Gustavus Franklin Swift
ABOUT GUSTAVUS FRANKLIN SWIFT
American entrepreneur who headed a Midwestern meat-packing enterprise during the late 1800s.
He grew up on a Massachusetts farm and began working for a butcher shop when he was 14 years old.
He helped develop a refrigerated railroad car that allowed for the mass distribution of inexpensive beef.
He had 11 children with his wife Annie Maria Higgins.
He was employed by the same turn-of-the-century meatpacking industry that provided scandalous fodder for author Upton Sinclair .
