162 THE PORTRAIT GALLERY 



FROM BARNSTABLE BUTCHER TO WORLD MEAT 



MERCHANT 

 62. One of the pioneers of Packingtown was Gustavus 

 Franklin Swift. Of English descent from the earliest Colonial 

 times, Mr. Swift's birthplace was at West Sandwich, Mass., out 

 on Cape Cod. He was born June 24, 1839, the grandson of 

 Captain William Swift, a figure in both the Revolutionary war 

 and the war of 1812. Through his mother he traced to Elder 

 William Brewster of the original Plymouth colony, and to 

 Thomas Prince, second Governor of Massachusetts. Mr. Swift 

 came of a large family, eight boys and four girls, and early 

 decided to relieve the home pressure by taking up an occupa- 

 tion other than the parental one. He took the step which con- 

 trolled the trend of his later years by obtaining employment 

 with the town butcher of Sandwich. After mastering the details 

 of the business, he opened a retail butcher shop at Barnstable, 

 Mass., in 1862, and within a few months established a small 

 slaughter house. His success was such that in 1869 he went to 

 Brighton, a suburb of Boston, at that time the principal live- 

 stock market in New England, and in 1872 formed a partner- 

 ship with James A. Hathaway. The new firm prospered and 

 the headquarters were moved to Albany, New York, Mr. Swift 

 making regular visits to the Chicago and Buffalo cattle markets, 

 where he was a large but conservative buyer. In 1875, Hatha- 

 way and Swift transferred their operations to Chicago and 

 embarked in the business of buying and shipping cattle. Two 

 years later, Mr. Swift began to slaughter cattle at the Union 

 Stockyards, and with the advent of cold weather, shipped his 

 first dressed beef in ordinary box cars from Chicago to the 

 eastern markets. The economy of this method so impressed 

 him that he began to experiment with a refrigerator on wheels, 

 recognizing its possibilities in the opening of new and expan- 

 sive markets. After considerable pioneer work that drew heav- 

 ily on his limited capital, he sent the first car of perfectly 



