A pioneer in the use of refrigerated railcars for the transport of fresh meat.
1838-1886 | Artist: Joseph Allworthy (1892-1991)
Impact & Accomplishments
George Henry Hammond, a pioneer in refrigerated railcar transportation, first tested his revolutionary fresh meat distribution methods at his small packing company in Detroit, Michigan. In 1868, Hammond received a patent for a refrigerator car design and soon built a new plant along the Michigan Central Railroad, in a town that would be called Hammond, Indiana.
By 1875, the George H. Hammond Co. was selling two million dollars worth of meat a year. Within a decade, Hammond’s new plant in Omaha, Nebraska, was slaughtering over 100,000 cattle a year and moving a fleet of 800 refrigerator cars.
Did You Know?
Employees at G.H. Hammond who worked in the lard refinery. Source: Moore, "The Calumet Region," p. 157.
The city of Hammond, Indiana neighboring Chicago at the Indiana state line, was incorporated in 1884 and named after Hammond who owned a large slaughterhouse, the first industry to locate in the area.