Grain Trade
Leiter's Corner that Armour Breaks with Goose Island Elevators
Philip Armour used his tremendous grain storage capacity on Goose Island and across the country to break another attempted corner on the wheat market in 1897-98. His adversary in 1897 was Joseph Leiter, the son of Levi Z. Leiter, a successful Chicago merchant. Armour even hired tugboats to keep the water open in the Duluth harbor until grain vessels could bring the wheat to Chicago.
Leiter's Debts when Armour Breaks his Corner
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Joseph Leiter lost between $5 and $10 million on his lost wheat corner in 1898. His father covered most of his debts, as seen here from Levi Z. Leiter's account book and from two checks the elder Leiter wrote to cover the debts. The account book also lists checks to: Pullman Palace Car Company, American National Bank, Merchants National Bank, Marshall Field, and the Northern Trust Bank.
See also: Commodities Markets; Business of Chicago
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