The Irish-born Cudahy brothers started working in the Milwaukee meat business in the early 1860s; there they met Philip Armour, whom they followed to Chicago during the 1870s. In the years that followed, the Cudahys operated small packing plants in Chicago. In 1887, with Armour's backing, Michael Cudahy and his brothers started an Armour-Cudahy packing plant in Omaha, Nebraska. The Cudahy Packing Co. was created in 1890, when Michael bought Armour's interest. Over the next 30 years, the company added branches across the country, including a cleaning products plant at East Chicago, Indiana, built in 1909. In 1911, the company's headquarters were transferred from Omaha to Chicago. By the mid-1920s, Cudahy was one of the nation's leading food companies, with over $200 million in annual sales and 13,000 employees around the country. Although it was hard hit by the Great Depression, the company still employed about 1,000 Chicago-area residents during the mid-1930s. Following World War II, the company moved its headquarters first to Omaha and, in 1965, to Phoenix, where it took the name Cudahy Co. During the 1970s, after it was purchased by General Host, Cudahy was dismantled.

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.