Hormel, George A. (1860–1946)

George A. Hormel
George A. Hormel, 1924. Used with the permission of Hormel Foods.

In 1891, George Hormel established a pork packinghouse, Geo. A. Hormel and Company, in Austin, Minnesota. As a small independent meat packer in an industry dominated by corporate giants, Hormel devised a successful business strategy that emphasized quality over quantity and innovation over imitation. By the early twentieth century, his company had become one of the largest independent meatpackers in the Midwest.

George Albert Hormel was born in Buffalo, New York, on December 4, 1860, to German immigrants John and Susanna (Decker) Hormel. As a young child he moved with his family to Toledo, Ohio, where his father opened a tannery.

The economic depression following the Panic of 1873 made it necessary for young Hormel to quit school and work in order to supplement the family income. He went to Chicago to work in his uncle Jacob “Jay” Decker’s meat market, and it was there that Hormel learned how to process and pack meat. At the age of nineteen he moved to Kansas City, Missouri. After briefly working there as a wool buyer, he returned to Chicago and eventually secured a job as a traveling hide buyer.

In 1887, Hormel saw an opportunity to go into business for himself. On a work trip to Austin, Minnesota, he learned that a customer’s meat market had recently burned. The owner rebuilt the shop, but he no longer wanted to operate the market. Hormel borrowed $500 and bought a share in the business. In partnership with the owner’s son Albrecht Friedrich, he then opened the Friedrich and Hormel meat market. The two men dissolved their partnership in 1891, and Hormel used the money to establish his own pork packinghouse on the outskirts of Austin: Geo. A. Hormel and Company.

As a small, independent meatpacker, Hormel could not compete with the big Chicago packers: Armour, Swift, Morris, Wilson, and Cudahy. Hormel, however, was in the vanguard of a shift in the industry. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, meatpacking moved away from the centralized model of terminal stockyards and processors in a single location (like Chicago) to a model of decentralized “direct buying.” In this model, small packers located their operations in small cities and purchased livestock directly from farmers, eliminating the need for large terminal stockyards. Hormel was one of the first meatpackers to use the direct buying method, but others soon followed.

In order to operate a profitable packinghouse, Hormel devised a business strategy that emphasized quality over quantity and innovation over imitation. Although he was eventually able to expand his line of products, initially he specialized in just one: sausage.

The decision to specialize in pork packing was carefully calculated. During his years operating the meat market, Homel had kept careful records of each animal processed, tracking every carcass and the pieces of meat sold from each. He realized pork had the greatest profit potential, since every part of the pig carcass could be used in some way. Sausage increased the profit earned on each hog because it utilized parts of the animal that would otherwise go to waste.

At first, Hormel oversaw every aspect of the business and did whatever needed to be done, including buying livestock, butchering animals, grading the meat—even cleaning out the hog pens. But the company grew, and by 1900 it became necessary for Hormel to hang up his meat cleaver and trade in his overalls for a business suit. The company was officially incorporated in 1901.

In 1903 Hormel expanded the plant and installed new equipment. The number of hogs slaughtered increased from 42,538 in 1902 to 134,822 in 1905. Although this was still far less than the number of animals processed by the Chicago packers, Hormel was making inroads into the industry. By the outbreak of World War I, Geo. A. Hormel and Company slaughtered over 300,000 hogs annually. The company had become one of the largest independent meatpackers in the Midwest.

When Hormel’s son Jay returned from serving in the war, Hormel turned over more control of the daily operations to him, and Jay continued to expand the company. In 1924 it reached a significant milestone in the meatpacking industry when it processed 1 million hogs annually.

New product development increased substantially. In 1927, the company introduced the nation’s first canned ham, Hormel® Flavor Sealed Ham. The introduction of new products continued in the following decade: Dinty Moore® Stew and Hormel® Chili in 1935 and what came to be the company’s most famous creation, SPAM®, in 1937.

In 1927 Hormel appointed Jay acting president of the company and moved with his wife, Lillian, to Beverly Hills, California. He died there on June 5, 1946, after suffering a stroke. His body was returned to Austin for burial.

Editor’s note: Trademarks and specified images are owned by Hormel Foods Corporation, its subsidiaries, and affiliates. © Hormel Foods, LLC

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Gaul, Anita Talsma. "Hormel, George A. (1860–1946)." MNopedia, Minnesota Historical Society. https://www3.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/person/hormel-george-1860-1946
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First Published: December 07, 2021
Last Modified: April 15, 2025

Bibliography

Dougherty, Richard. In Quest of Quality: Hormel’s First Seventy-Five Years. Austin, MN: Geo. A. Hormel & Company, 1966.

Hormel, George A. The Open Road. Austin, MN: Hormel Historic Home, Inc., 2019.
https://books.google.com/books?id=XEgEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA63

Levison, Frances. “The Spam Man.” Life, March 11, 1946.

Lund, Doniver. The Hormel Legacy: 100 Years of Quality. Austin, MN: Geo. A. Hormel & Company, 1991.

Squeal: The Hormel News-Magazine. 50th Anniversary Souvenir XVI, no. 10 (November 1941). Austin, MN: Geo. A. Hormel & Company, November 1941.

Warren, Wilson J. Tied to the Great Packing Machine: The Midwest and Meatpacking. Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, 2007.

