Swift was born in West Sandwich, Massachusetts in June 24, 1839. At the age of 14, he was the assistant to a butcher. He grew up to design the Refrigerated Railcar, which allowed for people to move meats around the country without them being spoiled, and in turn made it cheaper to ship meats around the country instead of shipping the actual cow. He had distribution houses around the world in places like Tokyo, Shanghai, and Manila. 18 years after he opened these houses, he died in March 29th, 1903. Gustavus was born in West sandwich, Massachusetts which in present day is Sagamore, Massachusetts and was the middle child out of the three brothers. His family owned a farm where they cut multiple kinds of meat like cattle, sheep,…show more content… He netted $10 out of the business, which he subsequently used to buy another heifer and repeat the process. A few months later he expanded his meat business by borrowing $400 from an uncle. By 1859 he had made enough money to open his own butcher shop in Eastham, Massachusetts” (RobinsonLibrary). In 1869 Swift opened another butcher shop in Clinton, Massachusetts. His store was a bit different from the norm though. He displayed many different cuts of meat and gave the most prominent spots that most customers would not request. Another difference of his shop was the level of cleanliness. It was rare for butcher shops to be clean, but it was a different story for Swift’s store. His store was incredibly clean. His schemes worked and before long his store’s annual volume was between $35,000 and $40,000, a very respectable amount at this time. Gustavus, showing that he knew what he was doing in the beef industry, decided to enter a partnership with two men to buy cattle for them. He checked around the country for the best cattle markets. At the time he had looked at Albany and Buffalo, NY but seeing as the largest market, and therefore the best market, was in Chicago, He and his family moved there in
