Patrick Cudahy

Spotted this old truck up on a flat bed on our way to breakfast this morning, so we turned around so I could get a picture. Love the orange color & the graphics on it, & I'm sure it's used in parades for advertising! "Patrick Cudahy" is a meat packing plant located in the city of Cudahy, & it advertises that it's meats are "smoked with sweet applewood"--hence the license plate!
Back in the early 1800's the land that is now the city of Cudahy was Potowatomi tribal grounds. As our country expanded Westward, the federal goverment eventually acquired the land, (read: took it from the indians) & began selling it to settlers around 1849. Patrick Cudahy was born on St. Patrick's Day in Ireland in 1849. His family moved to Milwaukee when he was 3, & later he & his brother John worked for a meat packing company in Chicago. Four years later Patrick & his brother acquired the major interest of the firm, & in 1892 moved the business to Wisconsin, building the "Cudahy Brothers" meat packing plant on 700 acres Patrick had purchased. He convinced the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad to build a depot by the plant to provide service for it's workers. The depot was named "Cudahy" in honor of Patrick, & when a town began to grow up around the depot, it became the city of "Cudahy". (I previously blipped the depot, which still stands.) He was known as a very generous man around the community, donating land for churches & schools, & building the City Hall, police station, jail, health dept. fire dept., & a library. The meat company is still going strong, & his descendants continue his example through many donations to local charities, art museums, etc.