ELWYN B. ROBINSON DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
CHESTER FRITZ LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA
GRAND FORKS, NORTH DAKOTA 58202
COLLECTION: OGL #1236
DATES: 1916-1939
SIZE: 1.25 linear feet
ACQUISITION: The Northern Packing Company Records, Grand Forks were deposited in the Orin G. Libby Manuscript Collection by Robert Lander, Grand Forks, North Dakota, on September 30, 1991 (Acc.#91-1775).
ACCESS: Open for inspection under the rules and regulations of the Department of Special Collections.
The Northern Packing Company opened for business on December 9, 1919, and processed a variety of meats, sausage products, and poultry\hog feet. The plant was located just outside of Grand Forks, on U.S. Highway 81. The first meeting of the Board of Directors had taken place on September 8, 1916. The company was organized by Grand Forks businessmen, partly to provide a convenient place for area farmers to market their produce. H.R. Elliott, the manager of a successful packing company in Duluth, Minnesota, was chosen to be the manager of the Northern Packing Company. The company began with high expectations but came to experience financial difficulties throughout much of its history. The company over-estimated the amount of processing, and often the plant was used at only one third of its capacity. Many people living near outlying towns brought their business to the local butcher instead of traveling the long distance to Grand Forks. During the Great Depression, the plant was forced to close down when the Reconstruction Finance Corporation foreclosed its unpaid $80,000 mortgage. Armour & Company bought the plant on December 1, 1941, the same day bankruptcy was filed in Northeast District Court. Pillsbury took over the plant in either 1960 or 1961; the first reference to this was found in the 1961 Grand Forks City Directory. Armour, however, maintained a wholesale division in Grand Forks until 1990.
Sources:
Tweton, D. Jerome. Grand Forks: A Pictorial History. Norfolk,
Virginia: The Donning Company/Publishers, 1986.
Bladow, Eldon, ed. They Came To Stay. Grand Forks, North Dakota: Grand
Forks Centennial Corporations, 1974.
The Northern Packing Company Records, Grand Forks date from 1916-1939 and contain a series of correspondence, 1916-1937. Major correspondents include Hiram R. Elliott, E.J. Lander, C.W. Graves, George A. Bangs, M.F. Murphy, R.B. Griffith, A.I. Hunter, H.A. Bronson, Joseph Mahowald, and R.F. Bridgeman. The records also include by-laws, Northern Packing Company Bulletins, 1917-1919, scattered minutes of meetings, 1916-1935, annual reports, 1924-1938, financial statements, 1917-1939, and miscellaneous materials, 1917-1938.
Box 1
Folder
Return to: Business
Return to: Grand Forks History
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