Patrick Cudahy

Patrick Cudahy was born in Ireland on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 1849, during the years of the great Irish famine. “They said I brought my name with me so they named me Patrick,” the founder wrote in his 1912 autobiography, “Patrick Cudahy, His Life.” Three months after he was born his family moved to Milwaukee.

Patrick was only 13 when he began working as a “carrying boy” for Edward Roddis. Packing houses closed down from March until October in those days, because there was no way to keep the meat cool. In the off months, Patrick worked in nurseries. He acquired a love for flowers and parks. When he was 17, he began an apprenticeship in the stone cutting trade; but he always returned to meat packing. Working at a new firm, he packed 250 barrels of pork each day.

In 1874, when he was 25, he became Superintendent of Plankinton and Armour. It was the largest meat packing plant in Milwaukee. His salary was $1,600 a year. Patrick advanced fast. In 1874 the packing industry turned from barreled pork to a cured meat business. The young man met the change with so much success that Plankinton gave him a one-sixteenth interest in the business. Ten years later Patrick became Plankinton’s junior partner. And four years after that, in 1888, Plankinton retired and transferred his interest to Patrick and his brother John Cudahy.

Patrick’s Family

Patrick and his wife Anna had nine children. As the Patrick Cudahy children grew into the teen years, their father had begun to think about their financial futures and, especially, who would carry on the business. He set up the Patrick Cudahy Family company estate firm, mainly for his daughters’ security.

Of his youngest son C.J. (later called John) Patrick wrote, “He has a taste for public speaking, graduated from Harvard University last year and is now at the University of Wisconsin Law School. I feel certain he will make good, for his habits are good and he has the stuff.”

John eventually headed the family’s real estate company, which built the Cudahy Tower Apartments on Milwaukee’s lake front. He served his country as Ambassador to Poland, the Irish Free State and Belgium. After World War I, John was part of the American expedition sent with British and French troops to invade the infant Soviet Union. He expressed his disagreement with this venture in a book, “Archangel: The American War with Russia.”

He went on African safaris with the Milwaukee Public Museum and helped collect wild animals for their displays, later writing “African Horizons.” Before the U.S. entered World War II and while he was Belgian Ambassador, John interviewed Adolf Hitler and wrote “The Army’s March.” At Cudahy Brothers, John was Secretary and Legal Counsel. Charles Kocourek, a former employee, also remembers him riding horses at the farm the family owned on the Cudahy lakefront.

John was killed in 1943, while riding his horse on his Brown Deer estate. His son, Michael, now lives there and keeps intact the trophy room and library that his father built. Eventually the home will become the property of the Audubon Society of Milwaukee.

Patrick decided that his older son, Michael, was to carry on the meat packing firm. “He is a cool-headed fellow, thinks before he speaks,” Patrick wrote. “A lot of deep thinking. In fact, has all the qualifications required in business... Big money can be made, provided you display good judgment in when to own property and when not to own it. One has to watch the corn crop, with which hogs are made; whether the laboring men, who are the meat eaters, are well employed the world over or not. There is manufacturing to look after, keeping down expenses, using judgment as to what kind of meat is best to make from certain kinds of hogs.”

Michael, born in 1886, graduated from the University of Wisconsin Madison. He joined the Company as Treasurer in December, 1908. He became Vice-President in 1909 and the Company’s Executive Manager in 1913. He served overseas during World War I as an officer in the American Expeditionary Forces.

Patrick Cudahy died on July 25, 1919, leaving behind his “dear old sweetheart,” wife Anna, six daughters and two sons. A third son had died as a child.

A Statue of Patrick Cudahy was dedicated in Sheridan Park, Cudahy, on April 24, 1965. His son Michael, his grandson, Richard D. and his great-grandson, Richard D., Jr., unveiled the work of sculptor Felix De Weldon.

Meat Packing a Family Affair

It is worth noting that Patrick Cudahy’s brothers also became meat packers. Michael, the oldest, and Edward, the youngest, had worked for packer Philip Armour in Chicago. He set them up in Omaha, Nebraska, as the Armour-Cudahy Packing Co. At one time it had 87 branches. Later, brother John, Patrick’s former partner, had a plant in Louisville, Kentucky.

In 1908, Michael sold his interest in the Cudahy Packing Co. and bought a 2,800-acre ranch east of Los Angeles. He subdivided the land and sold it as one-acre lots. Most of them have been broken up into small parcels. The City of Cudahy, California, was incorporated in 1960. With light manufacturing residences and commercial strip, it has a population of 24,000.

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