Benjamin P. Hutchinson, who would become one of the city's foremost grain traders, opened a meatpacking plant in Chicago in 1858. By the mid-1870s, when its several hundred employees handled 400,000 or more hogs per season, Hutchinson's Chicago Packing & Provision Co. was the leading meat processor in the United States. In 1880, the company employed as many as 1,600 people at once to produce over $8 million worth of meat during the year. By this time, the enterprise was being surpassed by other Chicago packers, such as Armour and Swift. Sold in 1890 to a group of English investors, Hutchinson's company was no longer an important packer by 1900.

This entry is part of the Encyclopedia's Dictionary of Leading Chicago Businesses (1820-2000) that was prepared by Mark R. Wilson, with additional contributions from Stephen R. Porter and Janice L. Reiff.