Native Americans have long been given credit for originating the salt-and hardwood-smoked dry cured Smithfield Ham. Every culture develops methods of curing food to prevent deterioration. The English who settled here brought with them some of these methods and undoubtedly acquired new ones from the Indians. Whatever the origins of the cure, the Smithfield ham is a ham that keeps indefinitely without refrigeration.
1779 Was the earliest recorded sale of hams from Smithfield. Capt. Mallory Todd had been in the shipping business and made his home in Smithfield on Main Street. In 1779, he was shipping hams to St. Estates in the West Indies.
1786 Capt. Todd built a packinghouse near the river in Smithfield. The wooden structure was home to the Todd Ham Company for 120 years.
1870 P.D. Gwaltney moved to Smithfield from Surry and formed a partnership with his cousin, O.G. Delk, known as Gwaltney and Delk. It is this retail mercantile business selling cured and smoked hams that successfully produced a fine smoked ham known as the "Smithfield Ham."
1875 Mr. Gwaltney retained the store, smokehouse, shed, and wharf property. His business was known as "P.D. Gwaltney & Co."
1879 Joseph W. Luter was born.
1880 The partnership known as "Gwaltney, Chapman and Company" was formed. After the partnership with Chapman ended, P.D. Gwaltney and P.D. Gwaltney, Jr., went into business together. P.D. Gwaltney, Jr., 21 years of age, was to operate the business in the wharf area.
1886 A billing invoice identified P.D. Gwaltney and Sons as dealers in groceries, dry goods, and general merchandising with fertilizer and fine Smithfield Hams as "specialties."
1889 Brands for V.W. Joyner & Co. advertised in The Smithfield Times claimed that the company was established in 1889 as curers and packers of Smithfield Hams, Smithfield Breast, Smithfield Bacon, Smithfield Jowls, Smithfield Smoked Sausage, and Purest Smithfield Lard.
1897 The great grandson of Captain Mallory Todd, Tazewell T. Spratley, joined the E.M. Todd Co. of Smithfield.
1902 P.D. Gwaltney, Jr., had kept a ham cured for 20 years. Gwaltney had the ham insured for $1,000 against fire or theft. Gwaltney's famous ham can be viewed in the Isle of Wight Museum celebrating its "100th Birthday" in 2002. It was advertised as the "World's Oldest Smithfield Ham."
1906 P.D. Gwaltney, Jr. & Co. modernized its curing and smoking buildings, which were behind the store on Commerce Street. The plant known as "Plant 1" doubled the size of the plant. At this time, Smithfield Hams were selling for 19 1/2 cents per pound.
1907 Federal Inspection of meat started.
1907 Capt. Mallory Todd retired and made arrangements to leave the management of the Todd Ham Company to his son-in-law, Tazewell T. Spratley. The contract read that in consideration of the services rendered by Spratley as the manager of the pork and ham packing business, he was to have in compensation one half of the net profits of his business, E.M. Todd Co., for the year ended October 1, 1907. Spratley was curing at least 12,000 hams a year under the Todd family brand.
1907 By November the new business—Tazewell T. Spratley Co.—was using its own letterhead paper. All hams were branded T.T.S., and the letterhead showed a ham with the brand as well as a shaggy, longhaired razorback hog.
1912 P.D. Gwaltney, Jr. & Co. bought land behind the store from Thomas Purdie in order to expand the curing and smoking facilities. The price of Smithfield hams was now 23 cents a pound and bacon sold for 16 cents a pound.
1919 P.D. Gwaltney, Jr. & Co. sold over 295,000 pounds of smoked pork products, including 164,000 pounds of Smithfield Hams.
1920 The Smithfield Ham Corporation was formed in November by John D. Wilson. Wilson advertised "the meat for Epicures; Smithfield hams, shoulders, breast and breakfast bacon." Mr. Wilson had a general store on Main Street.
1923 The Smithfield Times ran an article about the Virginia Ham Co., Inc. The company was the packer and distributor of "Ole Virginia's Choicest Smithfield Hams." Jack Grimes was the manager and Mr. Raymond Batten was president.
1923 The Smithfield Times special edition ran the ad for the T.T. Spratley Co. Proprietor Robert A. Cox stressed that they were the "Packers and curers of genuine razor-back hams with absolutely nothing but native meat cured." Mr. Robert A. Cox was promoting the genuine razorback peanut-fed hogs.
