John W. Tyson (July 26, 1905 – January 15, 1967) was an American businessman, the founder of American

multinational corporation A multinational company (MNC), also referred to as a multinational enterprise (MNE), a transnational enterprise (TNE), a transnational corporation (TNC), an international corporation or a stateless corporation with subtle but contrasting senses, i ...

Tyson Foods Tyson Foods, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, based in Springdale, Arkansas, that operates in the food industry. The company is the world's second-largest processor and marketer of chicken, beef, and pork after JBS S.A. It annually ...

and, from 1935 until his death in 1967, its

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

Biography

Tyson was born in

Mound City, Missouri Mound City is a city in Holt County, Missouri, United States, centered near the interchange of Interstate 29 and Missouri Route 118. The population was 1,004 at the 2020 census, down from the 1,159 people counted during the previous census. Hi ...

, the son of Isaac F. Tyson and his wife Anna, née Skelly. In 1931, John moved to

Springdale, Arkansas Springdale is the List of cities and towns in Arkansas, fourth-largest city in Arkansas, United States. It is located in both Washington County, Arkansas, Washington and Benton County, Arkansas, Benton counties in Northwest Arkansas. Located on th ...

, with his wife Helen and infant son Don, hauling hay, fruit, and chickens for local growers. Tyson's career in the poultry market began when he heard that chickens were bringing in higher prices in the northern parts of the United States than in his home of

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

. Investing his savings and borrowing more, he began hauling chickens to Kansas City and St. Louis markets. In 1936, Tyson drove 500 chickens from his state to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, earning enough profit from the trip to fund another. He generated a $235 profit from his initial capital of $1,000 loan and $800 of his own money. His trips then included Cincinnati, Detroit, Cleveland, Memphis, and Houston. As his business expanded, he began increasing his independence, raising his own chicks and

mill Mill may refer to: Science and technology * * Mill (grinding) * Milling (machining) * Millwork * Textile mill * Steel mill, a factory for the manufacture of steel * List of types of mill * Mill, the arithmetic unit of the Analytical Engine early ...

ing his own chicken feed. In the 1940s, Tyson purchased a broiler farm in Springdale and began cross-breeding the high-meat yield New Hampshire Red Christy chickens with other birds, a practice that was not then standard in the industry but which proved successful for Tyson. In 1947, he incorporated Tyson Feed and Hatchery, which was active in three phases of chicken farming: supplying chicks to farmers, selling feed to farmers, and transporting chickens to market. By 1952, the year Tyson's son

Don Tyson Donald John Tyson (April 21, 1930 – January 6, 2011) was an American businessman who was the President and CEO of Tyson Foods during its rise to the top of the food business. Early life Donald J. Tyson was born in Olathe, Kansas. He attended the ...

dropped out of college to join the company as

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

, Tyson Feed and Hatchery was well established, but the field was competitive and the market was troubled. Tyson and his son considered accepting a buy-out offer from

Swanson Swanson is a brand of TV dinners, broths, and canned poultry made for the North American and Hong Kong markets. The former "Swanson Company" was founded in Omaha, Nebraska, where it developed improvements of the frozen dinner. The TV dinner bu ...

, but decided to persist instead, and by the end of the decade had built the company's first processing plant in Springdale at a cost of $90,000, $15,000 above estimates. Through 1961, Tyson and his son set about increasing revenues, entering the commercial egg business in 1961 and going public, under the new name Tyson's Foods, in 1963. John and Helen died in a

train accident Classification of railway accidents, both in terms of cause and effect, is a valuable aid in studying rail (and other) accidents to help to prevent similar ones occurring in the future. Systematic investigation for over 150 years has led to the r ...

near Springdale in 1967; Don Tyson succeeded his father as CEO of the company.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tyson, John W. 1967 deaths People from Springdale, Arkansas American food company founders Railway accident deaths in the United States Road incident deaths in Arkansas Year of birth unknown Date of death unknown People from Mound City, Missouri Tyson Foods people 1905 births