Northern Packing Company Records, Grand Forks

The Northern Packing Company opened for business December 9, 1919, and processed a variety of meats, sausage products, and poultry/hog feet. The plant was located north of Grand Forks on U.S. Highway 81. The first meeting of the Board of Directors took place September 8, 1916. The company was organized by Grand Forks businessmen in part 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. The company began with high expectations, but experienced financial difficulties throughout much of its history. The company overestimated 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 when the Reconstruction Finance Corporation foreclosed on its unpaid $80,000 mortgage. Armour & Company bought the plant 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.

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