1925 James Creasap Sprigg, Jr., became owner in October of The Smithfield Company, Inc. Sprigg, in the ham business for 55 years, was the founder of the company, Smithfield Ham and Products, and the innovator of cooked Smithfield Ham Products, a mail order business.
1925 First quarter of the 20th century saw a rapid growth in the Smithfield meat industry.
1926 Swift & Co. bought V.W. Joyner & Co. Immediately the new owners set about upgrading the buildings with a new addition to the smokehouse that made it twice its original width. An automatic sprinkler system was installed to prevent fires from destroying the building.
1926 The Pocahontas Packing Corporation applied for its certificate of incorporation on March 4. It planned to conduct an abattoir, or slaughterhouse, and packing plant for the preparation of beef, pork, and lamb, and to manufacture fertilizer, prepare hides, and sell fruits and vegetables.
1926 To protect the good name of Smithfield products, Virginia enacted a law defining Genuine Smithfield Meats as peanut-fed hogs raised in Virginia or North Carolina and cured in the town limits. In 1968, it was amended to include hogs raised elsewhere.
1932 The "Pet Ham" of Mr. P.D. Gwaltney, Jr., had increased in notoriety and was insured for $5,000. The "Pet Ham" was featured in Robert Ripley's Believe It or Not.
1936 P.D. Gwaltney, Jr., died. Howard W. Gwaltney became president, Julius D. Gwaltney vice president, and P.D. Gwaltney, III, secretary/treasurer and chairman. Plant #2, a slaughterhouse and fresh pork packing plant, began its operation.
1936 Joseph W. Luter, Sr., and Joseph W. Luter, Jr., started their own business. Smithfield Packing Plant was chartered in September.
1937 Mr. Robert A. Cox became seriously ill in 1935 and decided to close the packinghouse known originally as the Todd smokehouse and packinghouse, which were never used again for the processing of hams commercially. The old building had been in continuous use since 1779—a period of 157 years!
1948 A $500,000 meat processing plant was built in Kinston, NC, by Gwaltney.
1950's The Old Todd/Spratley/Cox packinghouse was demolished. It was the end of an era on Wharf Hill!
1957 The name, P.D. Gwaltney, Jr. & Co. was changed to "Gwaltney, Inc."
1961 Gwaltney, Inc., was 90 years old when Plant #3 was completed. On April 9, 11,000 people from nearby and as far away as Boston and Philadelphia came to celebrate the giant open house. This was the most modern and most automated packing plant in the East.
1966 At the age of 26, Joseph W. Luter, III, became president of Smithfield Packing Company, Inc.
1970 International Telephone and Telegraph, Inc., made an offer to buy Gwaltney, Inc. Company management did not change, but it became known as ITT Gwaltney.
1975 In April, Joseph W. Luter, III, returned to the company his grandfather and father had founded as president and CEO of Smithfield Foods. George E. Hamilton, Jr., served as President of Smithfield Packing Company, Inc.
1981 ITT Gwaltney became a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods, Inc., on October 27. The name was changed back to Gwaltney of Smithfield, Ltd.
1983 In June, Swift and Company sold the V.W. Joyner Co., and Smithfield Ham and Products Co., Inc., purchased the company. It continued to operate under the V.W. Joyner & Co. name. V.W. Joyner & Co. opened a retail shop at its Main Street location. Joyner's Ham shop sells local food products and food condiments.
1991 Smithfield Foods, Inc., earned a record $28.66 million and sold more than 602 million pounds of ham, franks, and processed meats, plus 499 million pounds of fresh pork.
1998 The E.M. Todd Co., which had been relocated in Richmond, Virginia, was purchased by the Smithfield Companies and moved back to Smithfield.
2002 Still chairman and CEO of Smithfield Foods, Joseph W. Luter, III, names C. Larry Pope as president and chief operating officer.
2002 Smithfield Foods, Inc., a Fortune 500 company, is known as "The Largest Ham Company in the World!"
2006 C. Larry Pope, formerly president and chief operating officer is named president and chief executive officer. Joseph W. Luter, III remains non-executive chairman of the board.
Native Americans have long been given credit for originating the salt-and hardwood-smoked dry cured Smithfield Ham. Every culture develops methods of curing food to prevent deterioration. The English who settled here brought with them some of these methods and undoubtedly acquired new ones from the Indians. Whatever the origins of the cure, the Smithfield ham is a ham that keeps indefinitely without refrigeration.
