Lake Forest-Lake Bluff History Museum

In 1918 Wilson and Company meatpacking assets were valued at over $129 million dollars – that is over a billion in today’s money.

1930 map, showing Edellyn Farm in Warren Township.

Thomas E. Wilson with son Edward and daughter Helen at the Lake Forest Country Fair. Image source: Chicago Daily News.

Edellyn Farm pamphlet.

At Edellyn Farm.

November 29, 1943.

Thomas E. Wilson with son Edward F. and grandson Edward T. at Wrigley Field. April 20, 1949.

Thomas Edward Wilson was born in Canada to a Scottish family, coming to Chicago at age 9. Thomas started work in the stockyards checking railroad cars and counting animals. He rose quickly through the ranks. By 1916 he was running his own company with operations stretching from Canada to Brazil.

Thomas E. Wilson was the of Wilson and Company meatpacking. After a rapid rise from work in the stockyards, he was hired to take over the management of a failing meat packing company in Chicago, which took his name. Soon Wilson & Company was the third largest meat packing company in the country, behind Armour and Swift.

It is not the meatpacking business for which Thomas is remembered. Thomas was thrifty and saw any unused part of an animal as waste. Thomas used animal by-products, which were usually discarded, to instead create tennis racket strings. The company soon branched out into golf balls, sports jerseys, tennis racquets and golf bags - Wilson Sporting Goods Company, formed in 1926.

Thomas was part of a four-man partnership which purchased Knollwood Farm from the Granger Farwell family and two years later co-founded the Knollwood Club. He retained ownership of a portion of the land and had a house on Telegraph Road – the current address given as 1570 or 1590 N. Waukegan where he stayed occasionally in the summer. His main country residence, however, was Edellyn Farm which covered 2000+ acres north of Lake Bluff in Warren Township.

Edellyn Farm was named for Wilson’s son Ed and daughter Helen. He kept Scottish Clydesdale horses on his farm and raised champion Scottish short horn cows.

Thomas Wilson was an early force in the 4-H Clubs of America and is in their Hall of Fame. Below he is pictured in 1943 with 4-H award winners at the Stevens Hotel.

Thomas Edward Wilson - What Do Stock Yards and Tennis Racquets Have in Common?