George W. Dole (February 29, 1800 – April 14, 1860) was a businessman and early settler of Chicago. He has been dubbed Chicago's "father of the provisions, shipping and elevator business. Dole opened Chicago's first grocery store and started the city's meatpacking industry. He also ran a trading house that was a charter member of the

Chicago Board of Trade The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), established on April 3, 1848, is one of the world's oldest futures and options exchanges. On July 12, 2007, the CBOT merged with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) to form CME Group. CBOT and three other excha ...

. A member of the Whig and later Republican parties, Dole also served as the

postmaster of Chicago A a post office was first established in Chicago on March 8, 1831, with Johnathan N. Baily, a fur trader, being appointed Chicago's first postmaster. Chicago was long the hub of the Railway Mail Service of the United States. Chicago saw particular ...

, a member of the Chicago Board of Water Commissioners, a town trustee of Chicago, and ran as the Whig Party nominee for

mayor of Chicago The mayor of Chicago is the chief executive of city government in Chicago, Illinois, the third-largest city in the United States. The mayor is responsible for the administration and management of various city departments, submits proposals and r ...

in the

March 1844 Chicago mayoral election The 1844 Chicago mayoral elections is the first of only two instances in which a Chicago mayoral election was declared invalid (the other being the disputed April 1876 mayoral election). As a result of the Common Council declaring the result ...

Early life

George Washington Dole was born in Troy,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. He was the son of James Dole, who had fought in the American Revolutionary War. Dole was raised in Troy. He attended school and he lived with his parents until he turned 18, at which time traveled out west. After traveling by public conveyances to Auburn, New York, Dole went by foot to Buffalo, New York. With meager means but a strong work ethic, Dole worked his passage on a

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to Detroit, Michigan. He then traveled to

Pontiac, Michigan Pontiac ( ') is a city in and the county seat of Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 61,606. A northern suburb of Metro Detroit, Pontiac is about northwest of Detroit. Founde ...

(at the time a frontier trading post where a brother of his resided). He found little work in Pontiac except for employment on a monthly basis at a farm nearby. He lived in Pontiac for several years. With the labor combined with the weather of Pontiac proving harmful to his health, he returned to Detroit where he began working for the general trader Oliver Newberry. Newberry soon trusted Dole enough to send him to run one of his outpost stores at a settlement further inland.

Life and career in Chicago

Newberry, impressed with Dole, sent him to Chicago to run the Sutler's store at Fort Dearborn. Dole arrived at the settlement, as it was at the time—having a population of fewer than two hundred people—in 1831, the same year that Cook County, Illinois was established, settling at

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. He and fellow-Wolf Point resident, R. A. Kinzie, were the only two merchants in the city at this time. In Chicago, Dole was a member of the Episcopal Church of the United States, attending St James church.

Business

Dole opened the first grocery store in Chicago. It was located at Dearborn Street and Water Street. This area would later become the site of the city's wholesale market. Dole created the first slaughterhouse in Chicago, processing 150 head a day by 1833. That year Newberry would send beef and hides produced by Dole to eastern US markets, Chicago's first such shipment. From this beginning, Dole is credited with the establishment of the meat packing industry in Chicago, which would later grow into a long-term major industry for the city. Dole also, in partnership with

John H. Kinzie John Harris Kinzie (July 7, 1803 – June 19, 1865) was a prominent figure in Chicago politics during the 19th century. He served as the president of the Board of Trustees of Chicago when it was still a town and thrice unsuccessfully ran for Chic ...

, built the city's first

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. Newberry would, in 1835, make Dole a partner of his trading house, which was renamed Newberry & Dole. After Newberry retired, Dole partnered with his nephews George F. Rumsey and Julian Sidney Rumsey to reform the house as Dole, Rumsey & Co. The company was one of the charter members of the

. This partnership continued for six years until Dole retired on January 1, 1853. The house was then known as Rumsey Bros & Co., until it ceased operations in 1891.

Public offices and community roles

Rumsey was one of the incorporators of Chicago when it became a town on August 5, 1833. Five days later, Dole was elected to the town's inaugural board of Trustees along with Madore B. Beaubien, E. S. Kimberly, John Miller, and

Thomas Jefferson Vance Owen Thomas Jefferson Vance Owen (April 5, 1801 – October 15, 1835) was an American settler who was the first president of the Board of Trustees of the Town of Chicago. Owen was born in Kentucky and emigrated to Kaskaskia, Illinois, with his fathe ...

. On September 3, 1833, Rumsey was appointed the board's inaugural treasurer. Dole also served on the Chicago Board of Water Commissioners. He was an elected trustee of the Chicago Orphan Asylum. Dole was the director of the first state bank of Illinois and helped to organize the Chicago Board of Trade. He served as the

in the early 1850s.

In politics

Dole was a member of the Whig Party, and later the

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. He was the unsuccessful Whig nominee in the

, losing very narrowly. The election result was voided by the Chicago Common Council, which claimed that there had been

electoral fraud Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share of ...

by the Democratic Party. Dole did not run in the subsequent April do-over election, however. Dole was an early and active member of the free Kansas movement, and became the treasurer of a national committee for the cause. Millard Fillmore appointed Dole as

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of Chicago during his presidency.

Later life and death

Near the end of his life, Dole lost the significant sum of $80,000 by investing in a real estate deal that a friend had assured him would be a guaranteed success for him, greatly diminishing his personal financial wealth. He died at the age of 60 on April 13, 1860, at his home.