Thomas E. Wilson

Thomas E. Wilson (July 11, 1868 – August 4, 1958) was a Canadian-born American businessman. In 1926, he created one of the most recognizable sports brand names in the world, known as Wilson Sporting Goods. He served as President and Chairman of the Board of Wilson & Co for 35 years.[1]

Thomas E. Wilson
Picture of Thomas E. Wilson
Born(1868-07-22)July 22, 1868
London, Ontario, Canada
DiedAugust 4, 1958(1958-08-04) (aged 90)
Illinois, USA
NationalityCanadian/American
Known forWilson Sporting Goods, Wilson and Company

Early life

Thomas Edward Wilson was born on a farm near London, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada, on July 22, 1868 to Scottish parents, Moses and Mary Ann Wilson (née Higgins). He went to the United States as a young man working as a railroad car checker in the bustling stockyards of Chicago, Illinois.

Career

Wilson spent 25 years working his way up the ranks of Morris & Co, becoming Vice-President of the packing house in 1906, and president in 1913 following the death of its founder, Edwin Morris. In 1916, bankers succeeded in luring Wilson away from Morris & Company, in order to run a failing New York-based meat packing company called Sulzberger & Sons (S&S) (Ferdinand Sulzberger, founded in 1853 as Schwartzchild & Sulzberger).[2] The company's name was changed to Wilson & Co., Inc. on July 27, 1916, and its headquarters moved to Chicago's Union Stock Yards. It soon joined Armour and Swift at the top of the U.S. meat industry. From 1916 until the 1950s Thomas Wilson built the company rapidly into one of 50 largest industrial corporations in the United States.[3] Wilson was an important influence on the branding of processed meat foods, having developed many of today's popular value added beef and pork products. Wilson & Company was responsible for introducing numerous well-known brands, such as Wilson Certified Hams, Wilson's Continental Deli and Wilson's Corn King.[4] He was an important figure in both the American Meat Institute and in the sporting goods industry. He was a leader of the national 4H program and breeder of shorthorn cattle.

In a real estate transaction in the 1920s, Wilson & Co. owned the Ashland Manufacturing Company which included an inventory of sporting goods products. The contents were offered to Spalding, among others, but finding insufficient interest Wilson decided to enter the business on its own. The company today known as Wilson Sporting Goods.[5] After Wilson's death, in the 1960s Wilson & Co. was owned (taken private) by LTV Corporation, and later the sporting goods division was sold successively to WESRAY, PEPSI and AMER GROUP.

Civic awards

In 1946 Wilson received the United States Government's Medal for Merit from President Harry Truman for his services to the U.S. economy during World War II.[6]

Death

Wilson died at age 90 in Illinois on August 4, 1958.[7] His body was buried at Lake Forest Cemetery, in Lake County, Illinois.[8]

Personal life

He married Elizabeth L. Foss on November 1, 1899. The couple had two children, a son and a daughter.

An archive of Wilson's personal papers exists at the Special Collections Research Center of the University of Chicago Library.[9]

References
  1. 10,000 Famous Freemasons from K to Z Part Two by William R. Denslow - Kessinger Publishing, LLC (September 20, 2004) ISBN 1-4179-7579-2
  2. Men, Meat and Miracles, Bertram Fowler, Julian Messner Inc. 1952
  3. Wilson & Co
  4. Meat Industry News Service, April 22, 2000
  5. International Directory of Company Histories, Vol. 24. St. James Press, 1999
  6. https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.WILSONTE
  7. "Thomas E. Wilson Dies. Meatpacker, 90". New York Times. August 5, 1958. Retrieved 2010-05-20.
  8. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/66928734/thomas-edward-wilson
  9. Guide to the Thomas E. Wilson Family collection 1850-2005, University of Chicago Library website (2019).https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.WILSONTE
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