His ownership stake in the company made him one of the wealthiest Americans during his lifetime.
[1] At the age of twelve, he began working in a Chicago packinghouse.
[2] Hormel married Lilian Belle Gleason in 1892.
He remained head of the company until 1929, when he passed it to his son Jay Catherwood Hormel.
He died on June 5, 1946, in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 85.