick and his brothers started an Armour-Cudahy plant in cattle rich Omaha, NE. In 1890, the Cudahy brothers bought out the Armour interest in the operation.
By the time this promotional postcard was made by the Curt Teich Company of Chicago, Cudahy had become the largest packing plant in the United States with operations in South Omaha, Kansas City, Sioux City, S.D., Memphis, Wichita, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles and Atlanta. The Kansas City, KS., plant shown here took over the operation of the Kingman Packing Company after a fire destroyed the operation in 1895. Following the plant’s reopening, hog production began to swell and the plant underwent numerous expansions.
The photo for this card was taken in the early 1920s. In March 1910, the Cudahy family was embroiled in a huge controversy when John P. Cudahy returned to his midtown home to find prominent local banker, Jere Lillis, inside. According to published reports of the day, when police arrived at the home, they found Cudahy, attired in evening dress standing over a bloody and pleading Lillis with a knife in his hand. Lillis was the manager of the Western Exchange Bank in Kansas City at the time.