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History - T. M. Sinclair & Company
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Click here to go back . . .
In 1832, John and Thomas Sinclair organized a meat processing company in Belfast, Ireland. The venture, named the J & T Sinclair Company, supplemented the brothers’ holdings, which included a fleet of merchant ships. The family opened a branch in Liverpool, England, where, in 1862, John’s son Thomas McElderry Sinclair learned the family trade. Meanwhile, Thomas’s son, Thomas, Jr., moved to the United States to open an American branch. A deal was finalized in New York City in the summer of 1862. On October 3, 1862, T.M. Sinclair sailed with 22 men from Belfast and arrived in New York City at the new plant weeks later.
The Sinclairs soon began looking for a place in the American West to establish their production closer to the source of the product. David Blakely, a former New York employee of the Sinclairs, had moved to Cedar Rapids and suggested the city as a location for their new plant. Access to waterways and railroad routes, as well as the availability of hogs in the area, made Cedar Rapids an attractive option. After traveling to other Midwest locations including Minneapolis and Dubuque, T.M. expanded the family business to Cedar Rapids in November 1871.
Cedar Rapids was connected by railroad to Chicago in 1859. By 1870, the population more than tripled, from 1,830 to 5,940 people. The first Sinclair plant in Cedar Rapids was in the heart of downtown on First Street Southeast in what had been the Higgins Icehouse. By 1872, the company purchased 16 acres of land along the Cedar River, just outside of the city limits. A deal was made with the Northwestern Railroad to lay tracks to the plant.
By 1874, T.M. Sinclair & Co. was one of the first packing houses to use ice refrigeration, which made meatpacking a year-round business. During the winter, Sinclair processed an average of 3,000 hogs per day and 1,000 per day in the summer. In four years, approximately 400 people were employed by the Sinclair industry, making it one of the largest employers in the region.
The plant processed mostly pork, though a small percentage of cattle were slaughtered after 1885. T.M. Sinclair & Co. benefited from trade with England, and domestic sales were limited. Shipping firms buying pork for sailors were also a strong component of the customer base.
On March 24, 1881, T.M. Sinclair died after falling into an elevator shaft while he was inspecting the plant. His brother-in-law, Charles B. Soutter, assumed control of the company from 1881 to 1889. T.M.’s widow, Caroline, purchased approximately 10 acres of land next to her brother Charles’ home northeast of downtown Cedar Rapids. The Sinclair mansion was constructed on the site between 1884 and 1886.
After T.M.’s death, the Sinclair family continued to operate the company, which was incorporated in 1892 as T.M. Sinclair & Co., Ltd. By 1913, however, competition from Danish bacon and ham in the British market threatened the Sinclair business. In January, 1930, the Sinclair family withdrew from the business and total operations were assumed by Wilson & Co. In 1935, the plant officially dropped the Sinclair brand name.
The Sinclair family had a profound influence on Cedar Rapids. They actively recruited immigrants from Czechoslovakia to work in their Cedar Rapids plant, contributing to that culture’s prominent role in Cedar Rapids history. Their philanthropic work secured the position of Coe College and the Calvin-Sinclair Presbyterian Church.
The family home, built three years after T.M. Sinclair’s death, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, and donated by its last owner Margaret Douglas Hall to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1981. The estate, renamed Brucemore in 1906, remains a Cedar Rapids landmark.
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