Morris, Nelson (1838–1907)

German-born meatpacker. Taken to the USA as a boy, Morris came to Chicago in the 1850s and took a job at the Union Stock Yard. In 1874 he formed Morris & Waixel, which eventually became Morris & Company, one of the first packing houses at the Union Stock Yards. Later he would establish packing houses in Missouri and Kansas. He pioneered the shipping of dressed beef from Chicago to the East Coast and Europe. One of the first to import Polled Angus, he raised cattle in Texas and the Dakotas, operating one of the largest feeding operations in the world. Among his other interests, he founded the Nelson Morris Institute of Pathological Research in Chicago.