PHILIP DANFORTH

See also:

• PHILIP DANFORTH ARMOUR (1832-1901)

ARMOUR (1832-1901)  , American merchant and philanthropist, was born in Stockbridge, New York, on the 16th of May 1832 . He was educated at Cazenovia Academy, Cazenovia, N.Y., worked for several years on his father's farm, and in 1852 with a small party went overland to California, a large part of the journey being made on foot . Here during the next four years he laid the foundations of his fortune . In 1856 he became associated with his friend, Frederick S . Miles, in a wholesale grocery and commission business at Milwaukee, In 1863 he became the head of the firm of Armour, Plankington & Co., pork packers, whose headquarters were at Milwaukee . He also obtained a large interest in the firm H . O . Armour & Co., which was founded by his brother, Herman Ossian Armour (1837-1901), and which, starting as a grain commission business, in 1868 established also a large pork-packing plant . Of this firm, the name of which was changed to Armour & Co. in 187o, he became the head in 1875, and thereafter the business made such rapid progress that in 1901 as many as 11,000 hands were employed . Besides contributing to many charitable enterprises, Armour founded the Armour Institute of Technology at Chicago in 1892 and the Armour Flats in Chicago, built for the purpose of supplying at a low rental good homes for working men and their families . He also contributed liberally to the Armour Mission in Chicago, which was founded in 1881 by his brother, Joseph Armour . At the time of his death, on the 6th of January 1901, Philip D .

Armour's private fortune was supposed to exceed $50,000,000 .