Dubuque PURE LARD Can Throwback T-Shirt

Once one of Dubuque's largest employers, the Dubuque Packing Company began with the merger in June 1891 of the DUBUQUE BUTCHERS' ASSOCIATION and the DUBUQUE PACKING AND PROVISION COMPANY. The new corporation, named the Dubuque Packing Company, began business on July 1, 1891, with a capitalization of $50,000.

In 1931 the local meat supplier was purchased by H. W. (Harry) WAHLERT and St. Louis interests from the Christian Schmitt family for $180,000 when it employed only sixty people. The new firm was incorporated for $400,000 with $300,000 in common stock and $100,000 in preferred. Harry Wahlert was the president. Growing rapidly through the GREAT DEPRESSION, largely through Wahlert's guidance, "the Pack" produced canned hams, the first American food product to be exported after WORLD WAR II.

By the 1950s, Dubuque Packing Company was the city's second largest employer. In the 1960s the company's workforce reached 3,500. Annual sales in the 1970s supported a payroll of $20 million. The end of the 1970s saw thousands of people dependent on Dubuque Pack either directly or indirectly; wages won through negotiations were among the highest paid in the city. In 1980 "the Pack" was a major force in the economy of Dubuque, one of nine cities nationwide in which the company had plants. Workers "on the line" earned an average of $25,000 in annual wages plus an additional $11,000 in fringe benefits according to company estimates. This included an average of five weeks of vacation per year. At its peak, the company's sales approached $2 billion and it had 12 plants. It was the 3rd largest beef slaughter in the United States.