It is said that pork was cured and packed in barrels in Salem, Mass., in 1640, and it is certain that, about 1690, Boston did quite a trade in that line; but the paternity of the Western packing business belongs to Cincinnati. In 1818, Elisha Mills established as a packer in Cincinnati. The first drove of hogs ever received in Chicago was in 1827, but no attempt at packing seems to have been made until 1832. In that year George W. Dole packed some pork for Oliver Newbury, of Detroit; but Chicago does not figure in the statistics of packing points until 1850. The development of the agricultural resources of the Western States, especially from Ohio to the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, cheapened the cost of producing animals, particularly hogs; and attention to their production was stimulated and encouraged by the demands from Southern and Eastern dealers for product for their markets. Packing operations naturally followed in many places west of Cincinnati, more or less directly in com...
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