Related Resources

Related Images

George A. Hormel
George A. Hormel, 1924. Used with the permission of Hormel Foods.
Original George A. Hormel and Company plant
The original George A. Hormel and Company packinghouse in Austin, Minnesota, 1891. Used with the permission of Hormel Foods.
Employees of George A. Hormel and Company
Employees of George A. Hormel and Company, 1896. Used with the permission of Hormel Foods.
George A. Hormel and Company delivery wagon
A delivery wagon used by employees of George A. Hormel and Company, ca. 1900.
George A. Hormel and Company
George A. Hormel and Company in Austin, Minnesota, 1910.
George A. and Lillian Hormel
George A. and Lillian Hormel on their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, 1917. Used with the permission of Hormel Foods.
Desk used by George A. Hormel
Desk used by George A. Hormel on display inside the Mower County Historical Society, ca. 1955.
Home of George A. Hormel
The home of George A. Hormel in Austin, Minnesota, as it appeared while he was alive, ca. 1920s.
Hormel Historic Home

The home of George A. and Lilian Hormel in Austin, Minnesota. The house was built in 1871 in the Italianate style, but the Hormels added Classical Revival details during a renovation at the turn of the twentieth century. Photograph by Wikimedia Commons user McGhiever, July 29, 2013. CC BY-SA 3.0

George A. Hormel

George A. Hormel

George A. Hormel, 1924. Used with the permission of Hormel Foods.
© Hormel Foods    

All rights reserved

Holding Location

Hormel Foods
Original George A. Hormel and Company plant

Original George A. Hormel and Company plant

The original George A. Hormel and Company packinghouse in Austin, Minnesota, 1891. Used with the permission of Hormel Foods.

Holding Location

Hormel Foods
Employees of George A. Hormel and Company

Employees of George A. Hormel and Company

Employees of George A. Hormel and Company, 1896. Used with the permission of Hormel Foods.

Holding Location

Hormel Foods
George A. Hormel and Company delivery wagon

George A. Hormel and Company delivery wagon

A delivery wagon used by employees of George A. Hormel and Company, ca. 1900.

Holding Location

Minnesota Historical Society
George A. Hormel and Company

George A. Hormel and Company

George A. Hormel and Company in Austin, Minnesota, 1910.

Holding Location

Minnesota Historical Society
George A. and Lillian Hormel

George A. and Lillian Hormel

George A. and Lillian Hormel on their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, 1917. Used with the permission of Hormel Foods.

Holding Location

Hormel Foods
Desk used by George A. Hormel

Desk used by George A. Hormel

Desk used by George A. Hormel on display inside the Mower County Historical Society, ca. 1955.

Holding Location

Minnesota Historical Society
Home of George A. Hormel

Home of George A. Hormel

The home of George A. Hormel in Austin, Minnesota, as it appeared while he was alive, ca. 1920s.

Holding Location

Minnesota Historical Society
Hormel Historic Home

Hormel Historic Home

The home of George A. and Lilian Hormel in Austin, Minnesota. The house was built in 1871 in the Italianate style, but the Hormels added Classical Revival details during a renovation at the turn of the twentieth century. Photograph by Wikimedia Commons user McGhiever, July 29, 2013. CC BY-SA 3.0

Holding Location

Wikimedia Commons

Turning Point

In 1891, George Hormel dissolves his partnership in the Friedrich and Hormel meat market in Austin and establishes his own pork packinghouse.

Chronology

1860
George Albert Hormel is born in Buffalo, New York.
1873
Thirteen-year-old Hormel quits school in order to take a job at a meat market.
1887
In partnership with Albrecht Friedrich, Hormel opens the Friedrich and Hormel meat market in Austin.
1891
Hormel establishes his own pork packinghouse in Austin: Geo. A. Hormel and Company.
1892
Hormel marries Lillian Belle Gleason of Blooming Prairie Township, in Steele County.
1901
Geo. A. Hormel and Company incorporates.
1921
After his son Jay reveals that a Hormel employee has embezzled more than $10 million over the span of a decade, George Hormel reorganizes and reforms the company’s management.
1924
Geo. A. Hormel and Company reaches an industry milestone when it slaughters 1 million hogs annually.
1927
Hormel turns over management of his company to his son Jay and retires in Beverly Hills, California.
1933
Hormel workers go on strike to protest mandatory insurance deductions from their paychecks.
1935
Geo. A. Hormel and Company introduces Dinty Moore® Stew and Hormel® Chili.
1937
Geo. A. Hormel and Company introduces its most famous product, SPAM®.
1946
1946: George Hormel dies of a stroke at the age of eighty-five.

Bibliography

Dougherty, Richard. In Quest of Quality: Hormel’s First Seventy-Five Years. Austin, MN: Geo. A. Hormel & Company, 1966.

Hormel, George A. The Open Road. Austin, MN: Hormel Historic Home, Inc., 2019.
https://books.google.com/books?id=XEgEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA63

Levison, Frances. “The Spam Man.” Life, March 11, 1946.

Lund, Doniver. The Hormel Legacy: 100 Years of Quality. Austin, MN: Geo. A. Hormel & Company, 1991.

Squeal: The Hormel News-Magazine. 50th Anniversary Souvenir XVI, no. 10 (November 1941). Austin, MN: Geo. A. Hormel & Company, November 1941.

Warren, Wilson J. Tied to the Great Packing Machine: The Midwest and Meatpacking. Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, 2007.

Related Resources